Season 5 Ratings thread

[Briangate78]

Thanks Brian, can you clarify a few things for me? Are all channels in the US commercially funded, ie: they rely on advertising, do you have any state run TV like the BBC? Do advertiser's or show sponser's have any say in what goes on what channel?

It still seems odd to me that people are doing cartwheels over 2 million viewers in a country with such a large population

I'll give you some idea of what a home grown ratings winner is in the UK
Dr Who (BBC1)
The X Factor (ITV)
Big Brother (Channel 4)
Top Gear (BBC2)
Rory and Paddy's Great British Adventure (Five)
Gladiators (Sky One)

All have ratings between 10 million and 500,000 (that's Gladiator's which is on the premier cable channel that not everyone can get, it's not avaliable on Virgin or Freeview)

In the U.S. We have Cable and Broadcast(Major Network) channels. There are two different kind of cable channels, one with commercials and without. A good example of a non-ad channel would be showtime, where SG-1 first began it's run or HBO. There is little competition with ratings on a station like this and is not ratings driven, where as a cable network like SCI FI has ads and is driven by ratings. However, ratings are very very competive with the major networks which are CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, and CW. Shows on these network are usually pulling in over 5 million viewers easily. Some shows like "House" attract well over 10 million viewers. It's just a different ballgame when dealing with cable and broadcast(major network) shows.

A cable network is not expected to perform like this because not everyone gets cable in the U.S which hence no SCI FI.

[Reefgirl]

In the U.S. We have Cable and Broadcast(Major Network) channels. There are two different kind of cable channels, one with commercials and without. A good example of a non-ad channel would be showtime, where SG-1 first began it's run or HBO. There is little competition with ratings on a station like this and is not ratings driven, where as a cable network like SCI FI has ads and is driven by ratings. However, ratings are very very competive with the major networks which are CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, and CW. Shows on these network are usually pulling in over 5 million viewers easily. Some shows like "House" attract well over 10 million viewers. It's just a different ballgame when dealing with cable and broadcast(major network) shows.

A cable network is not expected to perform like this because not everyone gets cable in the U.S which hence no SCI FI.

Thanks to everyone who has taken time to explain things to me

[Pitry]

Not really, I guess what I mean is, if the CEO of 'Brand X' pumps a lot of money into Channel Y can he have a say in what time his commercials go out or seeing the characters of Show Z using his products. For example, I saw a lot of iPod shuffle's used in the St Trinian's film, for no apparent purpose other than to get them on screen, I wondered if companies had this kind of pull elsewhere.

If I'm not mistaken, this kind of thing is specifically added in a contact and pid for, and is seen as a form of advertising. For example, the link that wa sposted here a while back about Eureka havnig to have one of their plots revolving around some product in order to get the money for more episodes. Or something.

Some shows like "House" attract well over 10 million viewers.

Actually they're more on the 20+ million area, aren't they?

[Reefgirl]

Cheers for that Pitry

[GoSpikey]

So don't the bigger companies want Stargate?

[Reefgirl]

Not if it's going to bring in only a couple million viewers when the latest American Dancing-with-idol-hairspray-school-musical-stars will bring in 20 million+ viewers and it depends on DVD sales too. How many of the DVD box sets are sold because people can't see them on their cable package but used to watch/saw it at a mate's/friends say it's excellent. Not only that but BitTorrent and iTunes now probably make up at least 40 or 50% of the numbers now, if you can't see it live, wait for 24 hours and download it, why pay $X for a cable channel you're only going to watch for a couple of hours a week when you can get the show for nothing.

Don't delete this mods, I'm not advocating the DL of shows I'm making a valid point here (I hope anyway)

[g.o.d]

Not if it's going to bring in only a couple million viewers when the latest American Dancing-with-idol-hairspray-school-musical-stars will bring in 20 million+ viewers and it depends on DVD sales too. How many of the DVD box sets are sold because people can't see them on their cable package but used to watch/saw it at a mate's/friends say it's excellent. Not only that but BitTorrent and iTunes now probably make up at least 40 or 50% of the numbers now, if you can't see it live, wait for 24 hours and download it, why pay $X for a cable channel you're only going to watch for a couple of hours a week when you can get the show for nothing.

Don't delete this mods, I'm not advocating the DL of shows I'm making a valid point here (I hope anyway)

24 hours? where do you live? It takes only 1-2 hours and after that you can download it + there are many programs which allows you to stream many US chanells including SCIFI chanell so you can watch it "live" as well

[Briangate78]

If I'm not mistaken, this kind of thing is specifically added in a contact and pid for, and is seen as a form of advertising. For example, the link that wa sposted here a while back about Eureka havnig to have one of their plots revolving around some product in order to get the money for more episodes. Or something.



Actually they're more on the 20+ million area, aren't they?

Yup.

[Reefgirl]

24 hours? where do you live? It takes only 1-2 hours and after that you can download it + there are many programs which allows you to stream many US chanells including SCIFI chanell so you can watch it "live" as well

I live in the UK and I was guessing on how long it takes as I've never downloaded Atlantis, or anyother show. I usually watch UK TV show's 'Live' (or a couple hours later when I get home from work) if it's an imported show, I'll wait until it's shown here.

[ToasterOnFire]

Also for comparison, the olympics (airing on a network channel) got between 30-40 million viewers for the big, prime time events.

[GoSpikey]

Well, it's settled then, Atlantis should move over to teh FoXz?

[g.o.d]

I live in the UK and I was guessing on how long it takes as I've never downloaded Atlantis, or anyother show. I usually watch UK TV show's 'Live' (or a couple hours later when I get home from work) if it's an imported show, I'll wait until it's shown here.

I have 1Mb download and it takes 1 hour for one standart format (350MB). But in area where I live, 1MB download is pretty damn slow

[GoSpikey]

Apparently I forgot to update my 7 year old cable to the newer version (turns out my modem is not equipped to handle the newer internet). Meaning I'm still surfing at 5MB while I'm paying for 15MB.

[Pitry]

So don't the bigger companies want Stargate?

I think it's more a matter of available funding. Eureka might cost overall less than Stargate, but it is solely owned by NBC - all of the episode's budget comes out of SciFi's. Stargate, in comparison, being owned by MGM, gets half its funding frmo MGM and half from SciFi - so in the end, it's cheaper to SciFi to finance Stargate than it is Eureka (of course, in the long run they get a lot more back from their investments in Eureka than Stargate).
Mind you, this still didn't stop product placement in Stargate (albeit in a more moderate form than the one mentioned above) - I, personally, found these Dell laptops very hard to miss. Or the avian.

[Guest]

Well, it's settled then, Atlantis should move over to teh FoXz?

It would be in safe paws if it did.