This month marks 10 years since the landmark ratings publication agreement was signed with OzTAM to allow overnight ratings to be supplied to Media Spy.
While there are some restrictions on publication, the agreement has provided our forum with timely, reliable and consistent access to ratings for every day that was previously not always the case.
Until recently this was a manual process with OzTAM staff generating reports every weekday and sending out a bulk email to subscribers. This saw three days of ratings delivered on Monday while across extended breaks we had to wait longer – over a week after Christmas. In May 2021, the process was automated to allow delivery on every day of the week which was a big advance for us.
Over the 10 years I’ve seen the information provided evolve and expand from the information available in 2012. I’ll post an example of the one of my first ratings posts below from Easter 2012.
Early on, while Media Spy was able to publish top 5 demo results, OzTAM didn’t provide these and I relied on networks for demo breakdowns. Similarly, while networks were making noises about consolidated viewing, OzTam didn’t provide any official reports but usually Seven obliged with a top 10 list. Sometimes 10 (aka TEN) sent a top 50 list!
However, by the start of 2013 we had 7-day consolidated reports being delivered. It wasn’t until March 2016 that 28-day consolidated numbers entered the picture – the top timeshited show that day was The Blacklist that had a 28 day increase of 253,000 or 72%. Online or VPM reporting also commenced in 2016.
I feel the agreement has served us well over the last decade, with of course the notable exception of the cyber attack on Nielsen in July 2020 that disrupted all ratings delivery for several weeks including notably the grand final of Big Brother that year.
Looking forward to seeing if overnight ratings are still a thing for another 10 years.
Speaking of serving us well over the last decade - there’s been very, very few days over the past decade where @TV.Cynic has not been available to post the ratings. It’s a remarkable run and the board - especially the ratings fans - owe you one.
Hear Hear - @TV.Cynic is one of the unsung heroes of the forums who not only goes above and beyond to ensure that the ratings are posted as soon as they are available, but also ensures I dont get into trouble with content outside the agreement
Thanks. I can recall not posting on three days definitely (2 in hospital), might have been one or two more.
One recent hiccup occurred when a forum upgrade played havoc with the coding that translates the pdfs received into what is posted. The change wasn’t realised until the time of posting and required some frantic work arounds to get the numbers up on that day.
Five City Metro, 6pm-12am, Total People