User:Rswallis10/TV Definitions

The following is a list of simple definitions of some terms relating to TV Nielsen ratings that you might find here on Wikipedia. I'm going to use The Blacklist, Dallas and Happyish for my examples. These are entirely my own words, and my own examples.

18-49 Rating. The 18-49 rating is the percentage of all people aged 18-49 (who own televisions) who watched a specific program on TV during a specific timeframe. There are approximately 126.98 million people aged 18-49 with televisions in the United States, and 1 ratings point is equal to 1.2698 million people. 18-49 ratings are available for almost every show on Television; however, for shows that air on Broadcast networks, the numbers are represented with only 1 digit after the decimal point, but shows that air on Cable networks are generally represented with 2 digits after the decimal point.

Example: About 4.8252 million people aged 18-49 watched the pilot of The Blacklist, therefore, that episode received a 3.8 18-49 rating, because 4.8252m is exactly 3.8% of 126.98m. About 101,584 people aged 18-49 watched the series finale of Happyish, giving the show an 18-49 rating of 0.08, because 101,584 is exactly 0.08% of all Adults 18-49.

18-49 Share. The 18-49 share is the percentage of all people ages 18-49 USING TELEVISION who are tuned to a specific program. Shares will always be bigger than Ratings because, the population of 18-49ers watching TV at a specific time will ALWAYS be smaller than the actual number of PEOPLE who are that age. There will almost never be a time, when every SINGLE person aged 18-49 is watching TV. Shares are always represented as whole numbers, and only available for shows on Broadcast networks. It is important to remember that the number of people ages 18-49 who are watching TV is constantly changing.

Example: About 48.252 million people aged 18-49 were watching TV during the pilot of The Blacklist, and approximately 4.8252 million of them were actually tuned in to the episode, therefore, the episode earned a 10% share because 4.8252m is exactly 10% of 48.252m.

-This episode of The Blacklist would earn a 3.8/10 18-49 rating/share.

Viewers. This is the word that you will see on episode tables here on Wikipedia. "Viewers" is defined as the total number of all people over the age of 2 who are watching a specific program. Websites could display this as "Persons 2+", "P2+", or even "Viewers 2+". On Wikipedia, total viewers are displayed in decimal form in order to save horizontal space in the episode table. The heading of the table will read "Viewers (millions)." For shows that average over 1 million viewers per episode, only 2 digits after the decimal will be used to express viewership (The Blacklist for example), but for shows that average less than 1 million viewers per episode, 3 digits are usually displayed after the decimal point (Happyish for example). There are approximately 296.08 million people with Televisions in the US.

Example: The pilot episode of The Blacklist was viewed by 12,583,000 people [1] Archived 2013-10-15 at the Wayback Machine, but on Wikipedia, that number is displayed as just 12.58. The finale of Happyish was viewed by 261,000 people [2] Archived 2019-03-28 at the Wayback Machine, but on Wikipedia, that number is displayed as just 0.261.

Households. This is not a term usually seen on Wikipedia, as this information isn't widely available anymore. Numbers from Households can include Household Ratings, or the Total Number of Households who viewed a specific show. A Household Rating works the same exact way as an 18-49 Rating does; however, there are 116.40 million Households with televisions in the US, which is less than the number of people aged 18-49. In the 1980's, viewership for specific TV shows was expressed in the number of total households who watched, but the focus switched to total viewers around 1990.

Example: The November 21, 1980 episode of Dallas, ("Who Done It") was viewed by 41.467 million households. Accurate total viewership information for that episode has never been available.

Live +7 Ratings. Live +7 (also expressed as L+7) is just a technical term for DVR viewing. Live +7 Ratings began being widely reported starting in the 2007-08 Television Season, and began making their way to Wikipedia starting in the 2013-14 Television Season. Some shows, such as Modern Family have had L+7 tables since the first season (2009-10), but others, such as Bones didn't make a table until the tenth season (2014-15). The "L+7 Viewership Increase" is simply just the number of viewers who watched an episode of TV on their DVR within 7 days of its original broadcast. The "L+7 18-49 Rating Increase" is just the percentage of all people aged 18-49 who watched a specific program on their DVR within 7 days of its original broadcast. It is important to remember that Live +7 Shares do not exist. On an L+7 table on Wikipedia, there will also be a columns entitled "Total 18-49 Rating" and "Total Viewers"; these are just the sum of the Live numbers and the DVR numbers.

Example: 5.696 million people aged 2+ viewed the pilot of The Blacklist on their DVR, and approximately 2.1586 million of them were between the ages of 18-49 (1.7%). Therefore, the episode received a 1.7 Live +7 18-49 Rating, and 5.696 million Live +7 viewers.

-12.583 milion Live viewers + 5.696 million DVR viewers = 18.279 million total viewers. 3.8 Live 18-49 Rating + 1.7 18-49 DVR Rating = 5.5 total 18-49 Rating.

Other Information. The Nielsen Company (where all these numbers come from), provide information on the viewing habits of people in many different demographics, including age (most common). gender (2nd), and race (not common). The most common age demographic reported is the 18-49 demographic, because advertisers generally want to target their products to people in that age range. The 18-49 demographic is also the only age demographic that reports a "Share" percentage. The two other main age demographics reported are: Adults 18-34, and Adults 25-54. For reference, there are approximately 67.96 million Adults 18-34, and 119.55 million Adults 25-54 in the US.