Who watches the watchers? TV ratings in the age of digital TV
This article discusses an important aspect to newer methods of receiving entertainment: how do you measure audience share in a streaming, on demand world?
Now what we call TV includes everything from the old-school, over-the-air broadcasts, to cable programming, to video-on-demand, to the spiraling variety of video content available online. “Television” as a descriptor has become amorphous, its meaning constantly changing depending on its context. And what’s changing even more drastically is the way we watch it; we have more options than ever to watch programming whenever and wherever we want.
That’s terrific for consumers, at least on the surface level. But what does it mean for the business of TV—and the future of the programs we love? As common as pay TV is these days, most broadcasting is supported largely by advertising.