WEBVTT - How TV Ratings Work 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:12.640 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:18.279 Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuckers Bryant, and there's Jerry W. 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:22.880 Jerre Rowland. Actually, Jerry has been canceled, okay, due to 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.480 low ratings. You know it's funny, is um. Jerry has 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.479 been portrayed on television and a TV show that was 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:32.440 canceled due to poor ratings. Poor ratings. That was our show. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:34.600 That was our show. We had a television show once. 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.840 It was called Stuff you should Know. It was a 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:42.960 slightly fictionalized version of our life, our work life. We 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.720 made a sitcom. Yeah we did. It's pretty cool and 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:48.080 a lot of people loved it, and a lot of 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:49.479 people are like, what in the world did you do 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.000 it that way for? So that a lot it's like 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.960 basically ten and ten. Oh, yeah, you're referring to the 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.680 tony people who've seen that show. Yeah, actually we'll get 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.400 to that at all. But we um, we know a 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.200 little bit about how TV ratings work because of that, 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.720 and uh, in some ways I believe we're a victim 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:17.479 of the antiquated system that is the Nielsen TV ratings. Now, dude, 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:21.759 it's it's it's antiquated, it's changing. I do not disagree 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.120 with the antiquated part. What I do disagree with is 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.320 that had it been up to date, I think it 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.000 would have had zero impact on our success. I don't know, man, 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:33.160 I will say this to the people out there, what um. 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.720 What the network did was they looked only at one number, 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.679 which is the amount of people that sat down in 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.160 front of their television set on a Saturday night live 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.520 at ten pm to watch our show. They did not 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.760 count things that we'll talk about, like online streaming or 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:55.080 DVR um or anything like that, which is what makes 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.760 it antiquated. Because it's it's changing. Man. People aren't watching 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.440 TV like they used to. But they're basing a lot 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:06.440 of these uh decisions on a system that was designed 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.800 in the nineteen fifties. So let's go back, man. It 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.720 goes back even further than that, back in three the A. C. 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:19.720 Nielsen Company started. At the time, people who were broadcasting 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.440 radio wanted to know what people were listening to. So 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.520 there are a lot of companies that would telephone up 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.720 family at random and say, say, fella, what are you 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.560 listening to right now? On the old Victor Rola, the 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.600 Amazing adventure A. And uh, he'd say, hey, thanks a lot, 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.400 bub talk to you later, and they'd hang up a 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:43.200 nickel for your trouble, they wish, because we're talking depression 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:48.160 at this time. Um well not later on, they wished 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.040 the head a nickel. Here's a chicken for your pot. 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:53.880 That's a Hoover reference. Man, you don't get those two 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:58.840 often try to bust him out. So the Nielsen Company said, 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.080 that's all finding good. That's great that you guys are 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.200 figuring out what people are listening to, but we have 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.680 something even better because we are a technological powerhouse. And 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.480 what they did was they randomly picked some families around 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.400 America and said, say, can we put this cool recording 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.720 device in your home near your radio and it will 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.400 record what you're listening to at any given time, and 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.640 then we'll send technicians out to pick it up from 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:26.680 time to time to get the information off of it, 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.000 and then bring it back so we can keep recording it. 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:33.440 And family said sure, and the Nielsen Company's domination of 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:39.440 broadcast ratings was sealed. After that point, everybody from every 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.120 competitor they had was just peanuts compared to the Nielsen Company, 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.640 so much so that when you hear TV ratings, it's 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:50.480 synonymous with Nielsen ratings, very much like Kleenex and UH 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.880 facial tissue are one and the same same thing, thanks 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:59.880 to Nielsen's technological powerhouse. The irony of it, though, is 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.320 once they started installing those boxes in the twenties or thirties, 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.720 and then they moved on to television sets, the innovation, 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:11.480 I mean they innovated somewhat fundamentally principally, it remained the 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:16.760 same until a year or two ago. Yeah, and they're not, Um, 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.719 we'll get into all the hardware of the the hardware 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:23.760 side of how it works. But what they did in 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.159 n with send actual little diaries that you would fill 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:31.719 out and pencil and send back. And they still do 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.720 that today in two thousand fourteen, even though in two 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.080 thousand six they said they were going to stop. They 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.120 still send those little diaries. And you get a little 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:42.800 diary in the mail with five one dollar bills really 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.359 in the envelope for your troubles, and they look like 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.520 the modern nickel, Yeah exactly. And they rely on lazy, 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:54.080 dishonest people to fill out this card and mail it 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.320 back and then go spend that five dollars on a 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.040 on a grande a latte. It would have gotten a 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.040 lot more. Oh man, you could have bought a car. 