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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
IMC PERSPECTIVE 11-5
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
11. Evaluation of Broadcast
Media
Is It Time to Do Away with Sweeps Ratings?
The cornerstone of selling local television time is the
sweeps ratings periods, which are held in February,
May, November, and, to a lesser extent, August by
Nielsen Media Research to determine what stations
and shows are being watched in all 210 U.S. television
markets. The term sweeps dates back to the 1950s,
when Nielsen began mailing diaries to households and
reporting the results, first with the East Coast markets
before sweeping across the country. As TV networks
gradually took control of programming, they needed
better demographic numbers to calculate how much
they could charge for commercials on specific shows.
Local stations could not afford to measure TV viewing
audiences year-round, as the networks do, so they settled
on the four month-long sweeps ratings periods.
The numbers gathered during the sweeps periods
are used as guideposts in the buying and selling of TV
commercial time during the rest of the year and are
extremely important to local stations. However, many
people in the advertising industry are enraged over
the tactics used by networks and their local affiliates
to bolster their ratings during sweeps periods, such as
special programming, contests, games, and other nontypical
promotions. They argue that the extraordinary
programming and promotion efforts inflate the ratings
taken during these periods and that they are not
indicative of audience sizes for the other 36 weeks of
the year, when networks run their regular programming
and promotions are not used to boost local viewing
audiences.
Advertisers and their agencies have become accustomed
to the usual tactics used to beef up program
schedules during the sweeps months, from blockbuster
network programming to lurid sensationalism
in local newscasts. Many local stations follow the
accepted practice of producing and heavily promoting
sex and scandal stories to lure viewers to their newscasts.
For example, a Miami station ran an investigation
into female college students who work as
strippers to pay their tuition. Of much greater concern,
however, is the blatant use of ratings grabbers
such as big-prize sweepstakes, contests, and giveaways
during sweeps periods. Nielsen Media Research has
expressed concern over the number of unusual
sweeps-period station promotions—most often giveaway
contests on local newscasts. For example, a Houston
station conducted a watch-and-win contest
offering $2,000 each day to viewers of its 5 P.M., 6 P.M.
and 10 P.M. newscasts. Nielsen’s research has confirmed
that giveaway promotions increase a station’s
audience share but that it generally drops back to precontest
levels when the promotion ends.
Nielsen Media Research is working with the advertising
industry to solve the sweeps problems. It pro-
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
vides red flags in its printed reports if stations use
special promotions to bump up their ratings. Nielsen
also recently dropped a San Diego TV station from its
sweeps measurement period when it discovered that
the station tried to pump up its ratings by sending
promotional tapes to Nielsen’s local panel members.
However, the advertising industry argues that the only
real solution to the problem is to increase the number
of weeks Nielsen measures local audiences rather than
relying on the artificially hyped numbers from sweeps
periods. However, Nielsen argues that a continuous
measurement system like that used for the network
ratings would be very expensive and the TV and advertising
industry would have to be willing to pay a higher
price for local ratings information. Nielsen’s director
of communications notes: “In a perfect world, putting
people meters in all the markets is what we’d want to
do. But there’s not enough advertising dollars in the
smaller markets to make it worth their while.”
Nielsen may also be getting some resistance from
the local stations that have grown accustomed to getting
higher ad rates year-round based on the inflated
sweeps numbers. In the top 20 television markets, as
much as half of a station’s revenue comes from commercial
time sold during the four or five hours of local
newscasts aired each day, and a 30-second spot may
sell for $2,500 to $3,000. Local stations are limited in
the amount of airtime they can sell during network
programs, so they concentrate on local newscasts to
increase ad revenue. Ironically, however, some media
researchers argue that sweeps don’t always help boost
a local station’s ratings. They note that many viewers
are loyal to local station news teams while others see
through all of the sensational stories and promotional
gimmicks.
Despite the many drawbacks of the system, many
local stations continue to support sweeps for three
main reasons: habit, fear, and money. However, nearly
everyone in the advertising industry argues that some
type of overhaul of the sweeps system is needed. The
chair of the media research committee for the American
Association of Advertising Agencies notes:
“Sweeps are a travesty. Advertisers buy time on stations
365 days a year, yet we have no idea what ratings
are for most of the year when there aren’t those hyped,
big-event programs.” She speaks for many in the advertising
industry when she concludes, “Sweeps should be
done away with.” It will be interesting to see if the television
industry takes action to solve the sweeps problem
or just continues to sweep it under the rug.
Sources: Michael J. Weis, “Sweeps,” American Demographics, May
2001, pp. 43–49; Allen Banks, “Close the Book on Sweeps,” Advertising
Age, Mar. 15, 1999.