New ratings system shakes up tellyland

By Deborah Hill

Friday 18th August 2000

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: First time digital has been measured

There have been some surprising results in television ratings in the first full "live" week in which digital TV viewing has been measured.

ACNielsen has added 30 extra homes to its Peoplemeter system as it moves to include Sky's satellite digital service in its ratings, the figures which show how many viewers have been watching what.

Colenso media director Peter Myles said TV3 took a "whopping great hit," dropping from 22% to 19% share in its target demographics of 18-44 years. That means 19% of all people in that age group were watching during that time.

But TV3 group manager of sales support Sandy Smith said the drop was not as a result of the changed rating system but just part of the usual "bounce" where the network's ratings went up and down.

Ms Smith said digital ratings in the three weeks before the system went live were positive for TV3, with its share going up by one point.

It was widely expected TV3 would benefit from the move to include digital in the ratings because it is included on the Sky satellite system.

"Our view was that we expected TVNZ to lose a little bit and TV3 to gain a bit," Mr Myles said. The new digital rating system has been criticised because with only 30 new peoplemeters it is not representative of the 12% of people who subscribe to Sky digital.

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