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:09.080 But but that is the diary version. What UM and 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.160 and the networks and advertisers have never liked the diary version. 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.279 They still don't know. But it's what's called sweep sweek, 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.000 which is hard to say. That's right, and we'll get 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.480 it sweeps in a second. But um what they mainly 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:25.160 like to rely on are two different electronic hardware methods 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.159 UM the set meters as in TV set and people meters. 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:34.240 And right now they have by they plan to have 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:38.640 more than sixty TV set meters. And this is just 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.559 for the US and Canada, by the way, because everyone 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.880 else's TV is weird. Yeah, simon, do you ever watched 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:47.920 TV in different countries when you're traveling and stuff? Yes, 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.440 and it is so much fun. It is fun. But 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.560 after a while you're like, I really miss American TV. Yeah, 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:55.360 but I mean, if you're traveling abroad, you shouldn't be 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:57.360 watching a whole lot of TV. Exact, it's like late 0:05:57.440 --> 0:05:59.160 night in the hotel. It's one of but it's one 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.120 of the great plus is as you're just like, I 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:02.880 don't feel like watching this, will go out and see 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.760 the site instead. Yeah. I think I was in Belgium 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.280 watching TV with my buddy Brett years and years ago, 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:12.040 and uh that was translated in English and subtitles and 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.120 one of the characters said something and I guess I 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:17.160 don't know if it was Flemish, and the other guy 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.800 just looked and said I and it said me too. 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.599 So we still say that today when we're responding me 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:27.240 to do each other, we'll go I all those years later. 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.760 So anyway, Um, the set, yeah, I said there was 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:37.680 in thirty one uh markets, TV markets, and then there 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:45.120 are about thirty five thousand, I believe. Now people meeters 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:50.120 in those homes, I'm sorry, in about twenty homes, and 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:54.440 those people meeters are more specific because you can have 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:56.640 three people meeters in one house. We want to see 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:58.880 what little Susie's watching, We want to see what her 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:02.360 brother Randy's watching, and they won't see what her dad 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.360 watches after everyone's gone to bed. Yeah, so each one 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:07.960 of them will have their own little people meter that 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.240 they'll turn on. And I always thought that these things 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:14.120 were connected to your television like your cable box and 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.240 it just kind of read the information, but they're actually 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:20.480 listening devices. Isn't that weird? Totally blew my mind. So basically, 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:24.920 the podcast the way that the way that Nielsen figures 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.600 out what TV show you're talking to is because they 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:32.040 have a device that's connected to the Internet that um 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:36.640 is eaves dropping on your TV. And they just in 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.360 two thousand and six finally got to the point where 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:44.320 they perfected this technology, and they have codes that broadcasters, 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.840 the networks and the local affiliates have to put in 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:52.000 to their audio stream, the audio video stream that the 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:54.679 audio stream is it just audio, yeah, but they're trying 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.480 to come up with the video version. So basically, there's 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:00.480 a a sound, there's a frequency that you can't hear. 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:02.600 I don't even think your dog can hear it, but 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.320 it comes through your TV and your Nielsen box can 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.400 hear it. And it's a it's basically an audio fingerprint 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:13.840 for a show. And when the Nielsen box here's that audio, 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:16.440 it can be like, oh, well, they're watching good Times 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:20.360 right now, that's funny. I was just thinking that Good Times, yeah, 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:22.440 and then I was like, no, let should say Three's 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.840 Company instead. It depends, and then he said good Times. 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:27.960 Although if you watch good Times long enough, there's an 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.760 episode of Three's Company coming on eventually on that channel. 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:32.880 That's I think good Times and maybe my favorite all 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.240 time theme song. That's a good one. Oh man, it's 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:40.119 so good, it's ridiculous. Did I tell you Henry Mancini 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:44.800 did the the What's Happening? Theme song? Yes? What episode 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.920 is that? In just a few ago it was number 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:53.600 stations because the sound that the shortwave thing. So uh, 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.800 That's how Nielsen has been figuring out what people are watching, 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:03.400 which is mind blowing. It's also if it's a little backwards, yeah, 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:09.320 it may be emblematic of a larger systematic resistance towards 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.640 technological improvement. Yeah. Or if it seems a little small 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.079 as far as the sample pool goes, Umi, it is. 