The television world is changing course now that the linear ratings are under pressure: they stop publishing the scores of the previous night every day. “Very unfortunate,” says Tina Nijkamp.
News articles are made daily in the Dutch media about the viewing figures of the previous evening. There is currently a lot like that buzz about the former hit show ‘On land, at sea and in the air’, because it scored extremely well last Saturday. Both RTL Boulevard and Shownieuws therefore made items about it a day later.
Tina is bummed loudly
All such items are now a thing of the past, because the TV world has decided to keep the viewing figures from now on to keep secret and only publish after a week, when the delayed numbers are added up and it all seems a little rosier. And after a week, the urgency of those figures is of course gone. The buzz around the medium of TV will therefore decrease sharply.
Tina Nijkamp, the most famous viewing figures expert in our country, is disappointed. She points out the ratings to her every day analysis channel. “Very sorry. Transmitters themselves can still see each other’s figures, but the rest of the Netherlands cannot. Not until a week later. Except, of course, if the linearity is very good, then the channel will of course immediately issue a press release.”
“Be the first country!”
It becomes very opaque, says Tina. “In principle, journalists also see the viewing figures a week later. And so the Netherlands is the first country in Europe to do this. RTL and Talpa are of course allowed to know this themselves, but can the NPO also do this? The NPO belongs to all of us and is therefore also public?”
Tina wonders deeply. “Quite intense for a country’s public broadcaster, paid for by all taxpayers. We do pay 9.11 euros per month for it, but as viewers we are not allowed to know what we watched the day before. Bizarre.”
Broken by press
Media connoisseur Victor Vlam states in his podcast The Communicados that the TV world is doing this precisely to silence the Tinas of this world. “A program is destroyed in the press on the basis of linear figures alone. Everyone says, ‘It was a flop’, while the postponed is viewed very well. They find that problematic.”
His colleague Lars Duursma says: “Still, I have a problem with this, because if people do not interpret figures correctly, explain that. Make sure you get across the stage that people understand that something is just the intermediate score. It’s like in a football game: “This is the rest position.” That does not mean that you should deprive people of the rest position.”
‘Very cowardly’
The TV world must have lobbied hard for it, Lars thinks. “These are the television channels that have said, ‘We want to protect our investment. We put a lot of time and money into the program and think it’s a pity if it burns down after a day. So to protect our investment, we’re going to withhold information from you, the general public.’”
Victor: “I assume that this is indeed on the initiative of the TV makers, indeed the channels. So NPO, RTL, Talpa.”
Lars: “Yes, I do like that. I also think it’s cowardly, you know. So again: just explain it better. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to communicate it, does it?”
McDonald’s
Victor is in it twice. “So they say that it is true that there is an exceptional amount of openness in the television world about how programs are doing. McDonald’s also does not announce every morning how many Big Macs have been sold and whether that is more or less than Burger King Whoppers sold, for example.”
He continues: “So the fact that viewing figures are published very quickly at all, so after seven days, they say: ‘That is actually very exceptional.'”
Lars: “No, I understand that too, because with Netflix, for example, you don’t know anything. (…) But as a general public I think it is a great shame that we no longer have this.”
What does Rob say?
How does TV connoisseur Rob Goossens interpret this? He tweets: “Channels retain full access to the figures and will certainly continue to make adjustments. The ‘benefits’ are for the broadcasters anyway: a flop is less interesting for the entertainment media seven days later (and you will have another six days to avoid losing face).”
“Incidentally, it’s less fun for programs like Boulevard that will drop down the lists – simply because they are mainly watched live and will therefore be overtaken by programs that are watched a lot for a while. But we will surely survive!”