Nielsen Ratings Research Articles

Spirituality and people with psychosis: A content analysis of influential primetime television programs.

This mixed methods study examined depictions of spirituality among people with psychosis in influential television programming. Spirituality is a central strength for many people with psychosis. Yet, despite the important role media plays in shaping perceptions, little research has examined the intersection between spirituality and psychosis in popular media. To address this gap, we conducted a content analysis of the 50 most viewed primetime fictional television shows over a 10-year period as determined by the Nielsen rating organization. Characters with psychosis were identified via keyword searches of online sources (wikis, IMDb, etc.) and subsequently independently coded by two individuals. Characters were rated on 18 items in three domains related to demographics, life status, and character framing. Inter-rater reliability ranged from good to excellent across variables. Of 120 identified focal characters with psychosis, just 16 percent (n = 19) had a spiritual identity. Analysis revealed few differences between spiritual and secular characters on demographic and life status variables. Conversely, an examination of framing variables revealed spiritual characters were comparatively less attractive, exhibited a greater negative impact on society, and were more likely to be referred to pejoratively (as a psychopath) and engage in criminal activity. Trend analysis indicated portrayals of spiritual characters decreased over time. The results suggest media depictions of spirituality contribute to the stigmatization of spirituality among people with psychosis, potentially mitigating access to important coping resources and discouraging professional help-seeking. Primary care physicians should consider incorporating a spiritual assessment into care to operationalize spiritual coping assets.

Moderated digital social therapy for young people with emerging mental health problems: A user-centered mixed-method design and usability study.

Over 25% of Dutch young people are psychologically unhealthy. Individual and societal consequences that follow from having mental health complaints at this age are substantial. Young people need care which is often unavailable. ENgage YOung people earlY (ENYOY) is a moderated digital social therapy-platform that aims to help youngsters with emerging mental health complaints. Comprehensive research is being conducted into the effects and to optimize and implement the ENYOY-platform throughout the Netherlands. The aim of this study is to explore the usability and user experience of the ENYOY-platform. A user-centered mixed-method design was chosen. 26 young people aged 16-25 with emerging mental health complaints participated. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore usability, user-friendliness, impact, accessibility, inclusivity, and connection (Phase 1). Phase 2 assessed usability problems using the concurrent and retrospective Think Aloud-method. User experience and perceived helpfulness were assessed using a 10-point rating scale and semi-structured interviews (Phase 3). The Health Information Technology Usability Evaluation Scale (Health-ITUES; Phase 1) and System Usability Scale (SUS; Phase 2 and 3) were administered. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Task completion rate and time were tracked and usability problems were categorized using the Nielsen's rating scale (Phase 2). Adequate to high usability was found (Phase 1 Health-ITUES 4.0(0.34); Phase 2 SUS 69,5(13,70); Phase 3 SUS 71,6(5,63)). Findings from Phase 1 (N = 10) indicated that users viewed ENYOY as a user-friendly, safe, accessible, and inclusive initiative which helped them reduce their mental health complaints and improve quality of life. Phase 2 (N = 10) uncovered 18 usability problems of which 5 of major severity (e.g. troubles accessing the platform). Findings from Phase 3 (N = 6) suggested that users perceived the coaching calls the most helpful [9(0.71)] followed by the therapy content [6.25(1.41)]. Users liked the social networking aspect but rated it least helpful [6(2.1)] due to inactivity. The ENYOY-platform has been found to have adequate to high usability and positive user experiences were reported. All findings will be transferred to the developmental team to improve the platform. Other evaluation methods and paring these with quantitative outcomes could provide additional insight in future research.

Revisiting the Impact of Structural Factors on Television Audience Behavior in the Streaming Age

ABSTRACT The current study uses national Nielsen ratings data for the five English-language broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, the CW, Fox and NBC) from the 2014, 2015 and 2016 television seasons to build on the more than 50 years of television audience scholarship by examining whether the factors traditionally found to impact primetime entertainment TV program ratings continue to do so in today’s media environment. The relationship between audience availability and program ratings followed traditional patterns. Importantly, the study found a heavy reliance on marquee events and special episodes of popular series to boost ratings at the expense of schedule predictability.

