Shows recorded and watched later, or “timeshifted” will be included in TV ratings figures next year, according to Media Spy [1].
The count will now be split in to two categories. One for “live” which for some reason includes programs watched at a later time on the day of broadcast, and one for “timeshifted” which is for programs watched on a day other than the day of broadcast.
This will undoubtedly boost the number of people listed as watching shows, but I have to wonder if it will favour the ABC who do not run advertising or promos during shows. I wonder this because the story says that ratings will only be counted for “content watched at normal speed”. Technically, my skipping of ads, could be considered “watching at an increased speed”, and in my case this would favour the ABC as I timeshift The Bill, MDA and Media Watch on a regular basis on the ABC, as well as programs such as Rush and Law And Order on Ten, and the ones on Ten might not be counted as I skip the ads.
To the same extent, with two episodes of The Bill being screened back-to-back, I usually pause for a coffee break at the end of the first episode…so I could be watching it “at a decreased speed”. The ABC will solve this problem by catching up to the UK air date of episodes shortly, and drop back to one episode per week.
It will be very interesting to see what effect this change has on the ratings.
Samuel
It should be interesting to see what happens