The Code War will get more precise in 2010
Roar Guru
By Steve Kaless, 18 Dec 2009 Steve Kaless is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- AFL, Code wars, NRL, Rugby League, Rugby Union
You don’t need to monitor this site for long to realise that its readers take their TV ratings very seriously. You could say they are seen as the most popular ammunition in the code wars.
Rarely has the dust settled on any major game before people are touting its success or failure on its audience numbers, which is why developments over the next few weeks should make 2010 more interesting.
In just over a week, TV ratings will undergo a dramatic change as OzTam will begin the first ratings week of 2010 (which starts on December 27) with a new system that not only records what people watch, but also what they record and watch later.
The new time-shift viewing data is set to reflect the growing number of people who utilize personal digital video recorders such as Tivo and Foxtel IQ.
“It’s designed to better reflect the viewing behaviours of the market,” OzTam cief executive Kate Inglis-Clark told The Australian this week.
It will be interesting to see whether the two giants of TV ratings – rugby league and AFL – experience better figures or if rugby union and football are able to close the gap.
Union fans have often argued that their relatively poor figures are understated due to the fact that large swathes of their fans choose to record the matches and watch them at a more viewer-friendly time.
It looks like we’ll finally get some hard data with which to test that argument.
Sadly won’t we still won’t get are any sort of figures about how many people watch the games in pubs. Any argument about TV ratings always seem to fizzle out as one party claims to have been rammed into some giant pub, at which the crowd was glued to the screen.
Given the poor viewing figures for some matches, there must be some giant pubs I’ve never been to before.
Of course, this extra focus on Pay TV figures remains relevant as OzTam figures show that Australia continues to have a very low penetration of Pay TV when compared to other developed nations, with the vast majority of Australian households still without Pay TV.
It’s easy to see why Fox are so keen to wrap up as much sporting content as possible as this appears to be the best way to drive subscriptions.
Well, certainly if the quality of other content is anything to go by. New Zealand’s Next Top Model anyone?
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Michael C said | December 18th 2009 @ 5:02am | Report comment
Yeah, pubs and departure lounges at airports and……
can’t people just accept the indicative nature of a survey (statistical sample set).
If we want to be uber precise, then, let’s get every single household linked up.
Billo said | December 18th 2009 @ 5:32am | Report comment
Will the OzTam figures include all of Australia in future, or will it still be simply the five capitals?
If the latter, AFL will always have an apparently larger number of viewers than the NRL.
Michael C said | December 18th 2009 @ 8:45am | Report comment
OzTam is separate to the RegTam.
The RegTam is 4 major regional zones, QLD, Nth NSW, Sth NSW and Vic/Tas.
However, outside of the OzTam and RegTam is the ‘Diarised’ areas, where data comes a tad bit later, and includes NT, regional SA and regional WA and parts of regional Qld etc.
ScottWoodward.me said | December 18th 2009 @ 1:32pm | Report comment
I like to have a TimTam while watching.
jus de couchon said | December 18th 2009 @ 6:22am | Report comment
Watching the 6 Nations here is a big pub thing in Britain where even soccer heads can sometimes be interested. I guess T.V ratings dont account for this , or do they?
Mr cheese said | December 18th 2009 @ 9:52am | Report comment
jus, are you English ?
The viewing figures for the 6 N generally show that around 5 or 6 million viewers watch the bigger matches.
That is quite a lot, selon moi.
Ian Noble said | December 18th 2009 @ 10:54pm | Report comment
Bard, the UK viewing research bureau, take their figures from households, pubs, clubs etc are excluded. So for the 6Ns and other major rugby union games the numbers are low as quite alot of people, myself included prefer to watch in a pub as the atmosphere etc is better. No wonder ESPN are so keen to include the GP in their schedules as they have recently agreed to pay £30M (60M Aus $) over three years to show an additional 43 games of the GP per season. Sky still have the rights to 17 games per season in the GP plus the Heinekin and Amlin cups games, IRB 7′s, womens rugby, England’s home games and U20 internationals.
Kurt said | December 18th 2009 @ 6:27am | Report comment
Interesting article Steve, it will be fascinating to see whether this new measurement methodology has any significant impact. My gut feel is probably not a huge amount overall – soccer will probably go up a bit due to people recording EPL games overnight, but Australian football and league may also benefit as I’m sure plenty of people record one game whilst watching another when games are played simultaneously – e.g. – Saturday night for the AFL. Can’t see it changing the relative audience shares in any major way though.
Crashy said | December 18th 2009 @ 7:16am | Report comment
iIf or one record almost all rugby games and watch them the next morning. There were a lot of my mates who got up to watch the November Wallabies tour but most simply recorded the games to watch on the following Sunday mornings.