New insights on the Louis-Schmeling paradox: determinants of demand for subscription and pay-per-view boxing

ABSTRACT Research question Studies considering demand for professional boxing are almost completely absent from the Sport Management/Sports Economics literature. Little is known about consumer preferences for a sport which attracts global attention but is unique insofar as it is exempt from standard sporting institutions maintaining competitive balance. We use two new datasets to ask, what are the determinants of main event viewership (Nielsen ratings) and pay-per-views buys? In addressing this question we offer new insights on the uncertainty-of-outcome hypothesis and extend research on direct demand for individual sport. Research methods The datasets comprise of 210 HBO and Showtime broadcasts from 2006 to 2018. We estimate generalised linear models, controlling for economic determinants, bout features, boxer popularity and scheduling factors. Results and Findings For main events, we find conflicting evidence to the uncertainty-of-outcome hypothesis. Fans show a preference for rematches, domestic boxers and heavier divisions. NFL broadcasts and earlier scheduling negatively impact viewership. For pay-per-views, we find a positive price effect. Expectedly, Floyd Mayweather Jr increases buys. Both categories exhibit a negative trend with viewership and PPV buys declining over the sampling frame. Implications The results offer new evidence that is contrary to the uncertainty-of-outcome hypothesis for an individual sport. The findings point to differences in consumer preferences between two sources of demand for the same sport. Practically, these can inform the strategic decision-making of broadcasters, promoters, advertisers and potential new broadcasting entrants.

Predicting Nielsen Ratings from Pilot Episodes Scripts: A Content Analytical Approach

Textual and content data were extracted from the pilot episode scripts of 183 new, dramatic television series and used to predict the 18-49 demo ratings for the first five episodes of each series’ first season. As expected, the originality of a series’ premise, the track record of success of the its creator(s), and the cognitive complexity of its pilot episode script each explain a statistically significant proportion of the variance in the Nielsen ratings over the first five episodes.

Opposition Media, State Censorship, and Political Accountability: Evidence from Chavez’s Venezuela

This paper investigates the effects of state censorship of opposition media using evidence from the closing of RCTV, a popular opposition television channel in Venezuela. The government did not renew RCTV’s license, and the channel was replaced overnight, during May 2007, by a pro-government channel. Based upon this censorship of opposition television, we have three key findings. First, using Nielsen ratings data, viewership fell, following the closing of RCTV, on the pro-government replacement, but rose on Globovision, the only remaining television channel for opposition viewers. This finding is consistent with a model in which viewers have a preference for opposition television and substitute accordingly. Second, exploiting the geographic location of the Globovision broadcast towers, Chavez approval ratings fell following the closing of RCTV in places with access to the Globovision signal, relative to places without access. Third, in places with access to the Globovision signal, relative to places without, support for Chavez in electoral data also fell following the closing of RCTV. Counterfactuals, which account for both substitution patterns in media consumption and the persuasive effects of opposition television, document that switching to uncensored outlets led to an economically significant reduction in support for Chavez.

Do you see what I see? A character analysis of health risk behaviors in television shows popular with Black adolescents in the US

ABSTRACTAdolescents spend many hours per day watching television, and there are racial differences in time spent watching television and in show preferences. Prior research suggests there are also differential associations in how exposure to media content affects adolescent behavior. This study examines the demographic representation of main characters and health risk behaviors (i.e., sex, alcohol use, violence, bullying, and their combinations) portrayed in television content popular with Black and non-Black adolescents. A content analysis of television show characters (n = 377) from the 2014–2015 season was conducted on shows popular with 14–17-year old adolescent audiences in the United States. Group popularity was determined by Nielsen ratings segmented by Black and non-Black (primarily White) adolescents. Results suggest that character representation varies by whether shows were popular with Blacks or others, and that risk portrayals are common in all popular content with few group differences. Implications for adolescent behavior are discussed.

