Numbers
PEP has the television ratings from the weekend, and the numbers say that the Eraserheads Live: The Final Set broadcast was a big winner.But first, a note about the ratings. PEP actually mis-reports the ratings (and have been doing so for two years now) by representing the ratings as percentages, but they are not; they are rating points. The difference is that rating points are absolute numbers; that is, a primetime program such as "Tayong Dalawa" that gets a rating of 20.0 has about the same amount viewers as a noontime show like "Eat Bulaga" that also gets a rating of 20.0. In the AGB Nielsen reports, there usually is another column for audience share, which is represented as a percentage. This indicates the percentage of the audience watching a particular program versus another program at the same timeslot.
A few years back, I read somewhere that for AGB Nielsen's Mega Manila report, 1 rating point is equivalent to 30,000 households. I can't find any documentation anywhere though, so take that number with a grain of salt.
Anyway, for last Sunday, the Heads concert got a rating of 21.1. For the day, the top programs were as follows:
1) Sharon - 21.9
2) Ful Haus - 21.5
3.5) The Final Set - 21.1
3.5) Rated K - 21.1
5) Mel and Joey - 20.6
But wait, these numbers don't tell us the whole story. Sharon and Ful Haus each run for only about thirty minutes, while the Heads concert ran for about two hours. The 21.1 rating, then, is an aggregate of the rating for the whole two hours. If you consider that there were probably a lot of viewers who dropped off during the latter part of the broadcast, it's a good bet that the first half hour or so of the concert was actually the most watched program on television last Sunday.
(The nationwide numbers for the Heads concert are much more modest. This might be a factor of the inherent nationwide weakness of GMA Network; ABS-CBN has traditionally dominated the ratings nationwide due to the station's reach and popularity in Visayas and Mindanao.)
But back to the concert's Mega Manila ratings. How well did it really do? Consider the ratings for Eat Bulaga and Wowowee for the past few days:
Thursday, April 2: Eat Bulaga - 20.5; Wowowee - 19.6
Friday, April 3: Eat Bulaga - 19.4; Wowowee - 18.5
Saturday, April 4: Eat Bulaga - 23; Wowowee - 18.1
So while the Heads concert did well, it only did about as well as a good episode of Eat Bulaga.
But then again, the noontime slot has a built-in audience already, so of course many viewers will be tuning in. But how many viewers usually tune in during Sunday nights?
Sunday, March 8: SNBO "Missing You (Martin and Pops Reunion Concert)": 12.5
Sunday, March 15: SNBO (no program indicated): 14.0
Sunday, March 22: SNBO "Walang Pera": 13.9
Sunday, March 29: SNBO "The Matrix Revolutions": 13.4
The ratings have been pretty consistent, and the Heads represented a 50% increase in viewership in the time slot.
Labels: eraserheads, television
4/09/2009 8:30 AM -- 
howie says:
When do you think the network will start tracking content on the web according to its popularity? Should that matter?
4/10/2009 8:57 PM -- jaemark says:
Well, people at the network are already doing it on their own. I'm sure you have some insight about the popularity of your documentaries depending on the amount of feedback on the Internet. I know that writers of certain shows, such as Bubble Gang and StarStruck, look heavily on the feedback of people on the Internet as to what works and what doesn't. I mean, Youtube superstars Moymoy Palaboy are already GMA artists.
But it would certainly help the network if there were a more centralized approach to looking at the zeitgeist. It's odd though, it seems like News and Public Affairs is behind the loop when it comes to getting feedback off the net.
