Fox Abandons Same-Day Ratings
by Michael O'Connell
11/20/15


In a move that's certainly in line with recent trends, but still a little surprising, Fox announced Friday afternoon that it will no longer issue reports on its own live-plus-same day ratings.

Of course, those numbers will continue to be available and reported, courtesy of ratings house Nielsen Media and the other networks that issue daily reports, but it is clear that Fox is trying to shift the conversation towards time-shifting — as many big cable networks (FX, AMC, USA) have successfully done over the last several years.

FX Networks topper John Landgraf was the first to formally make the move in July 2014.





Though the network will make exceptions for live events such as sports and award shows, Fox will hold off on discussing the performance of its slate of original series until live-plus-three day, live-plus-seven day and multiplatform data are available.

All three of those paint a bigger picture of how shows are being consumed, particularly at No. 3 Fox. The network has seen a growing portion of its audience come from streaming and time-shifting.





However sexy and immediate live-plus-same day ratings are, they are no longer industry standard. Fox TV Group CEOs and chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman noted in a staff memo that half of the network's ads are now sold on a C7 basis.

North of one-third of the viewers in the targeted demographic of adults 18-49 who consume broadcast content now do it outside the live-plus-same day window. And while some programming still creates a big live draw (see Empire's swift and meteoric 2015 rise), the bulk of original scripted television shows that those scenarios are the exception.





This is likely the first step in a long road to the eventual demise of the morning-after ratings story. It's clear that Fox anticipates other networks will follow the move, as at least some most likely will in the not-too-distant future.

But, for now, broadcast's live-plus-same day conversation will continue for the time being. There'll just be one less voice in the room.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fox-abandons-same-day-ratings-842498

This just goes to show how worthless Live-Only and Live-Plus-Same-Day ratings are becoming. As broadcast TV shows' audiences continue to get smaller and smaller, I think every network and channel in the United States will end up abandoning Live-Only and Live-Plus-Same-Day ratings and viewership in the future.

Will this mean The Simpsons may be on for an umpteenth season?

ABC Joins Fox In Dropping Live+Same Day Ratings Reports, Reveals Major Multiplatform+35 Increases (https://deadline.com/2019/11/abc-joins-fox-in-dropping-livesame-day-ratings-reports-1202783278/)

ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke said Monday that ABC will no longer be sending out Nielsen Live+Same Day ratings figures for the network’s programming that isn’t live. The new policy begins tomorrow.

Exempt from it is the network’s live programming like sports, or the recent The Little Mermaid Live!, which scored well in L+SD ratings.

The first stream ABC will look at is Live+3 data, followed by Live+7 and Multiplatform+35 Day program ratings, Burke said. She made the announcement in a memo to staff after the network brass had just received the first week of MP35 data for the current season. According to Burke, it showed that nearly all of ABC’s shows at least tripled their audience versus L+SD. The delayed viewership was up 30% vs. last year and up 56% vs. the year prior.

In terms of the MultiPlatform-plus-35-Day data, eight of ABC's premieres this season delivered at least 10 million viewers: The Good Doctor, Grey's Anatomy, Stumptown, A Million Little Things, Emergence, Modern Family, The Rookie, and The Conners; and five of those premieres surpassed the 3.0 Adults 18-49 rating mark: Grey's Anatomy, The Good Doctor, Modern Family, A Million Little Things, and Stumptown.

In defense of same-day ratings (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/case-paying-attention-same-day-ratings-1255301)

ABC's decision last week to drop live + same day ratings (https://www.primetimer.com/item/ABC-ditches-overnight-ratings-after-seeing-a-boost-in-35-day-viewership-a0SX6d) may make sense to the network, but there's still an appetite for immediate information about last night's viewership. "For one thing, some of the biggest shows on TV — live sports telecasts and awards shows like the Oscars and Grammys — pull in virtually all of their audiences on the night they air. (ABC Entertainment president Kerry) Burke acknowledged as much in her note, saying ABC would still report same-day ratings for live events (and did so two days after that for the CMA Awards)," says Rick Porter. "Some of the allure of same-day ratings also comes from the twin forces of habit and need for information. It's only in the last decade or so that delayed-view ratings have even existed, let alone had a meaningful impact on the TV landscape as a whole. The numbers that came through each morning pretty well told the whole story. Even though they don't now, there's still a desire from a lot of TV watchers (professional and otherwise) to see those first results, compare trend lines and get a sense of how shows are stacking up relative to each other."

I think a lot of channels these days just want to hide how low their ratings really are.

In defense of same-day ratings (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/case-paying-attention-same-day-ratings-1255301)

ABC's decision last week to drop live + same day ratings (https://www.primetimer.com/item/ABC-ditches-overnight-ratings-after-seeing-a-boost-in-35-day-viewership-a0SX6d) may make sense to the network, but there's still an appetite for immediate information about last night's viewership.

I have to admit, I am one of those people who have been feeling such an appetite, too. And I agree with LUNCH's sentiment. Live-Plus-Same-Day viewership really has been on the decline throughout this decade, and I don't think it's going to get any better, so the networks may not have much of a choice.