Retitling on Ratings

Retitling on Ratings

AdWeek reports that CBS News has been “Retitling Its Broadcasts a Bit Too Frequently This Summer.” In one sentence, any broadcaster who does not like the ratings of a particular program, such as the 6PM News, can retitle that program for one or as many segments as they like during a ratings period as it is reported to Nielsen Ratings. The effect is that a low-rated program(s) is deleted from average ratings of the program that would otherwise show if all of the same program segments had been included. By changing program title names, the result could be to make the program appear to be higher rated than it actually is had lower-rated programs for certain days or dates not been deleted. If network TV is doing this, it should serve as a wake-up call to see what your local TV station(s) are doing. It’s a fair question to ask your rep if you do not subscribe to Nielsen Ratings, where you could otherwise see for yourself. The full article appears here.