TV ratings - Coursework Example

Television Rating The Nielson Company provides TV reports to various professionals. These reports provide the media house with the ability to understand how to build a TV audience and to attract more people to watch the station. Nielson rating collects the audience data by interacting with families and these families are requested to keep track of their viewing habits. Nielson ratings use the collection of small families to estimate the size of the national audience (“Nielson rating”). To interpret the top 20, media houses need to look at the program’s ratings estimated to be the percentage of people watching a specific program.

For example, if channel CBS shows Criminal Minds at 10pm and has a rating of 25 then, according to Nielson, 25% of the household audience is watching the program. In addition, an individual needs to find the market share of a program as it is the estimate percentage of the number of households who have television and are watching the program. For example, if channel ABS airs the program Dance with the stars at 8.00pm and has a market share of 40 this means that 40% of the people watching TV at that particular time are watching the same program.

Moreover, to have spot trends in the market help Media Managers identify audience problems. For example, if channel fox airs master chef at 7.00am, which has weak ratings, then there is a possibility that the ratings could recover after some time. This is because the program may be aired at a time when the target audience is not available.Lastly, tracking numbers of people helps to know if people are watching the program. The Nielson report captures viewers of all age groups. However, it may be difficult to know the actual numbers between women and men ages, as much as these numbers matter most to advertisers.

The result is that the audience splits due to the gender and age groups, therefore the number of people watching certain programs reduce significantly (Beville, 9). The target audience for most of the top ten programs attracts young families. This is because programs such as modern family, is a family program and the parents together with the kids can watch the program that is suitable for all family viewing. In addition, programs like criminal minds and the big-bang theory allows all members of the family to watch.

18-49 years is the target age of most of the top 10 programs. I feel the target audience for the top 10 shows attracts families because, the programs are friendly to everyone in the family and parents do not have to censor worst scenes, and inappropriate language as well as put child locks. Some of the programs are educative and interesting like the big bang theory. Families want their children to watch programs that are educative and those that have positive impact towards family life. Finally, programs like Dancing with the stars provide entertaining performances that are great for the families.

To conclude, most media channels are not interested with who is number one in the industry this is because, one station may get top ranking in the afternoons and ranked third in the morning. The main goal is to get as many viewers as possible who will be interested to watch their programs.Works CitedBeville, Hugh Malcolm. Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, and Cable. Hillsdale, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2010. Print."Nielsen Ratings for Week of May 20 - USATODAY.com." USATODAY.COM. Web. 14 Feb. 2015. .