{"id":1807,"date":"2014-01-02T00:16:08","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T23:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/schspin.wordpress.com\/?p=1807"},"modified":"2021-02-23T14:37:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T14:37:17","slug":"tv-quoten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schspin.stieve.com\/gb\/2014\/01\/02\/tv-quoten\/","title":{"rendered":"For Heaven\u2019s Sake, Look at the Ratings!"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Heaven\u2019s Sake, Look at the Ratings!<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n

UM HIMMELS WILLEN <\/a>(For Heaven\u2019s Sake, a series on ARD, one of Germany\u2019s public-service broadcasters) was Germany\u2019s most successful TV series in 2013, just like in the year before. On average 6.6 Mio. people watched each episode, in 2012 it were 7.1 Mio. Most successful series is defined by the extrapolated supposedly highest mean TV audience numbers.<\/span>
\nActually my plan was to analyse the complete series of 156 episodes in 12 seasons, behind the camera (6-sections-check) and in front of it (main and supporting casts), but unfortunately the data that is publically available is rather incomplete. So instead let\u2019s ponder on TV ratings instead. They exist, but they should not be taken too seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do we need these ratings for? Do they help us choose a film to watch, or do they help the broadcasters to assemble their programmes? Does a show get better or worse through (the knowledge of) ratings? Does the future of a series depend on it? Or are they a measure for the popularity of a show, the people in it or the makers? Are they for checking the effects of PR campaings? Are they fundamental for selling air time for advertising? Are they needed to distribution the television licence fees? Are good ratings a matter of prestige for broadcasting companies and heads of programming? And are they correct numbers?<\/span>
\nHow do ratings influence future viewings? What if I find out how many people allegedly watched a programme that I also watched and liked? Will I like it even better and feel reassured in my TV taste? What if only few people watched ,my\u2019 programme, and the reviews were bad? If it turns out that only people younger than 14 and older than 60 watched it? Will that make me feel bad so that I would pretend not to have liked it or to have watched something else? (\u201eonly saw it very briefly while switching channels<\/em>\u201c)<\/span>
\nOr the other way around: Will I continue watching a series that I disliked but that got good ratings and suddenly start to become a fan? Do I need \u201eLikes\u201c for my orientation? Are ratings all about money?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sign on a caf\u00e9 in Berlin: Like us on the facebook – and get a free Espresso<\/p><\/div>\n

Some years back I told a friend about the Argentinian feature film EL ABRAZO PARTIDO <\/a>(director: Daniel Burman<\/strong>) that I had seen in the competition of the Berlin International Film Festival. My friend wanted to look it up in some film rating index, which \u2013 according to him \u2013 contained \u201eall important and good films<\/em>\u201c, but not El Abrazo Partido. So it could not really be a good film. Indeed? Sometimes the TV Ratings business reminds me of this encounter. If something gets low ratings it can\u2019t be really good (mind you, ever so often when a film on a public channel gets good ratings people say \u201ewell, but it was only people over 60 that watched it<\/em>\u201c \u2013 so they would be a less good audience?)<\/span><\/p>\n

Having said that I\u2019d like to stress my doubts that the figures published as TV ratings correlate to the actual number of people watching. They are but estimates, the GfK<\/a>\u2019s extrapolations of the rate measurement results from 5,000 households with a total of 10,500 persons, of the use of television, or rather the switching-on of TV sets.<\/span><\/p>\n