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Part Five Developing the Integrated Marketing Communications Program
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
11. Evaluation of Broadcast
Media
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
Audience size and composition are also important to the network or station, since
they determine the amount it can charge for commercial time. Shows are frequently
canceled because they fail to attract enough viewers to make their commercial time
attractive to potential advertisers. Determining audience size is not an exact science
and has been the subject of considerable controversy through the years. In this section,
we examine how audiences are measured and how advertisers use this information in
planning their media schedules.
Audience Measures The size and composition of television audiences are
measured by ratings services. The sole source of network TV and local audience information
is the A. C. Nielsen Co. For many years local audience information was also
available from the Arbitron Co., but Arbitron exited the local TV ratings business at
the end of 1993 due to steep financial losses. 29 Nielsen gathers viewership information
from a sample of TV homes and then projects this information to the total viewing
area. The techniques used to gather audience measurement information include
diaries, electronic meters or recorders, and personal interviews. Nielsen provides various
types of information that can be used to measure and evaluate a station’s audience.
These measures are important to media planners as they weigh the value of buying
commercial time on a program.
Television Households The number of households in the market that own a TV is
sometimes referred to as the universe estimate (UE). Nielsen estimates that 106.7 million
U.S. households owned at least one TV set as of August 2002. Since over 98 percent
of U.S. households own a TV set, television households generally correspond to
the number of households in a given market. 30
Program Rating Probably the best known of all audience measurement figures is
the program rating, the percentage of TV households in an area that are tuned to a
specific program during a specific time period. The program rating is calculated by
dividing the number of households tuned to a particular show by the total number of
households in the area. For example, if 14 million households (HH) watched ER, the
national rating would be 11.9, calculated as follows:
Rating = HH tuned to show = 14,000,000 = 13.1
Total U.S. HH 106,700,000
A ratings point represents 1 percent of all the television households in a particular
area tuned to a specific program. On a national level, 1 ratings point represents
1,067,000 households. Thus, if a top-rated program like ER averages a rating of 12, it
would reach 12.8 million households each week (12 × 1,067,000).
The program rating is the key number to the stations, since the amount of money
they can charge for commercial time is based on it. Ratings points are very important
to the networks as well as to individual stations. A 1 percent change in a program’s ratings
over the course of a viewing season can gain or lose millions of dollars in advertising
revenue. Advertisers also follow ratings closely, since they are the key measure
for audience size and commercial rates.
Households Using Television The percentage of homes in a given area where TV
is being watched during a specific time period is called households using television
(HUT). This figure, sometimes referred to as sets in use, is always expressed as a percentage.
For example, if 70 million of the U.S. TV households have their sets turned
on at 10 P.M. on a Thursday night, the HUT figure is 65.6 percent (70 million out of
106.7 million). Television usage varies widely depending on the time of day and season
of the year.
Share of Audience Another important audience measurement figure is the share of
audience, which is the percentage of households using TV in a specified time period
that are tuned to a specific program. This figure considers variations in the number of
sets in use and the total size of the potential audience, since it is based only on those
households that have their sets turned on. Audience share is calculated by dividing the