Ratings Rise and Ratings Fall: Is it the Network or the Star?

There were also always exceptions If a major event deemed to be of national importance like a huge sporting event was shown simultaneously across both BBC and ITV the BBC always won the larger share of the audienceSame content but one channel considered for whatever deepseated reason to be more quotappropriatequot than the otherIamp8217ve been thinking about this channel versus content balance a lot this week as yet another new TV channel burst upon our screens This is TalkTV owned by Rupert Murdochamp8217s News UK and a stablemate of TalkRadio which launched on April 22The launch of the new channel which for much of its offprime time on air screens simultaneous videocasts of the radio show was dominated by a new original show titled Piers Morgan Uncensored featuring the man himself interviewing Donald TrumpFor readers unaware of Morgan he used to be a showbiz writer on News UK title The Sun He edited The News of the World at 29 before moving on to become Editor of rival tabloid The Mirror He moved to the US to take over Larry Kingamp8217s old gig at CNN before the show was cancelled as a result of poor ratingsIn more recent times he copresented a mainstream breakfast TV show Good Morning Britain on ITV before storming off set as a result of a perceived insult and leaving the showHeamp8217s what we would call Marmite some love him others loathe him Who said ad slogans never enter the lingua franca anymoreAnyway Piers signs with Murdoch as the face of his new TV channel a venture that itamp8217s boss Rebekah Brooks had already declared to be a commercial nonstarter before Murdochamp8217s initiative and persuades his old friend President Trump to be interviewed on opening nightWhether you see this a major editorial coup or a rather sad locking of horns by two ancient stags is up to you amp160One of the joys of Twitter is that we can all rant on with our expert opinions on stuff about which we know very little Sometimes Twitter and my particular expertise touchOne of the subjects I do know a little about is audience measurement and once Piers and the Donald had done their stuff Twitter became a veritable online ASI meeting Who knew so many knew so much about ratingsMy favorite was the guy who had a go at me about audience numbers I had suggested that actually most people do use the BBC and do in general like it His view is that all audience numbers are nonsense and that we should be paying attention to the quotreal information collected by people like Sky and NetflixquotBut letamp8217s set all the technical stuff like whoamp8217s telling the truth and who isnamp8217t aside and focus on what was said by the main playersMorgan announced an audience of between 300 and 320000 for his Trump interview This he claimed beat BBC News and indeed everyone elseOf course it didnamp8217t What he meant was his show performed credibly against the BBC News channel it was way way behind the numbers delivered by the main evening news on either BBC or ITVWithout Trump subsequent Piers Morgan Uncensored shows have struggled and seem to have settled at about 60K amp8211 65KPiers has of course now rubbished all audience data and instead quotes a worldwide online reach over 50 million Yes quiteBack in the real world Morganamp8217s presenting partner from his days on Good Morning Britain Susanna Reid secured a live interview with Boris Johnson which is said to have reached a live audience of around 13 millionLetamp8217s assume that Johnson equals Trump Reid equals Morgan big assumptions I know But the fact is Reid and GMB delivered an audience four times larger than Morgan and TalkTVWhich only goes to show the importance of channel plus presenter If as a presenter you go elsewhere you donamp8217t take all your audience with youHabit plays an important part in many peopleamp8217s consumption of media That39s real people as opposed to anal advertising types or Twitter experts For many breakfast TV equals Good Morning Britain morning radio equals the Today program or their favorite music newspapers equals the same one when they buy one even posters many people travel roughly the same routes each timeYes of course drama is different yes people carry on watching their favorite formats even if they switch channels But I suspect news is pretty habitualPiers Morgan is a big name but in part heamp8217s a big name because of where heamp8217s appeared Heamp8217s helped the channels heamp8217s been on and theyamp8217ve helped himEven stars especially stars can get ahead of themselvesClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Ratings Rise and Ratings Fall: Is it the Network or the Star?

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Brian Jacobs

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