| Show fomonrumPommomil atings1 down networks eye Nielsen for blame by John Lippman Los Angeles Times — The television ratings system which has been the impartial umpire governing the $95 billion spent on network ad- vertising each year is facing its worst crisis in its history For the past six months national TV ratings as reported by AC Nielsen Co once as predictable as the hype preceding the new shows every fall now uneasily resemble the gyrations of the stock market To the consternation of the net- works millions of viewers have suddenly vanished without a trace from the Nielsen radar screen And networks blame the ratings company "I'm worried the present ratings system has begun to unrav- el" says Alan Wurtzel senior vice president at ABC But Nielsen and the advertising deny that there are any in the system and say that the networks are ignoring basic facts Television viewing is in a slump they point out because of the inevitable fragmentation from new channels Also some believe the audience is fed up with the same shows that the networks broad- cast every season "One factor is boring program- ming" contends Richard Kostyra executive vice president at the J HOLLYWOOD 35-ye- Walter Thompson advertising ' ' t agency in New York matter the cause of the prob- lem what has happened this year is d to snake even the most network executive digest antacid along with their morning ratings reports From January to March one of the peak ratings periods of the year television viewing of soap op- eras game shows and evening news programs among young men and women fell 10 percent to 14 per- cent from year-ag- o levels Although viewing perked up in and May the networks' news- casts and late-nigtalk shows still continued to suffer declines of 13 and 6 percent respective- ly among young adults Viewers aged 18 to 49 are a prized "target audience" for whom advertisers are willing to pay more to reach and thus any slippage in their num- hers will cause a disproportionate loss in revenue for the networks If the present decline continues the networks' through year-en- d advertising revenues could fall short of projections by more than $400 million So far they put the tab at $150 million to $200 million Moreover the confusion is occurring as the networks have begun booking more than $4 billion worth of advertising time for the coming season So disturbed are the networks over the impact of fluctuat- ing ratings that they unilaterally changed their ad rate policies in an effort to reduce the revenue short- fall With hundreds of millions at stake it is not surprising that the networks are concerned about the reliability of the data provided by Nielsen the only company in the United States that provides nation- al ratings for TV programs Nielsen says that it has inspected everything from the hardware to computer programs involved in col- lecting audience data and can find nothing in the system that would explain the sudden and sharp drop in ratings And the advertising agencies who lasobuyratiEgsdata Lne from Nielsen concur But the heat is on Nielsen A three-yea- r contract with CBS and NBC expires in September — ABC never signed it but still continues to pay Nielsen — and the networks are using the opportunity of the flap to win concessions in their renewal negotiations with the ratings company At the center of the debate between the networks Nielsen and the advertising community over the accuracy of the ratings is Nielsen's "people meter" This measurement device introduced in 1987 to speed up the delivery of ratings information replaced diaries that were filled out by hand The people meter automatically records the channel watched but a viewev must press a button on a mote control device to tell the me-buter which members of the family are viewing at a given time The system of rating TV programs may befuddle anybody who is not a statistician steeped in the highly technical science of audience measurement Only 4000 meters are used to measure the programs watched in 921 million homes Nielsen actually operates two systems to measure programs National ratings collected from the 4000 meters are called the Nation-likel- y al Television Index and measure programs seen on networks cable channels and in syndication The other service is a local measurement system called National Station Index which measures local viewing of TV stations The problem from the networks' point of view is that the ratings of the two systems — which have always been used to validate each other — now show widening discrepancies Daytime ratings for example were off 10 percent among women 18 to 49 in the first quarter in the national system but only 6 percent in the local system Network executives believe the reason for the decline in viewing levels rests with "fatigue" in the homes outfitted with Nielsen's people meter Although the term conjures up physical exhaustion fatigue in the case of people meters is nothing more than forgetting to push the button on the remote control device "Younger viewers are not hitting the buttons" says ABC's Wurtzel "Older viewers tend to be more consistent" Once a button goes unpushed there is no record a show has ever been watched executive vice John Dimling president of Nielsen acknowledges that there is a fatigue problem "but not enough to make a differ - He believes that the discrepin the ratings generated by the ancy national and local systems is simply because the data is collected from two different groups of homes ence" called "panels" Some researchers believe however that the sharp fluctuations now seen in the ratings may be due to a measurement system that has not kept pace with the way Americans today watch TV "The ratings system today is predicated on the 1950s" says ABC's Wurtzel Back then TV watching typically occured around a family set in the living room There were only a handful of channels to watch and in the evening parents controlled the dial But over the past decade thanks largely to cable there has been an explosion in the number of channels and in homes with more than one TV set And aided by remote control switchers people increasingly watch portions of programs rather than whole shows The result is there is no "normal" way to watch TV any longer "Now you get sets of all sizes and in all locations" says Robert J Niles vice president of research at NBC "Whether it's watching on vacation in college dorms bars or anywhere out of the home" Niles estimates that there e currently 1 million tiny TVs hr t i people carry with them outside house and are not counted in the ratings "As the viewing of TV changes the measurement system has to change with it" he says Ready to step into the breach is Pergamon AGB the London-baseratings company that measures TV audiences in Britain and Europe Also eyeing the controversy is Arbitron Ratings Co which hopes by December to have begun