Ratings

The Australian television audience measurement reports play a significant role in programming content. These reports not only reflect whether the decisions of the network programming coordinators was reputable or not, but also the “$205 million local TV drama production industry” as well as reassure advertisers, who spend “$3.3 billion a year …on Australian television” that they have invested accordingly.

By viewing “The Ratings Process,” accessible through OzTam’s website, the average person would think this process calculates ratings fairly, with the selection of panel homes being based according to a statistical design which provides recruitment criteria that guarantee that the panel represents the Australian TV audience.”

However the exact mechanics of how ratings are calculated and just how reliable they are must be discussed. According to Ian Garland, the former managing director in Australia of Nielsen Media Research and current commercial director of the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA), states that “Australian ratings system is equal to any in the world, but also argues it needs to adapt to viewers' rapidly changing television habits”.

We live in a technologically evolving society and with various avenues of watching television programs such as via the internet, tv, youtube, vodcasts, personal video recorders, time delay channels such as ABC2, mobile telephones etc, it is inevitable that these reports do not truly calculate ratings affectively. It offers convenience, enabling viewers the ability to choose what they want to watch, where, when and on what device.

Are ratings reports accurate? Figures, rounded to the thousands are shown, but Oztam states that “audience estimates are based on a sample”

Furthermore, samples are “prone to sampling error” and calculating ratings figures are no exception. Media analyst Steve Allen, who heads Fusion Strategy, said that “various random events …can affect ratings figures” and therefore this should be taken into consideration. Examples include that someone in a people-meter household may need to work late three days running, or their child might be in a school play."

Allen does present the fact that “ratings figures are taken continuously - or at least for the 40 ratings weeks each year - which over time makes them more reliable”. In addition Oztam states that the “Panel homes are selected according to a statistical design which provides recruitment criteria that guarantee that the panel represents the Australian TV audience”.
If Oztam believes their ratings process is effective, their next challenge is “adapting to changing media consumption habits driven by the gradual rise of subscription television and myriad new technologies”. Not only this but also extend their data collection to include television ratings within “offices, fitness clubs, hotels, bars and other out-of-home locations” which the Nielsen Company and Integrated Media Measurement Inc are launching in the US in September 2007, while television programmers should consider the popularity of Australian shows on other platforms before cancelling a show.

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Garland says: "The real threat to free-to-air television is that the need to maximise your audience is no longer the definitive point. Winning the ratings may give a network bragging rights but subscription television does not need to have 1.6 million people watching at any given time because people are willing to pay for our service."

All these new ways of seeing "the box" still comprise only a minority of the total amount of viewing, but a survey done last year by Oztam's English equivalent, the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB), estimated that live, in-home TV viewing will fall from 86 per cent of people's total viewing in 2005 to 76 per cent in 2010 and just 63 per cent by 2015.

BARB also estimated that the new forms of TV viewing, such as via personal computers, mobile phones or other handheld screens, will rise from 6 per cent in 2005 to 9 per cent in 2010 and 17 per cent in 2015.