A Big Data and Time Series Analysis Technology-Based Multi-Agent System for Smart Tourism

This study focuses on presenting a development trend from the perspective of data-oriented evidence, especially open data and technologies, as those numbers can verify and prove current technology trends and user information requirements. According to the practical progress of Dr. What-Info I and II, this paper continues to develop Dr. What-Info III. Moreover, big data technology, the MapReduce paralleled decrement mechanism of the cloud information agent CEOntoIAS, which is supported by a Hadoop-like framework, Software R, and time series analysis are adopted to enhance the precision, reliability, and integrity of cloud information. Furthermore, the proposed system app receives a collective satisfaction score of 80% in terms of Quesenbery’s 5Es and Nielsen ratings. In addition, the verification results of the interface design show that the human-machine interface of our proposed system can meet important design preferences and provide approximately optimal balance. The top-n experiment shows that the top-5 recommendations would be better for solving the traditional tradeoff between output quality and processing time. Finally, the system effectiveness experiments indicate that the proposed system receives an overall up-to-standard function rate of 87.5%, and such recommendations provide this system with high information correctness and user satisfaction. Although there is plenty of room for improvement in experience, the feasibility of this service architecture has been proven.

Report on Network Sunday Morning Talk Show Content and Ratings, Comparing 1983, 1999, and 2015

We studied the content and Nielsen ratings for interviews on the three network Sunday morning talk shows—Meet the Press (henceforth MTP), Face the Nation (FTN), and This Week (TW). We compared three time periods—1983 (MTP, FTN), 1999 (all three shows), and 2015 (all three shows). In order to insure apples-to-apples comparisons, for over time comparisons, we either restricted our analyses to MTP and FTN or analyzed the data with and without TW. For “overall” snapshots we included all three shows (MTP, FTN, TW). Our goals were fourfold: (1) identify any discernable trends in the topics and types of guests featured on the Sunday talk shows, (2) identify any trends in audience ratings, (3) assess whether and to what extent trends in topics and guests correlate with audience ratings, and (4) assess whether, to what extent, and under what circumstances, the Sunday talk shows influence the subsequent news agenda.

Light Shadows: Loose Adaptations of Gothic Literature in American TV Series of the 1960s and early 1970s

If today’s television landscape is ripe with Gothic or supernatural dramas (True Blood, Penny Dreadful, Supernatural), paranormal crime dramas (X-Files, Grimm) and, on children’s networks, animated or live-action sitcoms about monsters and ghouls trying to fit in at home or at school (Monster High, Every Witch Way), all of this programming can be traced back to its humble origins in the 1960s and 1970s. This study will focus on the creation of three different types of hybrid series that were aired during this early period and each of which attempted to combine supernatural characters and story-lines borrowed from traditional Gothic literature (and later from science fiction) with a different standard and rather conventional TV format. In the early 1960s, The Munsters on CBS and The Addams Family on ABC brought Gothic monsters and otherworldly misfits into the family sitcom. This was immediately followed by two successive contributions from TV producer-director Dan Curtis for ABC –first in the late sixties with Dark Shadows, the ‘Gothic soap opera’ that took the melodramatic afternoon serial format and spiced it up with dozens of overlapping subtexts on classic vampires, werewolves and witches, and then in the early seventies with two TV films that resulted in the first ‘paranormal investigation series’, Kolchak: The Night Stalker. In addition to analyzing the hybrid nature of these experimental programs and their rather light borrowing of literary icons in terms of adaptation, this study will also focus heavily on the context and television landscape into which these two-headed hybrids were born. To understand their countercultural value, one must first understand the type of programming that was dominant at the time, as well as the battle for dominance in those all-important Nielsen ratings that would drive certain networks to bolder experimentation. All three of these hybrid series were indeed the spoils of the Network Wars, and all involved third-place ABC’s attempt to overturn CBS’s unshakeable dominance through counter-programming and the targeting of new demographics. Finally, this article will also focus on the inherent paradox shared by these early ‘monster-mashes’, for at the time most of these series failed in terms of expected audience numbers, and all but Dark Shadows were canceled after one or two seasons. Yet, these series –though often camp if not unintentionally burlesque and with often laughably low production values by today’s standards –have still consistently grown in popularity over time, thanks to syndication, later reboots on TV and as feature films –making these initial hybrids and their off-the-wall characters cult icons today and leading to scores of current programs that readily admit to the significant influence of these early, low-budget experiments.

