SCI FI Ratings Drop

[ShadowMaat]

Yes, but how are ratings figured? By the Nielsen families or by everyone?

[ToasterOnFire]

And I cant agree with the people who say that the fact that the episodes have been online for like half a year has absolutely no reason to do with the fact that the ratings are down. Even if it was only 30 or 40% of he people who tuned out this week.

First, average viewers will have no idea that the eps aired early in the UK and Canada unless they went online. And then they would have to make the choice (and know how) to obtain the eps. They would have to be a part of the Nielson system AND download AND choose to not support the show by not watching it live like Shadow said. Are those numbers high enough to cause a 30% drop in audience? I highly doubt it.

Second, as I stated in the ratings thread, if people are downloading eps and therefore not watching any 3.5 then the ratings should be low and stay low, not drop 30% in one week.

[jonno]

sg1 isn't what it used to be people need to accept that.

I agree. And it hasn't been since season 6 -

people have tuned out because over the past 4 years of SG-1 and 2 of Atlantis, it just hasn't been all that good, and they aren't interested anymore. The actual individual quality of episodes is fairly irrelevant (in terms of the shows dropping from 2.5 to 1.5 and less over the past 2 or 3 years), it's what people have thought of the general quality of those seasons that informs them whether they'll watch the next half season, or not. Actual individual variation of +/- 0.2-0.3 from episode to episode is pretty irrelevent - TPTB, the channel, and advertisers will be more concerned by the perpetual downturn of ratings since the highs of season 7 ish.

So, in SG-1's case, it's no use that the back half of season 10 is (IMO, as a UK viewer) by far the best run of episodes since the classic days - the damage has already been done by the overall poor quality of Season 7, 8 and 9 - yes that may be slightly compounded by the high availablity of episodes, but the damage overall, has altready been done. As for Atlantis ... who knows - I reckon it's ratings are heavily impacted on by however well SG-1 is going. We'll find out next year, but i'm not thinking good things (especially as it has gone down in quality since the highs of its first season).

[SGFerrit]

First, average viewers will have no idea that the eps aired early in the UK and Canada unless they went online. And then they would have to make the choice (and know how) to obtain the eps. They would have to be a part of the Nielson system AND download AND choose to not support the show by not watching it live like Shadow said. Are those numbers high enough to cause a 30% drop in audience? I highly doubt it.

Second, as I stated in the ratings thread, if people are downloading eps and therefore not watching any 3.5 then the ratings should be low and stay low, not drop 30% in one week.

They don't have to be a member who actually goes on forums though. There are other ways to find out on the internet as opposed to being actively involved in an internet forum. Random articles, family and friends who download etc...

What do you guys actually think caused the drop in ratings though?

[Pitry]

Yes, but how are ratings figured? By the Nielsen families or by everyone?

However, keep in mind that a sample of... 12000? methinks - is representative of, what, 300 million people? Well, whatever numbe rof people in the US who have a television.
Which means it's enough to have one Neilsen person who chose downloading over watching it on SciFi to have a dent on the rating.
No, you're absolutely right, not enuogh to account for a 50% or so drop between Moebius part 2 and Line in the Sand, not even close. But smoe of it is. Much like some of it is peopel who don't like the show anymore, people who stopped watching regardless of quality because RDA has left, casual viewers who have no idea the show started again, whatever the reason is people have stopped watching the SciFi channel altogether and many other reasons. To say "the ratings are down because of a drop in quality" is about as true as saying "the ratings are down because everyone downloaded it after the UK transmision" i.e, not at all.

[ShadowMaat]

Incidentally, why would the ratings drop so significantly in the second week? I mean, the first week, yeah, it could be explained away as people not realizing the show is back, but by the second week people should know- certainly the ones who watched during the first week did... and yet the bottom still fell out of the ratings.

[The Suicidal Goldfish]

You know what I find kind of amusing? If the ratings are down, people make up excuses and dismiss the numbers as "inaccurate," but if the ratings go way up, people pat themselves on the back and crow about how popular the show still is and how it never should have been cancelled, blah blah blah.

Funny double standard, dontcha think?

You can't gain viewers through illegal downloads, but you can certainly lose them! Ratings improve by having better content, advertising and awareness. Ratings decrease for a far more broad multitude of reasons.

