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The figures show that they do watch. BBC1 is by far the most popular channel.

http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-total-viewing-summary?_s=4

And endless comedies where the joke is, they think some guy is homosexual!

What are you taking about?

Meanwhile, the most popular shows are American.

No they're not.
http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-30?_s=4

Simpsons and NCIS do make appearances on the list for the commercial (non BBC) channels, but they are way down the list. The most popular programs by far are British.

Considering the 2 BBC channels get the same amount of ratings as the other 3 terrestrial channels combined - that would be the content providers loss. If the BBC leads the way in this, the providers will have to listen for the good of their business.

Source

http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/monthreports. cfm?report=monthgmulti&requesttimeout=500 Look at the figures. BBC has 2 terresterial and about 5 digital channels. That is why it has such a large viewing percentage. If you compare it to its competitors, the most obvious one BBC and ITV1, it isn't more popular

I see. In the UK we have viewing figures in millions, and a 5.1% viewing figure would not even make the chart. The top show here in the UK (Eastenders) was watched by 12.33 million people last week. The highest ratings I've seen were in excess of 21 million.

If you look at BBC2, there was a programme on bird watching (the Bill Oddie one) that got more viewers...

Over a million on the eDonkey network and over 50 P2P clients last time I checked. The number is shy I think.

Compare that to the 9.6 million British people who watched "The Mask of Zorro" for nothing on a Thurday in December 2001, this is a small silly number. [Source]

For those interested, in the UK, viewing figures are collated by the Broadcaster' Audience Research Board. The system monitors minute by minute (catching commercial hopping), and it also fingerprints VCR recordings, and identifies them when they are played back. BARB figures are collated nightly, are available the very next day, and BARB also takes great care to ensure that their sample viewers are demographically representative.

The trouble is, new technology is a real pain for them. The UK has been slow to jump on the channel-explosion bandwagon, but we're there with a vengeance now. Viewing figures are currenty in a real mess, partly because BARB was stonewalled on getting access to some set top boxes. In fact, it's an open secret that their figures for digital TV have been pretty much a big old guesstimate for the past couple of years.

Nobody likes that. BARB doesn't like it, because their subscribers wonder why they're paying for the data. The networks don't like it, because advertisers assume that bad data means viewing figures are being overestimated (which appears to be true as the new BARB system comes on line). Advertisers don't like it, because they don't know how many eyeballs they're getting (and remember, they've been getting minute-by-minute, they do know when we're channel hopping).

And now here comes digital VCR's and looking forward, DVD recorders. BARB can currently fingerprint VCR recordings, but that's a no brainer using a simple in-line analogue device, like a non-invasive Macromedia. But digital, phew, that's a whole new ballgame. Who knows how Replays and TIVO's (and other digital tech) filters or compress information. Even if you can insert the watermark, it might be stripped or mangled on replay. It might give you garbage, or it might give you the wrong show. And if your sample viewer decides to plug in a PC with TV capture/out cards, god knows what data you're going to get.

I wonder if the big issue that networks (et al) have with digital VCR's is simply that they don't know what a very small number of people are watching on them. The BARB sample size is something like 0.025% of the UK population. It's possible that they don't really give a rat's arse about what the other 99.975% of us are watching or doing with them, just that they're screwing the figures for the sample group. After all, that's really all that matters to them, materially.

The concern might not be about what we're doing with new technology, merely that it exists, and they can't keep up with it.

For those interested, in the UK, viewing figures are collated by the Broadcaster' Audience Research Board. The system monitors minute by minute (catching commercial hopping), and it also fingerprints VCR recordings, and identifies them when they are played back. BARB figures are collated nightly, are available the very next day, and BARB also takes great care to ensure that their sample viewers are demographically representative.

The trouble is, new technology is a real pain for them. The UK has been slow to jump on the channel-explosion bandwagon, but we're there with a vengeance now. Viewing figures are currenty in a real mess, partly because BARB was stonewalled on getting access to some set top boxes. In fact, it's an open secret that their figures for digital TV have been pretty much a big old guesstimate for the past couple of years.

Nobody likes that. BARB doesn't like it, because their subscribers wonder why they're paying for the data. The networks don't like it, because advertisers assume that bad data means viewing figures are being overestimated (which appears to be true as the new BARB system comes on line). Advertisers don't like it, because they don't know how many eyeballs they're getting (and remember, they've been getting minute-by-minute, they do know when we're channel hopping).

And now here comes digital VCR's and looking forward, DVD recorders. BARB can currently fingerprint VCR recordings, but that's a no brainer using a simple in-line analogue device, like a non-invasive Macromedia. But digital, phew, that's a whole new ballgame. Who knows how Replays and TIVO's (and other digital tech) filters or compress information. Even if you can insert the watermark, it might be stripped or mangled on replay. It might give you garbage, or it might give you the wrong show. And if your sample viewer decides to plug in a PC with TV capture/out cards, god knows what data you're going to get.

I wonder if the big issue that networks (et al) have with digital VCR's is simply that they don't know what a very small number of people are watching on them. The BARB sample size is something like 0.025% of the UK population. It's possible that they don't really give a rat's arse about what the other 99.975% of us are watching or doing with them, just that they're screwing the figures for the sample group. After all, that's really all that matters to them, materially.

The concern might not be about what we're doing with new technology, merely that it exists, and they can't keep up with it.