/resource/media/focus1.htm According to the explanation of the Dictionary of Radio and Television, the audience rating refers to the percentage of the number of people (or households) watching a certain program in a certain period of time, that is, the audience rating = the number of people (or households) watching a certain program/the total number of viewers (or households). The ratings are divided into family ratings and personal ratings. Generally speaking, the family score is greater than the individual score. Liu Yannan, a professor at Beijing Broadcasting Institute and deputy director of the Institute of Television Communication, said that at present, it is more common in the industry to take the number of people rather than the number of households as the statistical standard. Liu Yannan's TV ratings analysis-investigation, analysis and application is the first monograph to systematically study ratings in China. ■ How is the rating generated? At present, there are two methods to collect ratings data, namely, diary method and personnel measurement instrument method. Diary method refers to the method that all family members aged 4 and above in the sample family fill in diary cards to collect viewing information. Each family member in the sample family has his own diary card, and they are required to record their daily TV watching (including channels and time periods) on the diary card at any time. The time interval listed on the diary card is 15 minutes. Each diary card can record the viewing situation for a week. Personnel measuring instrument method refers to the method of collecting TV viewing information by using "personnel measuring instrument", which is the latest viewing survey method in the world at present. Each member of the sample family has his own buttons on the hand controller, as well as buttons for guests to use. When family members start watching TV, they must first press the button representing themselves on the mobile phone, and then press this button when they are not watching TV. The measuring instrument will store all the information of watching TV every minute (even accurate to the second), and then transmit it to the central computer at headquarters through the telephone line (or get the data at home through PDA). How long will the ratings come out? Some are a week, some are two weeks, and some are a day. Liu Yannan said that it mainly depends on what kind of measurement method is adopted. If the diary method is used, it will take at least one week, and generally it will take two weeks to collect and analyze data. If the personnel table method is adopted, because the telephone line can send back data immediately, the viewing data can be provided the next day, but the cost of the personnel table is relatively high. ■ Can TV ratings be compared with news broadcast? Nowadays, more and more TV dramas use the expression that the ratings of a TV drama are second only to News Network. Is this comparison scientific? Liu Yannan thinks there is no comparability between them. First of all, TV series and news broadcast are not in the same broadcast period; Secondly, they are not facing the same market. News broadcast is geared to the whole country, while more TV dramas are regional and geared to a province or a city. "The reason for this formulation is mainly because" News Network "has a high audience rating in everyone's impression. I want to prove that the ratings of this TV series are high, but it is best not to make such a comparison. " Secondly, Liu Yannan introduced that in some places, the ratings of a TV series may be higher than that of news broadcast. For example, in some places, the ratings of Princess Pearl reached 60%, which is because News Network is geared to the whole country and its statistical base is too large. So what data should be used as the comparison standard for the ratings of a TV series? Liu Yannan said that the industry generally takes the ratings of a prime-time TV series broadcast by CCTV as the comparison standard, or a representative TV series that created the ratings myth as the measurement standard. ■ Can ratings measure the quality of TV dramas? Liu Yannan pointed out that another common phenomenon in ratings analysis is simply linking ratings with content. When the ratings rise or fall, you can often see the assertion that "this is because the program content is good (or bad)". Generally speaking, ratings and program content are related, and the latter usually has obvious influence on the change of the former, but this is not absolute. Liu Yannan said that ratings should not be the only criterion to measure the quality of a program or TV series, but also an indicator of satisfaction. "If scoring measures quantitative factors, then satisfaction measures qualitative factors, and it is more important." According to reports, some TV dramas have high ratings but low satisfaction, and there may even be a phenomenon that everyone watches a TV drama while watching it; Some TV dramas may not have high ratings, but they are very satisfied, such as Yongzheng Dynasty. "We didn't pay attention to ratings before, but now we are going to the other extreme: ratings are the only thing wrong." Secondly, the ratings are also fake. Zhang Hongsen, deputy director of the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, once denounced the phenomenon of false ratings at the "2002 China Communication Forum-China TV Drama Communication Symposium". He said that a TV station in Shandong had stopped broadcasting a program for three months, but the ratings survey company didn't know it at all, and it was still providing the ratings of the program, with the ratings as high as 30%. ■ Why are the ratings provided by CCTV Sophomore and AC Nielsen different? CCTV- Sophomore Media Research Company and AC Nielsen Company are the two most important ratings survey companies in China. According to industry analysis, in the TV ratings market, CCTV- Sophomore accounts for about 85% of the national market share, and AC Nielsen accounts for about 10%. The other two big companies are AC Nielsen Media Research and Shanghai Radio and Television Information Consulting Co., Ltd. People in the industry often have the impression that the ratings provided by AC Nielsen and CCTV- Sophomore Media Research are not the same, even the same TV series in the same region and at the same time sometimes have considerable differences. For example, a set of "Romantic Things" broadcast by CCTV, Nielsen's average audience rating is 7%, while CCTV- sophomore is 6%; Another example is the average ratings of News Network in Hangzhou from June 5438+1 October1to September 23, 2000. The data provided by CCTV-Sophomore is 22. 1%, and that of ACNielsen is 4.6%. Which data is more accurate? The reporter found in the interview that this is a sensitive topic for the investigation company. An industry insider who asked not to be named told reporters that this is mainly caused by different measurement methods: the results of diary method and instrument measurement method will definitely be different. It should be said that instrumental measurement is more accurate. The diary method is often filled in after the event, so the error will be relatively large, and the data of the personnel measuring instrument can be accurate to 1 minute, so the ratings will be much lower. In addition, due to different sample households and different calculation systems, the rating will be different. "Generally speaking, although the numbers are different, the trend should be the same, otherwise users will be confused." ■ What factors affect ratings? Bi Jiangyan, a CCTV-Sophomore Media Research Company, analyzed five factors that affect TV drama ratings: ① Regional factors. Liu Laogen's ratings are as high as 22% in the northeast and only a few percentage points in the south. ② Seasonal factors. In 20021February, the average audience rating in the first five months was 3.66%, and the audience rating in June was the lowest, only 2.82%. Summer vacation ratings have rebounded, reaching the highest point of the year, 3.85%. ③ Time factor. The best performance in ratings is 19: 00-20: 00, with ratings exceeding 5%. It can be seen that the ratings of TV series are largely determined by the time period. ④ Channel factors. The same TV series is broadcast on different channels, and its ratings and the time of simultaneous broadcast are calculated.