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why are us ratings so low?
zeebre12
Posts: 1,167 Forum Member
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I always wondered why viewing figures in the US are so low..the population is over 5 times the UK but the highest viewed shows are always around the same as the UK..for example coronation street is watched by around 7 million in the UK and the biggest programmes in the US get around that much viewers. also for example the x factor here gets over 10 million views and American idol over there gets around the same..i also found it weird how viewing figures for some cable channels can be less than a million. for a country with a population of over 320 million how come shows get the same amount of viewers like the UK with nearly 5 times less population..why arnt their shows getting ratings of over 50 million?
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I dont think they are big on tv in usa.
Most of their breaks are for sporting events so it's more understandable to the Americans than it is to us.
I also think the channels in america are different to ours. It's not like we have where if you have sky/virgin etc you have basically all the channels. They are done differently over there and popular shows on a network might be popular but not shown to many people because it's on a certain network channel. Take HBO, Don't think it is in all american household like NBC would be. TheCW is another that shows lots of shows in America that have cult followings but isn't broadcast everywhere unlike here where the shows broadcast there might be put on ITV ir Channel 4 and so be available to all.
Finally, I'd say a lot of people wait and watch online or on netflix etc because in america the shows stop/start a lot and can be interrupted for political speeches/american football games/American Idol finals or live shows...I've even seen a few shows I watch be delayed due to Xfactor USA finals so it could be on 2 weeks, off 3, back for 2 then has a mid season break for 7 weeks to be back for 3 then off for a week and who wants to watch that in real time? you just wait 10 weeks then watch at your pace uninterrupted.
Plus even when you watch an episode in the US there is are advert breaks every few minutes. It's no wonder binge-watching of DVD boxsets and on streaming services are becoming so popular.
Mind you the Discovery channels here were a bit like that: Mixing new episodes with old one till you didn't know when the next one was or found out that you had missed it.
Live events though are different. If a football game kicks off at 8pm East coast time, it's being broadcast at 5pm on the west coast. It's why events like the Oscars tomorrow start mid-afternoon local time, in order that the east coast can watch and the event finish before midnight in their region! Usually, the ceremony starts at 5.30pm PST, which is 8.30 EST. In the PST timezone, it's barely 9pm at night when the show finishes, but it can be very late on the east coast!
Also there are so many more channels for people to watch now. Cable has taken a chunk out of the networks... It doesn't help the main networks that the broadcasting rules for cable are more relaxed than those of the networks in terms of the fcc. Much more riskier content on cable.
i think that might be completely wrong.
that would be my thought.
most people watch tv the old fashioned way. last figures i have are from 2011 when 1.4% of tv viewed in the US was streamed. it's obviously more now.
but it's by no means doubling the audiences given in the ratings.
The main reason is the way their channels operate. In the UK we have five main PBS (Public Broadcast Service) terrestrial broadcasters that everyone has access to, which is where the majority of our TV airs and where the "big" shows can be watched. Then there is Sky for those who want a subscription package for additional content, usually exclusives like Game of Thrones or similar.
In the US their PBS channel isn't the one showing the major TV programmes, it shows things like programmes from BBC America (if I remember rightly) and other bought in programmes, usually informational. The big shows are commissioned by and air on the big three commercial network channels ABC, NBC or CBS, with Fox coming in a close fourth and The CW in fifth place, and people have to sign up to receive those via their local broadcast affiliate (again if I remember rightly). Then there's cable and satellite like HBO, Starz, Showtime etc, which all require a subscription and then they have local independents (like the religious channels etc).
There's lots and lots of TV in the US for people to chose from and it's why the key demographic 18-39 age group is so important for ratings. They also include time shifts and +1 and +3 demographics where people have watched a specific programme on DVR.
That's because you're not an American used to their TV schedule. It's completely normal for their TV shows.
Have they got that many more than us now?
Just wanted to say how informative I found your response!
Yup.. either through time shifting:
"At the start of the fall [2012] TV season, 46% of U.S. homes had a DVR,"
or through streaming:
"TV may still dominate the advertising market, but the audience for online video is soaring, with 58 percent of the U.S. population streaming"
I dunno. Checking my cable provider, their channel listing for my area shows 564 channels.
Now a chunk of that is SD duplicates, for example channel 1692 is Fox Soccer Plus, while channel 692 is the SD version of that channel. (and yes, that is a channel devoted entirely to international soccer. http://www.foxsoccerplus.com/schedule )
But you can't quite cut that in half because not every channel has an SD version.. I'd estimate only about 100 of those channels have SD versions... most are HD only.