Now Mr Kaless you point a suspicous finger at rugby in your article ( for a change) but it is no secret that Foxtel viewership is massive in the traditional rugby supporter regions ( i.e uppper North shore). It will be interesting to see how the figures stack up.
One can make gross generalisations of a code based on a sample of viewer numbers – hec the Shute shield outrated the AFL this season on occasion and the odd Toyota Cup game outrated a Super14 game between 2 Kiwi sides in Aus.
Will be interesting
King of the Gorganites said | December 18th 2009 @ 7:30am | Report comment
interesting article. not sure if it will overly help any code. if its going to help any one it will be rugby. super 14 games in SA can get really low figures. who wants to watch the bulls v cheetahs at 3.00am? i know i dont want to, but what i do do is tape it and watch it in the morning. watch the super 14 figures and 6 nations figures go up (though not dramatically). same applies for EPL.
Dogs Of War said | December 18th 2009 @ 8:39am | Report comment
Could help AFL and NRL whose Friday night games get played after midnight most times (and the NRL’s Sunday matches as well). And as they are on free to air, a lot more people have the opportunity to tape them.
Might even provide some good data that will bring forward those telecasts with games starting at 9:30pm on a Friday night into opposing cities?
AndyRoo said | December 18th 2009 @ 9:31am | Report comment
I don’t see any code being a big winner over the others but perhaps all will see slight increases. My first reaction was Soccer and Rugby would win because they have so many games in horrible time zones …… but then the AFL and NRL would also see increases.
When I look back at the events I actually used my IQ for it was mainly Rugby (strange from a football fan but those games in football I really wanted to watch I would try to do so live) but also it was Rugby League too.
Going out on a friday night then I would IQ the Eels game.
I am sure young Victorians would do the same except sub League for AFL.
I also think the pub stats aren’t some mirracle oasis of only Rugby fans, walk into a pub in NSW/QLD and 9 times out of ten their are a few blokes watching the NRL. Which would more than cancel out the the big but fewer rugby events….. also in QLD SOO is a huge pub event. Likewise the FA cup in Sydney. I think all codes would benefit but don’t see any perceived gaps diminishing, even though Football and Rugby are near strict pay tv affairs.
Redb said | December 18th 2009 @ 9:44am | Report comment
Agree, don’t think it will effect things that much re ‘taping’ a game. Except maybe fill up IQ hard rives with desperate code warriors trying to show their game is watched.
Much the same mentality pervades internet polls.
Would like to see Pay TV penetration stats published for various cities so that ratings can be intepreted for % of audience rather than the quantative number.
In the mean time we’ll stick with crowd numbers.
Redb
John Ryan said | December 18th 2009 @ 10:16am | Report comment
You may also find out just how few people view RU as well
King of the Gorganites said | December 18th 2009 @ 2:06pm | Report comment
WRONG.
The man said | December 18th 2009 @ 7:35am | Report comment
I would prefer if Jamie Sowards kicking got more precise in 2010.
katzilla said | December 18th 2009 @ 7:42am | Report comment
‘New Zealand’s Next Top Model anyone?’
I prefer Tool Academy. Rugby Union will get a slight boost from this for sure, I record 4 games every weekend and I’m sure most other rugby fans do too. The South Africa time frame makes it a bit tough to watch all games live.
Mind you I tape 2-3 League games per week also.
If you tune in for one session of the cricket does it count that you watched the whole thing?
If you go away then come back does it count as a seperate viewer?
Cricket is going to own it this summer.
Ill tape one session and watch another and be counted as 2 people!
Brett McKay said | December 18th 2009 @ 8:08am | Report comment
I had the same thought Katz, S14 figures should benefit from this new method, but even still we’re not talking hundreds of thousands of “new” viewers…
Nashi said | December 18th 2009 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
I stream all the S14 games through Running Rugby from Fox. Obviously these games wont be counted at all. I have always resisted Austar (country Fox) because I only every wanted the rugby and refuse to pay an exhorbitant subscription to have my kids become couch potatoes……
The landscape is changing. TV (Free or Pay) will not be a distribution medium for niche markets for very much longer. The mainstream will stay but I tend to think the NBN other technology changes means the convergance of TV/Internet/Computer in the loungeroom with Pay per view options similar to what I do with Running Rugby.
Sam Taulelei said | December 18th 2009 @ 1:09pm | Report comment
My ISP iiNet provides delayed coverage (by 4 hours I think) of Super 14 rugby games but only those games involving Australian teams. They also show all the Currie Cup, Air NZ NPC games and Barclays Premiership football delayed. All this content is unmetered and wouldn’t be captured by OZTam as it’s not recorded and watched later, it’s streamed and constantly available until the following weeks games. From my Popcorn Hour I can connect to my Mac and watch the streaming content from iiNet on my TV.
Television ratings can no longer be the primary metric for gauging the popularity of a show or event. People can obtain content from so many different sources to tv and watch it on devices other than a TV. On any given day on the train there are people watching content on an iPhone, iPod Touch, PSP and laptop. EyeTV and Foxtel have iPhone apps to watch their content. I agree with Nashi, the living room will be software companies, television manufacturers and content providers new battleground when it used to be just the domain of tv networks.
Dogs Of War said | December 18th 2009 @ 2:09pm | Report comment
Bigpond provides the same for NRL and AFL matches. 24hrs after the match has been played, they are available on the site, unmetred for bigpond customers, but available to all (HD as well, looks great on my 50″ plasma)
AndyRoo said | December 18th 2009 @ 2:14pm | Report comment
What???? The internet isn’t exclusive to Rugby Fans!
Learn something every day
Edit: I am a football fan and would love to believe in a fairy tale that millions were watching the A league through internet streaming, unfortunately I am too cynical.
I get the feeling some Rugby fans generally think their game is more popular than League or AFL in Australia.
Dogs Of War said | December 18th 2009 @ 2:19pm | Report comment
I rely on it as I refused to pay for Foxtel. Can wait the 24hrs to watch my team play.
Lazza said | December 18th 2009 @ 2:36pm | Report comment
How do you avoid hearing the score? It’s like watching a movie and knowing how it ends. I want my Football live and am willing to pay but appreciate that not everyone can afford Pay TV. The variety and options on offer are amazing these days. No more waiting till midnight, once a week, for a 1 hour highlights package. My problem these days is to decide which Football I watch.
Dogs Of War said | December 18th 2009 @ 2:43pm | Report comment
Helps that I don’t watch much TV, just download anything I want to watch and when I have time, watch it then. You do get used to knowing the score of a match, but if your team won, it’s great to see how it happened. I suppose many years of workign shift work (not any more), helped me get over little things like having the score spoil the result.
Sam Taulelei said | December 18th 2009 @ 2:23pm | Report comment
Andy if you have been reading the rugby blogs on the Roar then it would quickly clear up that misconception. I am a rugby fan and while I do subscribe to Foxtel I wouldn’t hesitate in cancelling it if I can still watch the rugby I want live through whatever medium. Streaming Barclays premiership is great however as I struggle to stay up to watch them live.
AndyRoo said | December 18th 2009 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
Sam
Don’t take offence I just couldn’t resist the joke.
Streaming is pretty big for all codes I suggest but FTA and Pay TV are still king…. for now. Fox Sports themselves are looking at more streaming and as I didn’t have Setana, streaming was the only way I could guarantee watching the WCQ Bahrain vs NZ.
The reason I don’t really rate the legal streaming yet is that too often it’s delayed coverage. It really has to be live to become a big player.
It does make moving overseas a lot less scary prospect though.
Dogs Of War said | December 18th 2009 @ 2:36pm | Report comment
I’d pay per game, somethign like $10 to view via streaming. Seems fair enough if I want to watch it live.
Corey said | December 19th 2009 @ 5:20pm | Report comment
I think Rugby League in Melbourne will get a slight boost as well- due to it being played after midnight on free-to-air. But Rugby will win that one for sure. The gap won’t close immensely though. And for most international rugby matches there is a replay the following day or week for a more viewer friendly time slot. So that may not help there.
Crashy said | December 18th 2009 @ 8:22am | Report comment
Brett – no it wont give us an extra hundred thousand viewers but it will capture the many of us who record the Super 14 games to watch later. With 2 tinlids under 2 1/2 it is absolute purgatory to get up at 3am.
It will just make the viewer samples a bit more accurate.
Brett McKay said | December 18th 2009 @ 9:12am | Report comment
sorry Crashy, I’ve just re-read what I wrote, and it came across almost the polar opposite of what I meant. No doubt it will boost ratings figures, and you’re quite right, it will more accurately reflect how we watch the games from the Republic. And if that puts an end to snide little underhanded comments in paper articles like “The Bulls-Tahs semi-final from Pretoria could only draw 25,000 viewers in Sydney…” (as an eg), then that’s a good thing…
BigAl said | December 18th 2009 @ 8:55am | Report comment
How can they measure just what ammount of coverage that is recorded is actually watched later ?
Any points gained from multiple watchings ?
Bay35Pablo said | December 18th 2009 @ 1:19pm | Report comment
BigAl, my understanding is the system can check if it is watched within a week, and will regard that as having been watched.