A world of ABC armchair hurt was right at my rating fingertips and waiting for me in my remote...
They picked the wrong time in the ratings and new show launch calendar to mess with us!
I used to work for Fox back when they launched the Simpsons into the Cosby time slot. Afterwards, I worked for 3 large ad firms - two of them national top ten, as a broadcast media buyer.
This is a crucial ratings time for the networks as they are gauging their influence, market share and advertising rate buys in the run up to the new season programs. Those buys and rates are set in advance. The new rating scheme is measured regularly with Tivo, DVR and Comcast minute by minute data. It's a whole new playing field compared with the slow old Nielsen models.
Downrate all ABC programs (even if blocked) with your box. Let your fingers do the minute by minute gauged ratings slam. My box allows up to three "thumbs down." What's your setup?
Thumbs Down lets you give shows you don't like a negative rating. You can give a show up to three thumbs down. These ratings are used by the DVR to choose programs to record for TiVo Suggestions.
How have ratings morphed with DVR today?
Check your new armchair impact:
"For 20-something years, the metric has been live and VCR viewing, but the DVR allows for the measurement of playback that the VCR never did," said Michael Shaw, president for sales at the ABC Television Network in New York, part of the Walt Disney Company.
Mr. Shaw cited a statistic from Nielsen about the Jan. 15 episode of "Grey's Anatomy." The episode drew a rating of 8.5 among 18-to-49-year-old viewers who watched it live, he said, which means that 8.5 percent of television households in that group saw the episode as it was broadcast. When the data was expanded to include live plus seven days, Mr. Shaw said, the rating rose to 8.7.
Mostly notable programs:
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Sports: they have paid for licenses to cover (big$$$)
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Primetime Moneymakers: Grey's Anatomy, Boston Legal, Desperate Housewives etc.
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New launches: Six Degrees, and Dancing with the Stars etc.
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Daytime Standards: All My Children, Oprah
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Big News: George Stephanopolous, 20/20, Primetime etc.
Many of these programs are included into package buys for advertisers nationally and locally based on their ratings percentage and demographics. Hold the gravy train hostage.
Also, the show producers and stars may balk when their downrates increase which puts more pressure than you and I can ever achieve. Plus, these people are our allies and wouldn't necessarily disagree with us on premise especially if it costs them advertisers from lack of viewership.
Be sure to wipe your "Suggestions" of ABC programs too. We can hold their crucial season run up ratings hostage until they pull the Path to 9/11.
By going into my guide and selecting every program in the queue to downrate, and by wiping my lists of ABC recordings that include the "suggestions" queue they paid a premium for, I have effectively done all I can on the ratings side of ABC in my home as a protest.
I hope you can take the 5 or 10 minutes to join me. Remember it is possible to watch the programs, or release the downrates once 9/11 is pulled. The idea is to hold them hostage for now. Definately don't let them know you are intending to watch. Vote with your remote!!
Update: Need Channel Blocking Instructions?
Go here: Control Your TV
Before you ask: Yes, I do find it more than hilarious as well as a peculiar brand of justice that the same parental ratings used to censor content in our country is now a tool to use against right wing media propaganda...
Thanks for reading, and here's an ABC program list for starters (don't forget your local broadcasts):
Update: What Broadcast Media ABC/Disney Own Here
PRIMETIME
- Fall Show Preview nice try
- According to Jim according to us
- American Inventor American Ingenuity
- America's Funniest Home Videos just got serious
- The Bachelor will never get laid
- Big Day big month
- Boston Legal will go to jail
- Brothers & Sisters and moms and dads and uncles all have remotes
- Dancing With the Stars all alone
- Daybreak darkness falls
- Desperate Housewives crazy bitches without ratings
- Extreme Makeover: Home Edition looks better now
- George Lopez who the hell?
- Grey's Anatomy the guts of democracy
- Help Me Help You I'm fine without you
- How to Get the Guy to cry
- In Case of Emergency watch it at a bar
- The Knights of Prosperity chortle
- Kyle XY genetically obliterated
- Lost without a rating
- Men in Trees without ladders
- The Nine Notes from the Underbelly make underbelly "flatulence"
- Six Degrees of separation anxiety
- Supernanny who's watching the kids now?
- Traveler to another station
- Ugly Betty she's lacking a date for the dance
- What About Brian what about him?
- Wife Swap gross
LATE NIGHT
- Jimmy Kimmel Live! Dead!
DAYTIME
- All My Children are safe from ABC
- General Hospital doesn't have insurance either
- One Life To Live stuck in a coma
- The View from my faling ratings
SPECIALS
- The 40th Annual Country Music Awards chortle, exhort
- ABC Sneak Peek at lost revenue
- The 78th Academy Awards Oscar is bald
- The 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards poor Erica!
- The Path to 9/11 my head explodes
GAMES
- Daytime Personality Quiz sad, very sad and on SSRIs
- Desperate Housewives Quiz question: where did the people go?
- Lost Games Index self-explanatory
SPORTS
- Saturday Night Football is a touchdown a touchdown if no one sees it?
- NBA Finals finis
- Wide World of Sports just got a small island off the coast of Brazil...
Any comments tips and suggestions to your broadcast box service details are appreciated. I'll post those experience updates here. If you feel compelled hit "down" Disney channels too...
Update: Any Comcast remote experiences in the house? We have comcast viewers looking for your remote rating experiences and tips. Comcast On Demand link here.
Update: Lacking fancy pants equipment? Go to Arbitron contacts online.
Update: For those of you who doubt the DVR ratings power outside of Nielsen - take heart that you have the juice; since, Tivo is in competition with Nielsen since July 2006. Just in time for new Fall lineups!
This new offering may see TiVo heading towards a marketplace showdown with ratings giant Nielsen Media Research, whose own ad-tracking initiative is scheduled to launch this fall -- although it will not actually collect data on individual commercials. Once again, we've really got to hand it to TiVo -- the company that once looked poised for bankruptcy in the face of increasing DVR commodification has once again managed to stay in the game by leveraging the power of its considerable subscriber base to further diversify its revenue stream. Full story
Update: ABC/Disney on Dish Network (thanks Eagle Vision!)
I spent a couple hours doing this--I erased the two regular shows from my "Timers" that I had been watching on Disney/ABC-owned channels. I then researched the acronyms & channel #'s for all Disney/ABC-owned channels and went into "Channel Locks" and locked them, along with my ABC affiliate channels (2 stations with 2 channel #'s each, I found out). For me, that was a total of 25 channels (and I don't have some, such as the various international channels).
Here's my list of Channel abbreviations & numbers
Read how Eagle Vision did it here
Update: A how to for TIVO System One Owners Thanks Twiny!
This is incredibly simple!
1 Go into the Pick Programs To Record screen
2 Select Record By Time Or Channel
3 Browse By Channel
4 Select your ABC / Disney channel of choice
5 Select the FIRST show on the list
6 Give it the thumbs down
7 Use the channel select to scroll down the list and give the thumbs down on EVERY SHOW.
This will torpedo the network ratings as well as the local station's ratings. By the time you get through the first week, you will have hit virtually EVERY SHOW on their schedule except specials. You have two weeks off until you have to do it again!
I did this on the Disney channel and I stopped hitting new shows after the first week. I torpedoed the whole lineup in less than 5 minutes.
Now go fourth and screw them, my children.
Share your experience to help others too!