TV Ratings: Digital Video Recorders Are Changing the Playing Field

A new television season has just begun. And, if you are like many TV viewers with Internet access, you've probably been keeping an eye on the ratings for your favorite shows.

If you're like me, there was probably a time when all you knew about the ratings was what was printed in your local paper once a week. But, now, you can go online and find out how your favorite show did in the ratings the very next day.

This season, fans have been closely watching the ratings for new and returning shows, cheering or groaning over each one's ratings performance, judging some to be winners and others losers, and speculating on when shows that performed poorly would be cancelled.

Only, while these initial ratings give us an idea of how popular certain TV shows might be, they aren't giving us the whole picture. A new player on the field is changing the way the networks look at the ratings.

DVRs.

DVRs (or digital video recorders) allow viewers to watch one program while taping another. Many find them much easier to use than VCRs. So use them they do.

An estimated 20% of all American households have a DVR. And, this season, shows recorded by DVR and viewed later (within seven days of the original broadcast) will now be counted in the ratings.

So, if you've been watching the ratings the past few weeks, you should know that, until the DVR calculations are released on October 16th, those ratings are incomplete.

Will DVR ratings really make a big difference? It could. According to an article at Variety.com, the ratings of some shows, like Lost, have sometimes shown significant increases when DVR ratings are factored in.

It's hard to tell which shows are likely to see the biggest gains when DVR numbers are added to the initial ratings. But it's likely to be shows in the most competative timeslots that share similar audiences. Instead of having to choose between shows, viewers with DVRs will be able to simply watch one live, and tape one to watch later.

For television executives, DVR numbers being added to the ratings means waiting weeks, instead of hours, to know how their shows did in the ratings, and make decisions (about cancellations and such) accordingly. But if you were one of the fans groaning over how your favorite show did in the ratings the past few weeks, take heart. Come October 16th, it might turn out that the shows you love actually did better in the ratings than you thought.