TV Streaming Rating Data

What Is TV/Streaming Rating Data?

TV and streaming data measures the viewership of television programs on various devices. It typically shows percentage of viewers within certain demographics, such as sex and age range.

Where Does TV/Streaming Rating Data Come From?

While networks can gather their own data, they do not always share the information. Thus, traditional tv rating data sources are still used. For this, Nielsen ratings remains the best tv and streaming rating data source.

Nielsen selects households within city blocks within counties to be representative samples of an area’s viewership patterns. If the households agree, Nielsen provides a monitoring device and software that tracks the shows they watch.

What Types of Columns/Attributes Should I Expect When Working with This Data?

TV and streaming rating data is available in tables or APIs which can be viewed by day or season. The information in these datasets include lists of tv programs or movies, network, and viewership numbers according to demographic.

What Is This Data Used For?

The primary users of this data are marketing teams, tv producers, and networks and streaming services themselves. In other words, this data tells marketers which streamers, networks, and time slots to buy ad space for; it tells producers what content to produce; and it tells networks what content to buy rights for and what kind of ads to sell ad space for.

How Should I Test the Quality of TV/Streaming Rating Data?

The most important factor in quality streaming rating data is the quality of the sensor devices and the sample of households selected to be measured. Therefore, focus on this before aggregating and cleansing the data.

Interesting Case Studies and Blogs to Look Into

STV Plus Ratings
Nielsen: Ratings and Families

Tangible Examples of Impact

Unlike TV channel ratings, Netflix does not disclose its rating figures. However it has been reported that Netflix follows a viewership-versus-cost-of-renewal review process to determine whether it is worth producing a new season or not. This can be further confirmed as back in 2018, Netflix’s vice president of original programming Cindy Holland said, “The biggest thing that we look at is, are we getting enough viewership to justify the cost of the series?”

Programming Insider: Reason Why Netflix Cancels So Many Shows