U.S. broadcast television networks have been eyeing their 2007 ratings with some alarm, noting that even their most popular broadcast shows like Grey’s Anatomy and American Idol have seen their ratings drop. So NBC—which lately has even been struggling to bring up the rear among the networks—asked ratings firm Nielsen Media Research why ratings have dropped so much. Nielsen isn’t done with its research yet, but it’s already disclosing preliminary findings: “DVRs appear to be the largest factor in that,” said Pat McDonough, Nielsen senior VP for planning policy and analysis told the Hollywood Reporter (which, we should note is owned by the Nielsen Company).
Nielsen also says there are other factors in the overall television viewership drop, including the fact there are no Olympic Games in 2007 (wait: when there are Olympic games, don’t networks complain no one watches?). Nielsen also notes networks have been airing more repeat programming.
Nielsen offers viewership data which purports to include live television viewing, along with viewing via DVR on the same day, or delayed by 1, 2, 3, or 7 days. Apparently folks who record someone on a DVR and watch it more than a week later have fallen off the demographic bandwagon.
For the week of April 30, Nielsen found that adults in DVR households watched 58 percent of their broadcast programming live, while the same group watched 85 percent of cable programming live, and 84 percent of syndicated programming live. Nielsen also found that, for the same week, 95 to 99 percent of all viewing was done within 75 hours of a program’s original air time.
