Why should the ratings numbers matter?

[hutter]

Every since the Monday Night Wars, a lot of folks have been fixated on the numbers. Ooooh....they're doing a 0.5. Doom and gloom.

Look at who advertises on these shows. They know their target audience. Wrestling fans on average have a lot of disposable income. Sure, it's nice to see the big shiny numbers and all, but why does it matter so much? Someone wanna explain it to my dumb ass?

And who here has a Nielsen box?

[Kevin Hamilton]

I share your confusion.

[HMARK Center]

It's an interesting thing to discuss when you look into some of the specifics of the numbers (i.e. which segments drew the most viewership, who the fans seem to be reacting to the most, etc.), but, in terms of how a company's actually doing, ratings are a terrible unit of measurement.

[Joekishi]

More ad revenue..

well for ECW and Smackdown.

USA pays to have WWE on aswell, the more viewers watching the more money goes into WWE

[Kevin Hamilton]

Plus it started that horrible lol thing.

[kayfabe ate my baby]

You know those ratings don't take into account homes with more than two tv's, and other things of that nature...

[jobcena is one heck of a guy]

It's like everything else, people like to validated of thier choices by showing that other people are doing it. "The Cd I listened to sold 100,000,000 cds so its better than the cd that only sold 1,000"

Sometimes they are right some times they are not.

[jobcena is one heck of a guy]

jackrabbitslim said:

Plus it started that horrible lol thing.

lol @ the lol thing?

[KEJB]

robots said:

You know those ratings don't take into account homes with more than two tv's, and other things of that nature...

hahahaha

[Torch Man]

Ratings are important for us fans. It doesn't matter so much for advertisers because as has been said, advertisers aren't going to be too concerned about small differences each week provided it's still drawing good in the most desireable demographics.

But as far as wrestling companies are concerned they use ratings to see who's over and who isn't and what is working and what is not. To this end the ratings have a direct impact on the show which is why many people here take such an interest. It's also a useful talking point when debating the merrits of a push in the context of business. It's not the only indication of a superstars/angle's success but it's a good one.

[Nice Guy Cody]

Ratings onlt reflect people with Nielsen boxes, anyway.


IMO, the best feds out there right now don't even have use for the word ratings.

[Corporate H]

Ratings are important. They show how popular a show is. Marks use it to show that "their" show is doing better. Also according to Ron Killings Vince McMahon's ratings suck.

[HMARK Center]

But, that's the thing; they're not a really good way of seeing just how popular a show is, and the whole Neilson system is pretty outdated.

Not that they're completely useless or anything, but, again...outdated.

As for marks using them, well...they're marks.

And as for Ron Killings, well, Vince's ratings do suck compared to what they were, but there's no debating the "still one of the highest rated shows on cable" thing he has going. The Neilson's might be outdated, but I can definately buy that.

[01010010 01101001 01100011]

I don't see why they don't put a chip in the cable and satellite boxes that everyone seems to have. They could hide the agreement in the fine print or have an option in the setup menus and we'd have a more accurate system.

[dennisisevil]

Seriously unless you advertise on the show it shouldn't matter to you. Are you such a dyed in the wool comformist that you need to know your show gets high ratings? Are you in love with being a part of something? Do you live and die by other people's approval?

[Voldemar H. "Brak" Guerta]

Ratings don't really matter if the company is turning a profit, at which point it's just for bragging rights and to use to gain bigger sponsorship deals. As far as I know TNA still has never gotten out of the red, despite it growing continuously over the past couple years. So for now, the ratings for TNA's shows on Spike mean quite a bit.

As for the WWE? The ratings for RAW don't mean jack, for Smackdown! they are important because if they get too low the CW Network might not re-sign a deal with the WWE, and for ECW they need good ratings so Sci-Fi doesn't re-neg on their TV deal either.

[munter]

So, on the boards there's probably 50 threads discussing ratings for whatever show, then there's this thread saying ratings don't matter, and everyone agreeing....Sheep.

[Voldemar H. "Brak" Guerta]

munter said:

So, on the boards there's probably 50 threads discussing ratings for whatever show, then there's this thread saying ratings don't matter, and everyone agreeing....Sheep.

Hold your tongue, you can check my previous posts and see that I've posted in a couple of the "LOL@..." threads in the past to express my disdain of them.

[Brother Ike: Thread Killer]

I dont think ratings necessarily matter as long as you sell sell ppv's. UFC dont make really big ratings usually but they have done a great job of getting the majority of their audience to buy their ppv's.

[Voldemar H. "Brak" Guerta]

albundy said:

I dont think ratings necessarily matter as long as you sell sell ppv's. UFC dont make really big ratings usually but they have done a great job of getting the majority of their audience to buy their ppv's.

Eh? UFC has been killing with their TV ratings for their specials. Their PPVs have steadily increased in buyrates as well over the years.