Devices To Blame For TV Ratings Tumble

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I think Nielsen just realized that we not only have the ability to watch TV on other devices, more and more people are doing just that.

Friday, Nielsen Global President Steve Hasker said he believed a drop in prime-time broadcast television ratings this fall is the result of people watching content on devices other than televisions.
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I'm sure it has nothing to do with the complete lack of any quality shows.

100+ channels and still nothing worth watching.......
 
He was also quoted saying
"I cant understand it, I was under the impression when not watching TV people were listening to their 8 track players"
 
......wow......

I disconnected my Cable TV service like 4 years ago...... Catch up Nielsen....
 
Ratings are down because most of it is garbage. Plus sitting in front of the TV with family is so last century. Who wants to pay for an expensive cable TV package with a DVR when Netflix and other video streaming services offer better value?
 
I actually have cable because of football.

That said, because I live on the west coast and there are commercials, I'll typically download and watch shows i want to see rather than having to wait 3 hours longer, and then having to endure the plague of commercials.
 
Somebody give them the Captain Obvious Award please.

Seriously, my house has not had cable in over 4 years. We watch Netflix, Hulu+, Amazon Prime, YouTube, etc. My kids barely know what a commercial is (except on Hulu, which they don't like).

TV Antenna (sorry, Aereo...I miss you) and SB fills in the gaps from these services.
 
chockomonkey said:
But how's the quality? I've been to people's houses when they're streaming the game and it's nothing like HD... sometimes you can barely even see the ball.
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I use SilconDust and have an HD signal that blows away Dish or Cable from what I've seen.

I cut the code 4 years ago and haven't looked back.
 
ol1bit said:
I use SilconDust and have an HD signal that blows away Dish or Cable from what I've seen.

I cut the code 4 years ago and haven't looked back.
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Cord you mean. Also HDHomerun prime still doesnt get you ESPN, NFL Network, Tennis Channel and etc. without a cable/satellite sub of some type, unless they now have some way to pirate signals. Since when did OTA get better HD then Satellite or cable?

Firstrow.eu is someone using slingbox of some sort to stream their cable/sat boxes online. The quality most of the time is horrible.

I dont watch a lot of the channels I have but the sports stuff is definitely worth my $60 a month to me, might not be the same to you guys but I do watch some channels outside sports and I have 3 slingboxes so I can watch TV anywhere I want. Netflix honestly doesnt cut it for me neither does hulu.
 
///AMG said:
Since when did OTA get better HD then Satellite or cable?
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Pretty much since OTA went digital in the US in 2009. You'll regularly get 14-19Mbit VBR on OTA HD channels for the major networks. Most cable and satellite providers in the US typically give you 6-14Mbit in MPEG-2 or 4-7Mbit in MPEG-4 part 10 (pretty much equal in quality). The only exception I know of is FiOS which can go up to 18-19Mbit on certain channels.

I have FiOS, and honestly it all looks like crap to me after being spoiled with high quality blu rays (streaming services, OTA and cable alike).
 
As much as I love Sons of Anarchy, FX got to be a bunch of greedy pricks and last season started giving SOA a 90 minute time slot while keeping the run time 40 minutes. It KILLED the show for me.
Hell, Arrow is really bad about commercials too. Flash probably will be once we get 3-4 episodes in.
I either use the dvr and skipped the commercials or just go "somewhere else" and get a commercial free copy, load it on my phone and watch it at my convenience.
Honestly, I wouldn't mind commercials if they were just reasonable, but breaking up shows where its 2-3 minutes or the show then an equal or longer amount of commercials is just inconceivable!
 
What even MORE sad, is that the ratings companies and advertizes have an even better tool, the people WATCHING can rate the commercials! I do this on Hulu all of the time, and it learns my preferences in commercials (at least some of the time).

For instance, i never see ads for feminine products, as i always "not relevant" them. But i do see a lot of car and electronics ads, since i relevant them. I actually don't mind commercials, provided they are trying to sell me something i might actually want. Commercials aren't a bad way to find out about new products, it just sucks having to watch commercials that advertize stuff that i'm never going to buy.

That, and with a larger user base to mine for information, they can get a batter feel for what the media consumers want to watch. Nielsen has always been a statistical service, with all of the shortcomings that method has. With streaming, you can actually count the number of people watching any particular show, rather than how many out of a sample do. Which is intrinsically more accurate.
 
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