My Thoughts on the ABS-CBN vs. GMA Ratings Game

If you watch local (Philippine) television you would be bombarded with regular messages explaining some discrepancies in data gatherings for ratings in certain towns. Here’s my take on the ratings game, as posted on the Blog Herald.

[I]t dawned upon me that the reason behind all this fuss is money. For us consumers ratings could simply be indicators of how popular a television (or radio) channel or network is, for a given time of the day. However, for the network and for the media industry, ratings represent pricing power. For media that are not able to count exact “hits” or “page views” ratings are used as an indication of popularity and reach. This translates to how much the television network or station can charge advertisers, particularly as they price ad spots on cost per thousand pairs of eyeballs (or impressions, if that’s a better term).

Check out the BlogHerald editorial to see how I think this affects us, as bloggers.