Association Between Direct-to-Consumer Advertising and Testosterone Testing and Initiation in the United States, 2009-2013

Testosterone initiation increased substantially in the United States from 2000 to 2013, especially among men without clear indications. Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) also increased during this time. To investigate associations between televised DTCA and testosterone testing and initiation in the United States. Ecologic study conducted in designated market areas (DMAs) in the United States. Monthly testosterone advertising ratings were linked to DMA-level testosterone use data from 2009-2013 derived from commercial insurance claims. Associations between DTCA and testosterone testing, initiation, and initiation without recent baseline tests were estimated using Poisson generalized estimating equations. Monthly Nielsen ratings for testosterone DTCA in the 75 largest DMAs. (1) Rates of new serum testosterone testing; (2) rates of testosterone initiation (in-office injection, surgical implant, or pharmacy dispensing) for all testosterone products combined and for specific brands; and (3) rates of testosterone initiation without recent serum testosterone testing. Of 17 228 599 commercially insured men in the 75 DMAs, 1 007 990 (mean age, 49.6 [SD, 11.5] years) had new serum testosterone tests and 283 317 (mean age, 51.8 [SD, 11.3] years) initiated testosterone treatment. Advertising intensity varied by geographic region and time, with the highest intensity seen in the southeastern United States and with months ranging from no ad exposures to a mean of 13.6 exposures per household. Nonbranded advertisements were common prior to 2012, with branded advertisements becoming more common during and after 2012. Each household advertisement exposure was associated with a monthly increase in rates of new testosterone testing (rate ratio [RR], 1.006; 95% CI, 1.004-1.008), initiation (RR, 1.007; 95% CI, 1.004-1.010), and initiation without a recent test (RR, 1.008; 95% CI, 1.002-1.013). Mean absolute rate increases were 0.14 tests (95% CI, 0.09-0.19), 0.05 new initiations (95% CI, 0.03-0.08), and 0.02 initiations without a recent test (95% CI, 0.01-0.03) per 10 000 men for each monthly ad exposure over the entire period. Among US men residing in the 75 designated market areas, regional exposure to televised direct-to-consumer advertising was associated with greater testosterone testing, new initiation, and initiation without recent testing.

Social capital, social media, and TV ratings

Motivated by the increasing role of social media in relating to economic outcomes, this paper examines the relationship between social networking sites SNS and television ratings drawing from the social capital theoretical framework of bonding and bridging. Based on the context of US network television TV programs, we collected measures for Facebook likes and Facebook talk for 38 TV programs and their respective Nielsen ratings over a period of five weeks, resulting in a sample size of 165 weekly observations. In testing OLS regression models, we determined that key social media measures, proxy for social capital, are positively associated with performance ratings. In essence, TV programs with a higher number of Facebook likes bridging and Facebook talk bonding are likely to relate to higher performance ratings. In addition we conclude that weak ties bridging are important as a conduit to connect fans to TV shows but in the long run, strong ties bonding are needed to reinforce those relationships towards fan loyalty. Contributions to both research and practice are discussed.

