Nielsen moves sweep to March 2009

Change designed to minimize disruption of DTV transition
By Paul J. Gough

May 1, 2008, 01:01 AM

Nielsen Media Research said Wednesday that it will move the traditional February sweep period into March next year to minimize the disruption surrounding the digital TV transition.

It's likely the first time the ratings giant has moved the timing of its four-times-a-year sweep periods. But it's also a measure of the industry's concern over the Feb. 17 conversion to all digital signals that has the potential of leaving millions of people who use over-the-air TV without a way to watch broadcasts.

In recent years, with the advent of Local People Meters in the larger markets that give overnight ratings, sweeps periods have become less important. But in smaller markets, they're still key to setting local TV ad rates. LPM ratings -- and national ratings -- will continue to be released as they normally would, though the sweeps "books" in LPM, diary and metered markets will be produced for March not February. This will allow consumers and Nielsen field staff to convert to digital. Nielsen will have to put a different type of monitor into many homes.

CBS research chief David Poltrack said Wednesday that the February sweep isn't as important to stations as November (soon after the start of the TV season) and May (near the end). February in recent years also has seen more special programming including the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl.

"The February sweep has a very narrow window of use because soon after it comes out, you're into the May book," Poltrack said.

Nielsen will continue to produce overnight national TV ratings during the transition period, which could take a week or more to settle as new TVs or digital converters are sold. The broadcast networks seem resigned to some kind of a temporary drop in viewership among the 10 million or more of their audience that still has over-the-air TV.

Nielsen said that 9% of all TV homes don't have the equipment needed to convert a digital signal; another 7% have at least one TV that receives over-the-air. It isn't clear how many of them will be converted by Feb. 17, but Nielsen projects that 3% of its sample households will have at least one set that won't work.

Poltrack said that any disruption in February won't be permanent, and that Nielsen is moving aggressively to solve any ratings issues that come up from it. The weeks leading up to that also will present challenges, with some homes moving early to digital TV and because many new TVs are purchased during the December-January cycle.

"That whole period of early 2009 is going to be a very unstable one, and pushing it back to March seems like a good idea," he said.

Jack Wakshlag, chief research officer for Turner Broadcasting System, believes that most consumers will transition to digital fairly quickly. But he said that it's going to be another year of disruptions for the broadcast networks, which were heavily affected this year by the writers strike.

"None of this is going to help broadcast ratings go up," Wakshlag said. "It's going to help them go down."

Nielsen Media Research is owned by the Nielsen Co., which also owns The Hollywood Reporter.




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Hmm this will be interesting to see because all of those stinkin specials like the Superbowl, Academy Awards air then. I wonder if we could see some nets roll out midseason stuff in January and then bring back the heavy hitters for repeat free airings in March. If I were ABC, that's what I would do with Sundays. Keep the heavy hitters from airing new stuff against the Superbowl and NFL playoffs, etc. and instead throw on a reality show after Home Edition at 9 with rotating drama repeats at 10. Then in March go repeat free for 11 weeks. CBS will likely be hurt by this move because college basketball will preempt the Thursday lineup and cause delays on Sundays, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:
CBS will likely be hurt by this move because college basketball will preempt the Thursday lineup and cause delays on Sundays, etc.

I disagree. CBS will only be hurt for 2 hours on Thursday (they already move Survivor to Wednesdays during March madness), but they will gain on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (sports overruns help CBS Sunday night despite what people here repeatedly claim). Sunday on CBS is 4 hours of programming and the massive benefit the first few hours get outweighs any loss felt by such 'powerhouse' programming as Dexter and Shark being pushed out of primetime.

It was good of Nielsen to move the Sweep, though I would have moved it to the month before (January)...the month of March may still yet be experiencing depressed numbers due to the digital conversion.

Poor NBC...the first year they get the Super Bowl, and it will fall out of the Sweep. They just have no luck at all.

ABC shouldn't have any problems getting the Oscar people to move the awards back to March (where it used to air).

Not so sure CBS will be able to convince the Grammy people to move their awards to March though.

Next season will be odd, with three months mostly original, followed by three months of mostly repeats, with the last three months mostly originals. That is, assuming SAG signs on and there is no actors strike to throw a wrench in the season.

quote:

Originally posted by dumont:
It was good of Nielsen to move the Sweep, though I would have moved it to the month before (January)...the month of March may still yet be experiencing depressed numbers due to the digital conversion.

Poor NBC...the first year they get the Super Bowl, and it will fall out of the Sweep. They just have no luck at all.

ABC shouldn't have any problems getting the Oscar people to move the awards back to March (where it used to air).

Not so sure CBS will be able to convince the Grammy people to move their awards to March though.

Next season will be odd, with three months mostly original, followed by three months of mostly repeats, with the last three months mostly originals. That is, assuming SAG signs on and there is no actors strike to throw a wrench in the season.

I think Nielsen had no choice but to move it to March. Remember, they will be converting their equipment in November/December of this year. This will give them time to get the 'kinks' out of the new hardware prior to and during the digitial conversion in Feb 09. They have problems now with data, imagine if they moved the sweep period to January and then ran into major problems. Not to say it won't occur, but a least it gives them a few weeks into the digital change over prior to the sweep month beginning.

I wonder though, what effect this will have on the May Sweep period. After all, it will start a month after the March one ends. Will the emphasis be for May and the networks basically program regular programming in March, with even repeats airing or will May be less event filled.

quote:

Originally posted by dumont:
Next season will be odd, with three months mostly original, followed by three months of mostly repeats, with the last three months mostly originals.

Agreed. Moving February sweeps to March will make it much easier for the networks to come up with 13 episode runs that completely overlap both sweeps periods.

quote:

Originally posted by Zedman2:
I wonder though, what effect this will have on the May Sweep period. After all, it will start a month after the March one ends. Will the emphasis be for May and the networks basically program regular programming in March, with even repeats airing or will May be less event filled.

I'm hopeful they just promote the heck out of those three months and give us oodles and oodles of new stuff during the period. For most shows, not a single repeat should air between March and the end of the season in May. With the strike holding a lot of shows from completing full seasons this year, lets hope for 25 to 26 episode seasons for most next year so we can have plenty of new eps.