CNBC Dumps Nielsen for Business Day ratings

[cbs2newengland 71]

Various reports today from The Wall Street Journal and others that CNBC will be dumping Nielsen later this year and use Congent Reports to measure the high net wealth viewers. If you never heard of them (and follow business) well then its because its a big consulting firm for the ultra rich execs or businesses. Simply put, the fat cats who watch CNBC at the trading floors or in the offices can't install a people meter and Nielsen is too lazy to get the PPM to measure TV (even when Arbitron had done pilots in Dallas and Philly when developing the PPM.)

 

Says The Wall Street Journal:

 

For years CNBC and its parent company, Comcast Corp. ’s NBCUniversal, have complained that Nielsen underreports the size and wealth of its audience by failing to track “out of home” viewing in places such as offices and airports.

CNBC’s switch to Cogent is the latest barb for Nielsen, which has faced criticism from media companies that it has been slow to adapt its traditional ratings to changing media consumption habits. While many media companies say they are frustrated with Nielsen, CNBC is the first network to opt out of its ratings.

 

Among the "moving the goal lines" or rearranging the Titanic's chairs tactics, this also comes on the heels where CNBC registered the worst ratings since 1995 when the markets had a great year closing in record territory. CNBC spent their entire 25th anniversary looking forward to the next 25 years, completely missing their history plus FNN's legacy. At the rate of the mismanagement, CNBC will be lucky to be on for the next 25 months before the Star Trek ship in Englewood Cliffs sinks underground.

 

I recommend not read into into this. I don't think other networks will drop Nielsen only because they can't find the viewers to please their advertisers. CNBC has had massive problems with political bias, and over the top, in your face After Effects for way too long. Why should the TD's switcher have to run an effect every time they are going to a video source? Why should people get so anxious at a local bank or pizza joint because they got this high strung channel on? Viewers are smart enough to get tired of the 60 second package followed by debate clubs, and CNBC done away of in depth interviews of analysts or market watchers.

 

BTW: I use my apps on my phone and iPad because when I tune to CNBC the ticker gets replaced with a breaking news banner when the lower third area is empty.

[rkolsen 1679]

This makes complete sense because much of their target audience isn't home during the business day. If I'm not mistaken Comcast has the ability to track what certain cable boxes are tune into at any given moment the the numbers would be higher and once the Time Warner merger is complete they will be able to get that data from a good portion of the New York Metro area. If there is a way where they can factor in the total number of viewers in an office that has a public TVs tuned into CNBC it could be higher still (but in all fairness those areas are most likely tuned to Fox Business and Bloomberg as well.) I'm sure the cable/satellite companies have that data or something similar like the total number of employees working in an office.

 

Now they point out that this is for their daytime audience only. Their primetime programming goes after a completely different demographic but still have entertainment shows that focus on rich white men investing in businesses. With all the growth that CNBC Prime has had lately (and how they tout this fact seemingly every commercial break) I can see why they'd still retain Nielsen for the evenings. With such a difference in the targeted demographics between day parts I wonder if Nielsen was thinking about counting CNBC as two different networks like they do with a Cartoon Network/ Adult Swim.

 

Aside from this couldn't CNBC still essentially receive Nielsen ratings for the daytime? What would stop NBC from distributing a summary of the ratings book to the executives at all their networks?

 

Edit: One final question I thought of after I initially posted this: Does this mean Nielsen won't collect data on CNBC? Surely the other business networks would still want this data to know how they stack up towards CNBC.

[cbs2newengland 71]

 

This makes complete sense because much of their target audience isn't home during the business day. If I'm not mistaken Comcast has the ability to track what certain cable boxes are tune into at any given moment the the numbers would be higher and once the Time Warner merger is complete they will be able to get that data from a good portion of the New York Metro area. If there is a way where they can factor in the total number of viewers in an office that has a public TVs tuned into CNBC it could be higher still (but in all fairness those areas are most likely tuned to Fox Business and Bloomberg as well.) I'm sure the cable/satellite companies have that data or something similar like the total number of employees working in an office.

 

Now they point out that this is for their daytime audience only. Their primetime programming goes after a completely different demographic but still have entertainment shows that focus on rich white men investing in businesses. With all the growth that CNBC Prime has had lately (and how they tout this fact seemingly every commercial break) I can see why they'd still retain Nielsen for the evenings. With such a difference in the targeted demographics between day parts I wonder if Nielsen was thinking about counting CNBC as two different networks like they do with a Cartoon Network/ Adult Swim.

 

Aside from this couldn't CNBC still essentially receive Nielsen ratings for the daytime? What would stop NBC from distributing a summary of the ratings book to the executives at all their networks?

 

Edit: One final question I thought of after I initially posted this: Does this mean Nielsen won't collect data on CNBC? Surely the other business networks would still want this data to know how they stack up towards CNBC.

 

you read the title right? I did say "Business Day".

 

The thing that separates Comcast and Nielsen is Comcast box can't fully log the gender/age/social class like a PPM or a Nielsen box.

 

There are tons of public TVs tuned to CNBC, whether or not they watch it is another thing. I refuse to go to any local bank or restaurant that has CNBC on during the day and unmuted. CNBC is trash, and I want a peaceful transaction or meal without hearing After Effects being thrown in my face.

 

I think of this too: CNBC never had such success in primetime until 2 years ago. They are pouring so much into the entertainment, this eats away for the Business Day programming. They even dumped Kudlow last summer. I think CNBC really is turning viewers away as I previously described the high strung format and the high school debate clubs all day long can only sustain for so long.

 

P.S. This coming from a loyal viewer from 1999 to 2010. Of course in the days of all news dyrung the day in and back when they used the awesome 615 themes and vibrant graphics in between that overrated Randy Pyburn graphics, though the Arthouse 2007-10 package was so awesome. The move to EC from Fort Lee also got them out of the humble zone. Their ego was left at the door as a key for their new tenant, T47.

[rkolsen 1679]

you read the title right? I did say "Business Day".

 

The thing that separates Comcast and Nielsen is Comcast box can't fully log the gender/age/social class like a PPM or a Nielsen box.

 

There are tons of public TVs tuned to CNBC, whether or not they watch it is another thing. I refuse to go to any local bank or restaurant that has CNBC on during the day and unmuted. CNBC is trash, and I want a peaceful transaction or meal without hearing After Effects being thrown in my face.

 

I think of this too: CNBC never had such success in primetime until 2 years ago. They are pouring so much into the entertainment, this eats away for the Business Day programming. They even dumped Kudlow last summer. I think CNBC really is turning viewers away as I previously described the high strung format and the high school debate clubs all day long can only sustain for so long.

 

P.S. This coming from a loyal viewer from 1999 to 2010. Of course in the days of all news dyrung the day in and back when they used the awesome 615 themes and vibrant graphics in between that overrated Randy Pyburn graphics, though the Arthouse 2007-10 package was so awesome. The move to EC from Fort Lee also got them out of the humble zone. Their ego was left at the door as a key for their new tenant, T47.

Yes, I read the title. I reiterated the point that this only affects dayside programming to contrast the significant differences between the day parting.