Social capital, social media, and TV ratings

Motivated by the increasing role of social media in relating to economic outcomes, this paper examines the relationship between social networking sites (SNS) and television ratings drawing from the social capital theoretical framework of bonding and bridging. Based on the context of US network television (TV) programs, we collected measures for Facebook likes and Facebook talk for 38 TV programs and their respective Nielsen ratings over a period of five weeks, resulting in a sample size of 165 weekly observations. In testing OLS regression models, we determined that key social media measures, proxy for social capital, are positively associated with performance ratings. In essence, TV programs with a higher number of Facebook likes (bridging) and Facebook talk (bonding) are likely to relate to higher performance ratings. In addition we conclude that weak ties (bridging) are important as a conduit to connect fans to TV shows but in the long run, strong ties (bonding) are needed to reinforce those relationships towards fan loyalty. Contributions to both research and practice are discussed.

Father Knows BestMary R.Desjardins. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2015.

Father Knows Best Mary R. Desjardins. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2015.Father Knows Best is something of a cultural litmus test. Defenders praise it as a realistic, warm-hearted depiction of five people who tried hard to be a moral and caring family. Detractors (including almost all scholarly treatments) lamb as t it as self-satisfied, heavyhanded melodrama that fostered paternal-directed conformity.Interestingly, the show almost was cancelled after the first season on CBS, which broadcast it, when most kids were in bed, at 10:00 p.m. on Sundays. NBC picked it up and moved it to Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., so that kids could watch. It ended its six award-winning seasons (1954-1960) as number six in the Nielsen ratings. Jim Anderson (Robert Young) is an insurance agent happily married to Margaret Anderson (Jane Wyatt). Their main job is parenting three children: Betty (Elinor Donahue), Bud (Billy Gray), and Kathy (Lauren Chapin). In the first season, their ages are seventeen, fourteen, and nine.Desjardins makes a convincing case that, despite its title, the show is not all that authoritarian or sexist. Father may know best by the end of most episodes but only because he is willing to listen to other family members and learn from them, sometimes swallowing his own obstructive pride in the process.Father Knows Best began life as a radio series (1949-1954) with identically named characters but broader treatment, more jokes, and slapstick sound effects. Radio's Jim and Margaret were dictatorial; Betty was naive and boy crazy; Bud was a smart aleck; and Kathy was a whiny brat. Robert Young approached his coproducer Eugene Rodney with a kinder and gentler television reincarnation. Young, the only actor from the radio cast to make the transition to the television version, wanted to portray a reasonable father, unlike television's standard boob father on shows like Life of Riley. Another contrast would be technical quality. Filmed by Screen Gems, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, the series had a featurefilm look.Desjardins is best when she analyzes specific episodes. Take, for example, her comments about gender roles as they are experienced by the parents. In The Grass Is Greener (Season 2), Jim feels inadequate around a college friend who is now a prominent tycoon. Turns out, the friend, estranged from his wife and children, has always envied Jim's involvement as a father. In An Extraordinary Woman (Season 5), Margaret has a similar exchange with an unmarried college rival, now a famous author. In each twenty-six minute teleplay, Jim and Margaret feel anxious and frustrated: they envy apparently more successful cohorts who chose public status over parenthood. …

The Weekend Effect in Television Viewership and Prime-Time Scheduling

The observed drops in the ratings of television programs on Fridays and Saturdays are likely a result of two factors: intrinsic contraction in demand for television watching and endogenous scheduling. I decompose the observed weekend effect into the effects from these two factors. To this end, I estimate a viewer choice model that uses aggregate Nielsen ratings data for prime-time network television shows over 11 years. The long span of the data enables me to control for television series qualities. The estimation results reveal that the estimated weekend effect is dampened as the empirical model accounts for variation in the program quality compositions. The counterfactual analysis that is based on the estimates of the preferred specification indicates that endogenous scheduling accounts for two-thirds of the rating drops on weekends.