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:19.760 But what they do is they extrapolate that number, just 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.719 like polsters do, and they say, well, this these are 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:28.600 average markets, these are average families. Um so if these 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.880 eventually sixty TV sets are watching this, we can pull 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.520 that out and and do some sort of They probably 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:38.760 do it on a chalkboard in a room. There's this 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.640 one guy who has the piece of chalk and the 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.520 extrapolate sets out and says, well, this is what America 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:48.199 is watching, which always has bugged me, especially when you 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:50.400 have a TV show that gets canceled. It is because 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.280 it all comes down to just how representative is your sample. 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.640 So there's six TV sets there, sixty by two thoften 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.000 right now in two thous in fourteen may have two 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.520 thousand fourteen. There are a hundred and sixteen point three 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.520 million TV set from the US. So this is a 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.800 very small sample size. But if the guy with the 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.720 chalk um Bert can can come up with a very 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:17.440 good representative portion of the US, Like there's this many 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:25.559 UM divorced Hispanic families, there's this many UM gay Asian households. 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:28.640 There's like this many you know, Mitt Romney voters, and 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.319 like they take all these guys and put them together 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:36.120 and it's a clear cross section of America. That's America, baby. 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:41.559 You should be able to extrapolate pretty pretty well from that. 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:43.880 That's true. It just all depends on how good their 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.440 statisticians are, that's right. And they do audits over the 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.120 years and quality checks of course, and compare ratings from 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.319 different samples. So it's not like they just said, yeah, 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.920 I saw we're doing it, although they sort of do that, 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.760 but they do they do quality checks of course. Yeah. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.520 One of the problems is like there's been so few 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:06.880 challenges from outside competition that Nielsen can do whatever it wants, 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.880 and it's so powerful that it literally has the entire 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:16.040 television industry at its feet. It decides what rating a 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:19.040 TV show gets, and ultimately, the whole point to all 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.360 of this stuff, the TV ratings in general, is so 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:28.240 that networks and their local affiliates can set advertising rates 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:33.680 for advertisers. There's seventy eight billion dollars at stake. That's 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.880 the advertising spent in a year on television, and it 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:41.040 all comes down to what rating. Nielsen, with the representative 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:45.160 sample and their audio eavesdropping boxes and their five dollar 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:50.559 bills in a paper diary, decide that your TV show got. 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.439 That's right. That's the dirty little secret is that they 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.120 don't care how many people are watching that TV show. 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.320 They care about how many people are watching the commercials. Yeah, 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:04.520 that's really what they're looking at, and more specifically, what demographic, 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.440 which is why I don't think we mentioned why the 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.480 people meters are so valuable, because they want to get 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.719 that specific demo so they can show advertisers eighteen to 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:14.439 forty nine year olds, they spend a ton of money 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:19.320 and they're watching uh, they're watching Community, but no one 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:22.560 else is, so will cancel Community, which is kind of crazy, 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.360 as we'll see in a little a little while. Yeah, 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:27.440 but um, just quickly let me go over. I think 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.559 most people know this. But if you've got a half 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.240 hour TV show and um, you're gonna have twenty two 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.520 minutes of UH TV show, then you're gonna have eight 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.800 minutes of commercial. Six of those are national ads sold 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.839 by the network, and then your local affiliate. That's where 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:46.040 you're gonna get your awesome commercials. The Wolf two minutes 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:48.840 worth or crazy Eddie. I remember it was big up 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:51.079 in the Northeast and then so this is two thousand 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.520 and six. I couldn't find one recently, but back in 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.760 two thousand and six, you if you're buying a commercial 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:00.440 slot from a local affiliate, you're gonna pay about dollars 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:03.679 to two thousand dollars depending on This is during the daytime. 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.720 This isn't like three am, depending on what show. So 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.120 like back when Oprah was on, you could get a 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:13.800 thirty second spot for ninety bucks you could. Yeah, you 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.040 could also pay up to two thousand dollars for it, 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.600 and then apparently you're going to double that for um 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.720 a national ad for a thirty second spot during the day, 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:27.320 which isn't just not outlandish. Well that's how crazy Eddie. 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.360 I mean, yeah, or the wolf Man. They don't have 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.160 a ton of money. Although I don't know, the wolf 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.680 Man wore a lot of jewelry. For those of you 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:37.559 who don't know who the Wolfman is, we understand because 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.480 you probably didn't live in Atlanta. Yeah, I bet it 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.320 was Southeast I bet it was on like WTVS and stuff. 