rolling out its own national people meter ratings service AGB is owned by British media mogul Robert Maxwell who bought the ratings company after it pulled out of the US market in August 1988 During its first attempt to crack the US market AGE lost $67 million AGE said it was the United States because of the "inherent weakness and apparent unreliability of Nielsen's TV audience measurement data that is causing so much financial damage to the networks" ABC and NBC said they did not extend an invitation to AGE to try again although CBS has met with AGB officials and may help start up the US operation ABC and NBC executives are to meet with AGB this week to hear its r mot UM- pay-cabl- n Pay-cabl- times more on another pay channel But summer is also the season for new releases and other goodies If you can afford them a couple of pay channels might be the solution to viewing problems Five common premium services are Home Box Office Cinemax Showtime the Disney Channel and the Playboy Channel To be kind Playboy is junk so don't waste your time or money on it Showtime is a decent movie channel but falls down in the original productions department HBO in my opinion is the best movie channel with the best original programming and specials Cinemax a subsidiary of HBO is unnecessary since most of the movies also play on HBO For your monthmovies ly fee you get tennis boxing comedy and music n pay-cabl- e n e specials and original movies you have children at home this summer the Disney Channel is a great addition Parents don't have to worry about kids stumbling onto people writhing about or foul language flying on Disney The are good wholesome fam- ily fun And the original series such as "Pooh's Corner" "The New Mickey Mouse Club" and "Dumbo's Circus" are all first-rat- e fare e The oldest and largest service HBO kicks into high gear on July 8 with the small-scree- n pre- miere of "Batman" last summer's box office bonanza that produced frantic video sales only a few months later The elaborate sets and action may not play as well on the tube but Jack Nich- olson's Joker would hold up on a pay-cabl- fast-pace- d Last Sherlock Holmes for Brett By Luaine Lee KRTN News Wire Jeremy Brett who is one of the most definitive in a long line of ac- tors to play Sherlock Holmes says it's a very difficult job indeed "He's an isolated person of his own choosing That's why he's quite difficult to play" the British Brett says Sherlock Holmes will return to PBS on July 12 in reruns of the se- ries "Sign of the Four" which aired season Six more of in the 1988-'89 the "Mystery!" Sherlocks are planned Three have already been shot and three more will be filmed istate fall for airing nW Mrle 314 ma tui xititaiA e017 But Brett vows absolutely this will be his last as the intrepid Holmes "I was asked (to do the show) in '82 and started in '83 It's now 1990 and I'm finding him easier to play which is NOT a good : 1:1ID (1110 CIPD thing" Brett says that when he began playing the role he was intimidated by all his predecessors "I took on a legend And all I could see was failure I remember when I did my camera test my director and producer at that time said 'Is there going to be anything of Jeremy in this performance?' I was so anxious to play Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes eouldn't see myself I thought I was Jmiscast A' for a long time" '7'1w — — tnititeriAttipielantl (LW — CM) — Talbot spc - t Milan hal - ( TWO —1 age- ' CERO — INC — ( In Stereo) TAD — atil) — Nona! Tou CND — track racin CUN) — torinialvs arc4 h Sony Watchman mar-I- f Also on HBO's feature-filquee for July are the James Bond thriller "Licence to Kill" "Week- end at Bernie's" "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and "Kara-nakete Kid III" New episodes of ongoing HBO ries include "Not Necessarily the two-inc- 4 MO — Havlicek " ' IR)) 1:1) — SPC cue d Watkins GI cJ— ' Megabucks ne News" "America Undercover" and "Tales From the Crypt" A new comedy series "Dream On" is scheduled to premiere July 8 following "Batman" and then aoir dukes ' ' Featured: 1 Bay fin Ste (Tin weekly on Sundays with repeats Fridays Tennis fans can revel in HBO's superb coverage of early-roun- at Montreal (2 d hrs 45 CU—CBS play from Wimbledon starting Jim Monday Every afternoon Lampley will anchor the best matches of the day from the most prestigious tennis tournament of all HBO also provides half-hou- r highlights on weeknights And before handing over Centre Court coverage to NBC for the dfwinoamlsHBO also has the men's semifinals the first week of July hurAshe Billie Jean King and are the familiar American corn- mentators and they usually do a fine job But the BBC announcers who call most of the early-rounmatches on HBO are superb They are silent during play never en- gage in silly chit-chduring breaks and always have interesting enlightening things to say when they do talk It's almost worth the HBO fee just to watch Wimbledon and "Batman" And the peace of mind the Disney Channel can give parents is — CRC pitch Finally Brett came to terms with d the honor of playing the detective "I thought there was one of two things I might be able to do that hadn't been done I mean Doylewise But it wasn't easy It was a long haul trying to climb that monument" Brett was so imbued with the character that he even agreed to play Holmes on the stage "It was 1987 and Holmes was 100 years old So I thought I'd do an evening a recital that's all So I commis- sioned the play and put on this eve- ning and invited audiences It was such a great success that the pro- ducer suggested we take it to the probably worth the additional West End So we went into Ldridobc moirthly feeCOrkgider it 96301181 I " ' fôrlsix weeks' mrdit It kw 17 4' 141 MA?' ki4u time-teste- Featured GT Prou d i half-doze- — ' CND - Summer is prime season for pay cable TV by Diane Holloway Cox News Service If you've been thinking about in e channel vesting in a summer is the time to do it As everyone surely knows by now the networks are steeped in reruns A few new sion movies and limited-ruseries will air but a lot of the new summer shows are nothing more than "bust-perceed pilots" that didn't snake it onto the fall schedule Basic cable channels which offer mostly reruns anyway continue to recycle the shows they recycled all year Even public television and which offer Fox Broadcasting fresh programming in the summer sprinkle a good deal of repeats in with the new stuff e channels have their share of reruns too Some movies play as many as six times a month on one service and then show up a (Ito heavyweigh Ruddock an in Atlantic nicipalgolf DIN)— S -with the bt : - 12J-s- poi I liaILdareal!71ireleti r45' cycl cotiFranct Talbot spoart LIND — G Irish Open d rid r11 t - atirD — Naples Italy — Ao the NHRA 13 lumbus CO) I WSW'S -n new: leagues — Bcst round from min) Sunday July I 1990 s |
