Understanding zero ratings

Pete Doe

Media fragmentation is leading to smaller, or invisible, audiences being recorded. In this article, Pete Doe, technical director of RSMB Television Research Ltd, examines some of the issues surrounding zero audiences, and provides an indicator of the likely true audience level when a measurement system shows a zero.

understanding zero ratings

Pete DoeRSMB

Smaller or invisible audiences to individual events are an inevitable byproduct of media fragmentation throughout the world. This creates a challenge for the systems designed to measure audiences; in some cases audiences may fail to register at all on the measurement system. TV, with minutebyminute measurement and reporting, is most prone to this, but no medium can claim to be immune from the possibility of a detailed measurement yielding a zero. This article examines some of the issues surrounding zero audiences, and provides an indicator of the likely true audience level when...

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