[Pitry]

They don't have to be a member who actually goes on forums though. There are other ways to find out on the internet as opposed to being actively involved in an internet forum. Random articles, family and friends who download etc...

What do you guys actually think caused the drop in ratings though?

Websites like tv.com that are updated regularily are also a huge source, BTW - people who know they want to download episodes but are unsure when seasons start/ how the insane broadcast system in the US actually works (did I mention House/ Lost/ any show that is shown on FOX?)

[saberhagen83]

Ah excuse me. Why would a Nielsen owner download and not watch a show he/she enjoyes? I would not expect them to be part of that system if they did. And for another matter, if he/she enjoy it why not watch it as it actually counts if the show is renewed or not? People who still enjoy the show just likes to blame other people and things for the show loosing numbers. I'm glad you who still enjoy it do so, but you have to accept that shows decline for some, fans leaves and the ratings drop with that. S9 dropped in ratings, 1st half of S10 dropped even more...do you really blame downloading there too? US got it first, no reason to download it then.

I still enjoy SGA and would like to see it go on, but I can accept the fact that some don't like it anymore for different reasons. Not every fan feels the same way as the fans who still enjoy the shows. And I kind of feel the fanbase is split up on SG1.

[ussrelativity]

I was surprised to see how severe a drop in ratings occured over the last week. Hopefully the ratings will improve over the next week.

[The Suicidal Goldfish]

I suppose it's possible that there are some Nielsen people out there who are savvy enough to obtain eps illegally and only care about instant gratification and thus won't bother to have their "vote" count when the eps air on TV, but I can't imagine the percentage would be a very large one, certainly not large enough to have such a significant impact on the ratings.

Maybe this is a cultural thing but I cannot fathom why someone who has downloaded SG1/Atlantis and therefore has it in a digital format, available to watch at any convenient time should they so wish, would thensit down at a proscribed time to watch the show all over again.

Such logic is beyond me, truly beyond me.

*edit* - Perhaps I should also point out, this isn't a personal attack, though I can see how it MAY come accross that way. It sincerely isn't, it's just my 2 cents on the topic.

[prion]

They don't have to be a member who actually goes on forums though. There are other ways to find out on the internet as opposed to being actively involved in an internet forum. Random articles, family and friends who download etc...

What do you guys actually think caused the drop in ratings though?

Crappy advertising by Skiffy. Face it, did anybody see ads in national magazines, newspapers? No, Skiffy is spending their time putting up a virtual momument to SG1 on their site (but that's another thread).

No, there's been a decided lack of advertising for SGA or SG1 and the former needs it more than ever as it's the surviving show. Skiffy did put a chunk of change into promoting Dresden Files and now Painkiller Jane (the latter of which was boring when I watched the one episode).

Yes, if fans want to find 'alternate means' of watching a show, they don't visit forums like these. There are lots of other venues.

And lastly, six months in between episodes? Of course you're going to lose viewers. It's a given.

[Pitry]

Ah excuse me. Why would a Nielsen owner download and not watch a show he/she enjoyes? I would not expect them to be part of that system if they did. And for another matter, if he/she enjoy it why not watch it as it actually counts if the show is renewed or not? People who still enjoy the show just likes to blame other people and things for the show loosing numbers. I'm glad you who still enjoy it do so, but you have to accept that shows decline for some, fans leaves and the ratings drop with that. S9 dropped in ratings, 1st half of S10 dropped even more...do you really blame downloading there too? US got it first, no reason to download it then.

I still enjoy SGA and would like to see it go on, but I can accept the fact that some don't like it anymore for different reasons. Not every fan feels the same way as the fans who still enjoy the shows. And I kind of feel the fanbase is split up on SG1.

I don't know any Nielsen family people, but I doubt they think themselves as on some sort of a mission. At the end of the day, they watch what they want. If someone, let's say, wanted to watch SG1 so badly they couldn't wait, downloaded the episode, and discovered they don't like it, they might be reluctant to watch it again on telly, despite the affect on the ratings.
Again, no, it won't account for all the drop, prolly not hte majority of it. But it would account for something, woudln't it?

[The Suicidal Goldfish]

Sci-Fi's advertising policy has nothing to do with TPTB on SG1/Atlantis though.

[Pitry]

Sci-Fi's advertising policy has nothing to do with TPTB on SG1/Atlantis though.

...?
And yet it does on the people who watch SciFi, like... SG1/SGA viewers?

*blinks*