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.720 All you have to do is go type in Wolfman, Donna, 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.800 gallery furniture into the YouTube's and it will show you 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:55.120 some classic gallery furniture ads. Or just type in, hey, 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.360 ask for the Wolfman. No, ask for Donna. I don't 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.319 remember that part. What you don't remember Donna, his daughter 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:06.240 with the hair. The whole premise of the ad, wanted 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.120 you to come see him, and she'd say, Hey, ask 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.040 for the Wolfman. She'd go no, ask for Donna. She'd 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.320 always get his goat. All right, So let's take a 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.000 break here and then we'll talk about you mentioned Sweeps 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.440 Week and we'll talk about that right after this. Yeah, 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:26.320 we will, all right, sweeps Everyone's heard it. Um it 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.480 is a bit. Yeah, everyone hears about you know this 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.000 is sweeps Weeks. That's when well, well we'll tell you 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.000 what it is. This is the fact that the podcast 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.560 to me what sweets Week? Yeah, where it came from 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:41.720 and why it exists. Well, in when they started sending 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:47.000 out those TV diaries and uh, they made a geographic 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:49.640 sweep starting in the northeast, across the country from east 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.960 to west, and they collected the little booklets and those 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:58.240 were our first reportings of TV writings. So before they 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.760 had they had the eaves offing boxes that they were using. 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.560 But it was basically like, um, this this These are 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.280 I think maybe up the twenty thousand households at one 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:13.320 point in the major markets. There's the great thing about 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.800 the paper diaries is they could go into local markets, 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:19.280 smaller markets and find out not just what you know, 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.000 the people in New York or l A or Chicago 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:25.080 were watching, but what the people in you know, Santa 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:29.160 Fe were watching too, or you know, Fort Lauderdale. Those 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:33.040 are saying, how does it play in Santa Fe? Sheboygan 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:37.480 or something probably or Walla, Walla, I can't remember. It 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:39.320 may have been a movie thing too, but that there's 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:41.560 an industry saying, how does it play in the city. 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.400 It's got a rhyme because that's what matters, you know. 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:46.200 Of course New York, in l A and the major 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.720 markets are going to consume. Uh. They want to know 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.840 what your average household wants to see, right, And this 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:56.600 is this is the first time that anyone had ever 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:01.480 taken a really comprehensive snapshot of what America was watching 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.240 in a given week. And so they said, hey, this 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.040 worked really well. We're gonna start doing this every year. 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.000 We're gonna have what's now called a sweep Sweek and 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.560 it's going to be on this week. And so the 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.120 TV executive said, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.280 sweep Sweek, this is what we're gonna start setting our 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.520 advertising rates against. And it's gonna be this week, and 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.560 I'm going to do the craziest stuff I can think 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:28.480 of to get ratings as as big and wide as 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:32.080 I possibly can grab on that week. And that is 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:35.200 where sweep Sweek came from. And we have seen some 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.640 pretty interesting things as a result of sweeps week. Yeah, 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:42.359 there's um a great tradition of stunt casting during sweeps week. 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:44.800 Justin Bieber will show up on c S. I. I 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:46.520 didn't see that one to do, and I don't watch 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:48.240 that show, and if I did, I would have punched 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:52.200 my TV if he showed up on it. Um, if 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:54.840 you're gonna shoot JR, You're gonna do it during sweep sweek. 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.320 Oh yeah. The late night talk shows are gonna load 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.280 up their their biggest A list guest during sweeps week. 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.600 E R did a live show. Yes, I've actually watched 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:04.960 that one, and I wasn't an e R fan. I 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:06.720 just wanted to see if they could pull it off. Right. 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.640 It's pretty cool. Ellen used to have a sitcom based 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.520 on her life and she came out on that show 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:17.680 during sweep Sweell. Yeah, that's right. And very famously, there 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:22.560 was a not one, not two, but thrice part Happy 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.680 Days where Fonzie jumps the shark on water skis that 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:30.240 sweep that happened during sweep sweek. Wow, that's a sweeps failure. Well, 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.680 I'll know if people watched it. Yeah. I don't guess 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.680 you can call it a failure because that's probably as iconic. Yeah, 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:37.719 it's part of the lexicon. Now do you remember an 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:44.199 Arrested development where Henry Winkler jumps over Shark Classic. Uh, 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:50.520 these days, sweep Sweek is actually sixteen weeks because they 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.119 have I don't know if but narrowed it down. They 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.080 broadened it out to four four week periods in November 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:00.560 of February, May and July, and they still old trot 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:04.119 out uh special things for sweeps but it's not it 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.119 definitely doesn't have the teeth that it used to because 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:09.560 the way that people consume media these days, which we're 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.760 gonna you know, start getting into, so not it doesn't 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:14.560 have the teeth that it used to. And and as 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.720 a result, um, a lot of networks have kind of stopped, 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:20.280 like you said, doing the stunt casting and that kind 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.760 of stuff. But it's still as a um um, it's 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:29.160 still basically holding broadcast TV hostage because that is still 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.000 what advertisers want to see, Well, what are your ratings 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.480 during sweeps Week? And that's what they set their ad 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:39.160 rates against. So the fact that there are these four 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:44.399 month long sweeps weeks um means that the broadcasters have 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:48.600 to follow the normal fall the summer broadcast model with 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:55.000 reruns in between. Yeah, and this is for for NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:58.720 like the major broadcast networks non cable networks, which is 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:06.720 a completely dying beast. Yeah, because they rely exclusively on advertising, 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.000 and cable has been eating their lunch because advertising has 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.720 been going down. It looks like it's already peaked. It's 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:17.400 still seventy eight million dollars billion billion. Yes, you're right, 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:21.680 but cable takes a huge substantial portion of that in advertising. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.560 But then even when advertising rates go down, cable still 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:30.280 survives because cable makes money off of subscriber fees and 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.639 transmission fees to Yeah, exactly, which is why a cable 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:37.560 has a big leg up. And also they can um 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.160 they don't have a traditional television season. They can release 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:44.160 stuff all year long and you can binge watch it. Yeah, 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.120 which is happening. That's that's the new model. So, like 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:49.920 we said, for many years, um Nielsen was just kind 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:53.879 of as this one Wired article, the Nielsen family is 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:57.280 dead put it. It was in a torpor. And the 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:01.720 first thing that really per um, the first thing that 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:07.679 really roused um Nielsen was DVRs Because when DVRs came along, 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:11.520 the advertising industry was like, oh god, people can fast 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:15.200 forward through ads now like they've always dreamed of doing 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.520 exactly now they can, And it was the basically the 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:22.639 television apocalypse, and that didn't pan out because advertisers figured 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:24.960 out that, yeah, people can ever we can pass forward 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.959 two ads. But there's ways to still get your message 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.000 across at sixteen time speed. You can do things called 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.000 pop busters where you use the actors or the look 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.320 or the set of the TV show that you're advertising 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.760 within to make them think like the show just came 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.000 back on and you caught them. Because it's really an 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:43.439 ad um there's all sorts of stuff you can do, 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.800 so it hasn't been an advertising apocalypse. And as a result, 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.600 because DVRs are clearly clearly here to stay and have 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:53.640 been since you know, the early two thousands, um Nielsen 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:56.040 has had to kind of finally be like, Okay, we 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:57.960 need to innovate a little bit and figure out how 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:03.160 to include DVR because not everybody's sitting down at eight 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:06.560 o'clock on a Monday night and watching Murder. She wrote, 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:09.639 nobody is man. I watched a couple of episodes the 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:13.320 other night. I love that show. I've never seen one episode. 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.480 What I know, man, it is good? Is it's good? 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.160 Another thing too? Uh? Just the backtrack is I've noticed 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:26.000 lately is UM, you're on demand watching, which a lot 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:30.040 of cable companies. I'm a Comcast person by because I'm 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:33.720 forced to be. UM. A lot of the the on 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.600 demand shows now within the first like a couple of 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.800 weeks that they're available, you can't fast forward through. Oh yeah, 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:42.320 like you hit the fast forward button and a little 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:46.040 null sign comes up and says, sorry, you're gonna have 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:52.280 to sit through this. The DVR, I guess the fact 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:56.639 that the DVR is connected to the internet, yeah, and 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.800 is because it's getting show information that the actual show 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:03.640 is being recorded on your physical hard drive. I'm sure 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.280 there's cloud DVR recorders or whatever, but for the most part, 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:10.880 there's a hard drive that's recording shows onto your DVR. 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:13.600 And then the other capability is that it is connected 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:15.800 to the Internet, which is where it gets show information 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:19.080 and all that stuff to present to you. But the Internet, 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:21.080 as you may have figured out by now, is a 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.679 two way streak. Not only can information be downloaded to 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:27.960 your home, it can be uploaded and that includes your preferences. 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:32.160 How what shows you watch, how often you watch them 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.119 when you watch them, And so all of a sudden, 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:38.040 the DVR companies are like, hey, Nielsen's giving you guys, 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:42.080 like eight pm on NBC ratings. We've got all of 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:45.040 these other ratings that they're not taking into account that 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:47.399 you can get from us. Not only that, but they 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:51.600 can actually tell when you're pausing your TV because the 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:56.280 infamous nip slip hate even saying those words, uh, and 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:59.119 the two thousand four Super Bowl with Janet Jackson, they uh, 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:03.480 TiVo the people are DVR company, although the people still 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:05.639 use TVO. They probably do. I don't know. It's like 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:07.720 every local cable company has around d v R now 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:10.679 it seems like it. But um, they were able to 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:13.800 say that was the most replayed clip uh in the 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:16.480