yes it gets around four times the number of viewers an average drama gets, and indeed are tuning in as much, if not more, than ever.

It was "Rain on your parade" bit.....but still. I will scurry off and hide under a rock! This is like a game of chess and our posts are like stalemate!

You can prove anything with facts...



nyingy

Thank you kindly. I was expecting a link but you saved me even a click!

The point I was making was that the point the poster was making was not a specific audience figure statement that didn't need backing up. Sometimes facts and figures are necessary but on the occasion I responded to I felt the "Sorry to rain on your parade but you're wrong" sentiment was a little disrespectful. Still, one man's fart is another man's thunder!

Agree with your comments in general, but since AI is based on overnight figures, then, since the (overnight) audience is now smaller, it is essentially those fans that will stay in to watch. Aren't they naturally going to score the show higher?

ie Is the AI reported now based on a niche core set of fans?

More anecdotal evidence.
My nephew (8) watched all previous series, and it is now recorded incase he is doing something else. For the finale, he disappeared 10 mins in, and when we sat down to watch it again the next morning, he disappeared 15 mins in.
He still says he loves Doctor Who, but isn't as high up his priority list of things to do anymore.

The overnight ratings are not that much smaller, a niche show has fewer than a million viewers typically, so no, that isn't remotely a factor. Even without the massive time shift and iplayer views, the show out performs almost all other drama on tv.

And again, you need to realise that the hardcore fanbase of this show is a pretty small percentage of the audience, most people are and always have been casual fans. I would say the hardcore fanbase is fewer than 10% of the audience at a rough guess, probably less.

Numbers!!! Too many numbers! How do you cope? Are you Carol Vorderman?

not the last time i checked.....

Good. 'Cos I don't like her! Saw her on Question Time and was shocked at how dim she is!

lol, I was going to say that but thought it might be a bit catty!

Keep the data coming guys .

Hi all

As some you may be aware the ratings for the current series have been getting a bit of a bashing of late.
Daily Mail
This is London
Plus many more. However a very good article on this has appeared on Den Of The Geek's site.
Den Of The Geek

We will have to wait until the final figures for the final two episodes are in to make a proper comparison (something journalists don't seem to want to do). But as someone who has really enjoyed this series, its sad that others seem to want to bash it, even when the evidence is not there.

Regards

Martin

True. But this really belongs in the ratings thread (just to point out that it's there)

5-6 million is still respectable bearing in mind we've had a World Cup and a better summer than usual. I think a few of the stories have been a bit bland and a new Doctor is always being criticised by fans of the old one. I think Matt Smith will shine in his second series and Karen Gillan is way better than Catherine Tate.

Final Ep 13 ratings 6.12m on BBC1 but no ratings for BBC HD yet.
So would imagine total figure around 6.75m.

The Telegraph is getting the boot in now:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...m-viewers.html

And with "statistics".

And as a professional statistician there is nothing worse than someone completely dismissing weeks of your work and objective analysis by saying "but then, of course, you can prove anything with statistics".

One of my replies is "well maybe I could, but I doubt you could", but that only works if I ever want to work with them again.

I am looking forward to the ratings round up for season 5. I must admit, not my favourite season but I still want to see the show doing well - and I am getting a bit cross that the BBC isn't doing a better job explaining the overnights and defending Matt Smith.

What's all this nonsense about his job being on the line? Why hasn't the BBC mentioned he's already signed up for season 6??

grrr . . .

I agree.

I dont think any fault, not that there is any fault to apportion, can be directed at Matt.

If the BBC are unhappy with the ratings in that they want to win a ratings war with ITV (I have never understood why the BBC feels the need to do this), then it will be the production team, Moffat included, who will told to make changes.

However, once you start tampering with creativity, things really can be driven out of popularity.

The removal of Phillip Hinchcliffe in 1977, despite huge popularity and ratings as series showrunner, because of a campaign by Mary Whitehouse, was the begining of a slow decline in quality and popularity of the classic series IMO.

Then we got to the JNT era where things beame desperate.

The BBC have, I think failed to promote series 5 in the way that the certainly series 2 to 4 where promoted.

For the 2009/10 Financial Year, BBC Worldwide report in their Annual Review (page 33)

Top Gear, Doctor Who and BBC Earth
These three brands have grown strongly, with sales across
the company rising by 15.0% to £147.3m and profit by
33.8% to £51.5m.


News story here shows a total profit fro BBC Worldwide of £145.2m, so the three brands listed above are extremely valuable to the BBC.

Anyone want to suggest cancellation again?

I agree - but was thinking it was probably down to an overspend on the series, so they cut back on the marketing of it. Not one of the best ideas from Beeb

Are you sure they didn't market it? I remember thinking it had reached saturation levels even before the first episode. Even I was getting fed up with all the pre-season trailers. There was that very expensive cinema trailer, which a friend said was shown before a major movie (forget which). Bet that wasn't cheap. It's been the cover of Radio Times more than once. The "fall in the water" programme had a cartoon dalek plastered over it (we got a norton - once). I think I've seen it on the side of a bus and bus stop posters(?). They even went to New York and marketed it there (effectively, it seems - see bbc worldwide press release.) In terms of general media awareness, it's been Saturday's top pick of the day in The Times TV mag nearly every week, and a regular pick of the day when it wasn't top pick (just a small example.)

It might be your perception that it hasn't had a good marketing spend, but I'm not sure it's true. Didn't feel like it to me. It looked like the BBC gave the population many chances to learn that the show is on. In fact my wife wondered if the beeb have to be careful about overdoing it - publicising Who at the expense of other public-service-remit material (not saying they did, just that she wondered.).

Personally I find saturation level marketing can create a feeling of fatigue and might even start to work against the show (but I am just a punter, and a slightly grumpy one at that, not a marketing genius.)

I thought series 5 was very well marketed, tours of schools, loasds of pre season trailers, radio broadcasts. It's a fine line from oversaturations and also trying to maintain some mystery for everyone to get excited about. Not sure what else they could have done except put the show on a decent time.

There was a huge amount of promotion before the series started, but very little during the series. In previous series we would have RTD on breakfast programmes, and anywhere he could promoting the final episodes, but it was almost as though it went out without even a whimper.

There was more advertising for the adventure game than the series whilst the series was on.