Prime-Time Weight Discrimination: A Body Weight Analysis of Prime-Time Television Characters From 1950-2015

To compare the BMIs of TV characters and the general American public over the past 65 years. Compared to thin characters, obese characters are underrepresented and routinely cast in stereotypical roles. This type of media weight discrimination is argued to contribute to the social acceptability of weight stigmatization in real life. Given this suggestion, tracking this underrepresentation longitudinally could help elucidate how media weight discrimination contributes to real life weight stigmatization. The BMIs of lead actors appearing in top-ten primetime television shows from 1950 to 2015 (defined by Nielsen ratings) were coded using the Stunkard Figure Rating Scale. The average BMI of Americans over the same time period was obtained through the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Linear trend analyses were used to track and compare the BMI changes in both TV characters and the American public over time. Whereas the average BMI of the American public has linearly increased every decade, the BMI of TV characters has linearly decreased over the same time period (p = .001). The average BMI of female TV characters decreased by 16.95% (p < .001) and the average BMI of male characters decreased by 8.91% (p < .01). Conversely, the average BMI of the american female increased by 25.8% and the average BMI of the american male increased by 18.7%. The decreasing BMI of TV characters, combined with the increasing BMI of the American public, underscores the increasingly unrealistic ideals portrayed in the media and may contribute to weight stigmatization.

Re-imagining Television Audience Research: Tracing Viewing Patterns on Twitter

Re-imagining Television Audience Research: Tracing Viewing Patterns on Twitter

Reconfiguring the “Hits”: The New Portrait of Television Program Success in an Era of Big Data

ABSTRACTThis article explores the impact of evolving conceptions of the audience by analyzing television’s “hits” as portrayed by two market information regimes: traditional Nielsen ratings and social television analytics, a supplementary big data approach to audience measurement. In doing so, this work provides insight into the types of content that perform well under a social television analytics regime based on audience engagement relative to those that succeed under the traditional ratings regime based on audience exposure. As such, this article addresses the changes and challenges fostered by an era of big data and contributes both to the management scholarship on media industries, as well as to the audience behavior literature by expanding upon the relationship between television ratings, media management, and the implications for cultural production.

Television Meets Facebook: The Correlation between TV Ratings and Social Media

This study examines the relationship between social media site Facebook and TV ratings drawing from audience factors of integration model of audience behavior. Based on context of Taiwan television network programs, this study collected measures for Facebook likes, shares, comments, posts for three genres of television shows and their Nielsen ratings over a period of eleven weeks, resulting in the size of sample more than 130 observations. This study applied multiple regression models and determined that the key social media measures correlate with TV ratings. In essence, TV shows with higher number of posts and engagement are likely to relate to higher ratings, special in drama shows. Subsequently, this study constructed the TV prediction models with measures for Facebook via SVR. The results suggested that prediction models are a good forecasting of which MAPE was between 10% - 20%, even less than 10%. This implies that TV network should be motivated to invest in social media and engage their audience and analysts can use social media as a mechanism of exante forecasting.

Do Superbowl Ads Affect Brand Share?

We explore the effects of television advertising in the setting of the NFL’s Super Bowl telecast. The Super Bowl is the largest advertising event of the year and is well suited for measurement. The event has the potential to create significant increases in “brand capital” because ratings average over 40 percent of households and ads are a focal point of the broadcast. Furthermore, variation in exposures is exogenous because a brand cannot choose how many impressions it receives in each market. Viewership is determined based on local preferences for watching the two competing teams. With this significant and exogenous variation in Super Bowl advertising exposures we test whether advertisers’ sales are affected accordingly. We run our analysis using Nielsen ratings and store level sales data in the soda and beer categories. We find that Super Bowl ads can generate significant increases in revenue and volume per household. However, when two major soda brands both advertise, they receive no profit gain to offset their advertising investments. Exploring the mechanism behind the ad effects, we find that Super Bowl ads build an association between the brand and viewership of sports more broadly. The competitive effects suggest that two competing brands cannot however capture the same association. In beer, Budweiser has purchased exclusive advertising rights in the Super Bowl for more than 20 years and appears to be receiving long run returns from their ownership of a sports association.