Fox moving away from releasing live+same day ratings
Consider this the latest “evolution” in the way that networks are prepared to discuss ratings, provided of course that you consider this evolution at all.
Today in an extensive memo, Fox confirmed that they are no longer going to be providing media outlets with live+same day ratings for any of their programming, and they will also stop sending them out internally. This is a very clear change of direction from what they were opting to do in the past, and it appears superficially that there is a specific reason for this: A desire to provide information that is more representative of how many people are watching their shows. In this memo (penned by programming heads Dana Walden and Gary Newman), such things were cited as streaming data, DVR viewings, and other measures as reasons why live+same day was no longer an accurate way of looking at a show.
Fundamentally, we agree with the network’s position that only a fraction of viewers these days watch live. However, we do think that live+same day ratings do provide a nice baseline of how many people are watching a given show, and whether or not there is enough of an interest to make people choose this option. “Empire” is a great example of a program that draws huge live ratings because it is a cultural phenomenon.
One other issue Fox runs into here is that it could be perceived that this is a reactionary move to a struggling lineup aside from “Empire,” and that it is a fairly meaningless one. Newman and Walden say that this is designed to help change a culture, but the issue is that we and every other TV reporter out there will continue to look at live figures. It really changes nothing on our end.
So why is this worth reporting? This does still represent a fundamental change in the way that people are considering catching a show, and that to us is enough to make it newsworthy.
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