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iTunes Credited with Boosting Primetime Ratings
grandgator writes "TV Week reports on NBC's claims that iTunes downloads are boosting ratings for their primetime shows. Citing one example 'NBC's "The Office" delivered a 5.1-its highest ratings ever-last Thursday among adults 18 to 49, a bump the network credits in large part to the show's popularity as an iPod download. Such a connection between podcast success and broadcast ratings success is particularly significant because the NBC data is among the first available evidence of what network executives have been gambling on when striking their new media deals-that the new video platforms are additive because they provide more entry points into a show for consumers.'"
Speaking of The Office (original version), and iTunes. Ricky Gervais has a podcast. See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/rickygervais/
Although I'm fairly disappointed in the way Apple delivers their TV content (too small, can't burn to DVD, etc), iTunes is the reason I have started to tune into shows such as The Office.
Moreover, it's the only (legal) way I can watch Battlestar Galactica on a weekly basis.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Well, iTunes shows also lack commercials
Yeah, but is it in HDTV aspect?
and also go online the very next day.
TVTorrents and BitMeTv usually have The Office posted within 4-5 hours after air.
But these are legal
Your laws don't apply to me.
and download a hell of a lot faster then they would on BT.
Bittorrent is all about the upstream. Your download speed is affected by upstream bandwidth. It's your problem if your American broadband connection can't keep up.
"TV Week reports on NBC's claims that iTunes downloads are boosting ratings for their primetime shows."
This comes after weeks long scandals by the TV networks that the iPod videos would ruin their ratings.
Well this is great, because MPAA and RIAA will finally acknowledge the need for legal instant internet movie downloads, and stop claiming that piracy costs them in the billions ignoring the promotion value! Not.
2. Does anyone know the story behind NBC's decision to go iTunes in the first place? I'm just guessing here, but I'm thinking there was a rebel executive somewhere who had to do jump through hoops to convince management that this was a good choice.
I don't know about NBC, but at the TV company I work for the executives do see the writing on the wall (BitTorrent et al. scarred the hell out of them) and are looking at ways of tapping into the onine market. So I doubt NBC management need much convincing - if anything the directive to find the best way to tackle the online world came from them.
Oops, actually that's the rating in the 18-49 demographic - so 5.1% of 18 - 49 year olds watched the show. You also get household ratings, which just tell you what percentage of households watched a show. So while a show may get a household rating of 3, it might get a 18-49 of 5 - meaning that the show is more popular among people 18 - 49 than against the population in general.
18-49 is considered a good demographic to target - as they do most of the spending.
At some point, somewhere, the entire internet will be found to be illegal.
" Although I'm fairly disappointed in the way Apple delivers their TV content (too small, can't burn to DVD, etc)"
While I'm not going to disagree with you about the DVD aspect (this bit me in the ass yesterday as I was trying to get a few friends to watch BSG on my Mac -- my screen is almost as big as my TV -- but in the wrong room).
BUT it actually seems pretty decent to me. While watching the Resurrection Ship PtII episode -- I ended up seeing details that I didn't earlier (such as the cy-clones floating into space as their ship was disintegrating around them -- in the hotel room I originally watched it I just saw debris). Yeah it's Lossy (and so is DVD...but less so), but it scales pretty well. Personally I'm amazed at how much quality they can pack into a 'too small' package...then again, I just ordered BSG Season 1 on DVD and will probably do so for 2 as soon as that's over.
If only Fox would have pulled their collective heads out of their universal ass before they cancelled Arrested Development and podcasted it to supplement the ratings.
Just because music or videos are sold through iTMS does not make them podcasts. A podcast is something very specific, and is not even related to Apple, Mac's, iPods, or iTunes, other than the fact that you have the option of using said technology to listen to them.
Its in the preferences...I found it just recently...it might be under Videos or Advanced.
Inded, you are Rignt. Here it is:
Edit->Preferences. Select Playback tab. Check "Play videos" at the bottom, in the drop-down box pick "full screen".
This works for books as well. Eric Flint and other authors reported increased sales after they had some books released for free on the Baen Free Library.
Including paper copies of the same novels they'd released as free eBooks!
There have been several comments here I want to address: