College students weigh in on ratings
By Kaleigh Maher, staff writer            
Posted on February 19, 2007

After 84 years, college students are finally making their mark on TV ratings.

Nielsen Media Research, the group founded in 1923 that provides audience estimates for TV ratings, began including college students in its sample Jan. 29.

Nielsen uses a representative sample of approximately 5,000 households to infer the viewing preferences of the country. Before now, college students’ viewing choices were only included when they returned home from school.       

“I think it could be good for students to have their taste taken into the equation,” Media Arts and Design professor Alan Neckowitz said. “It didn’t occur to me before that they didn’t get counted.”

Freshman Matt Schmitt also said he was surprised that college students were not included in Nielsen’s research until now.

“There are millions of students out there that weren’t affecting the ratings,” Schmitt said.

According to an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, currently, there are 130 college students in the United States who volunteered to have Nielsen attach its “people meter” to their TVs.

During the first week, after adding “students away from home” as a demographic, there was a noticeable difference in ratings.

ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” saw its biggest audience since the season premiere in October. The Nielsen Web site showed that the show had an increase of 636,000 female viewers ages 18 to 24, which increased ratings by 4.6 points, or 53 percent of its viewing total.  In addition, an Associated Press article said Fox’s “House” saw its largest audience since the show aired of 27.3 million people.

Other shows have seen significant changes in their ratings as well. NBC’s “Scrubs” ratings doubled. “The Office,” “What About Brian,” “‘Til Death” and “Gilmore Girls” also experienced a noticeable rise in their ratings. Ratings of television networks, such as MTV and the Cartoon Network, also increased.

Comedy Central is also expected to see a significant boost in its ratings. For example, during the first week of the program “Drawn Together,” there was a 60 percent increase of male viewers ages 18 to 24 tuning into the show.

There has been speculation about the fates of television shows enjoyed by college students.

“I feel like different shows will do a whole lot better or a whole lot worse,” junior Erin Cunningham said. “Like ‘The O.C.,’ that was just canceled. But I know a lot of people who still watched it.”

Said Junior Chris Dufresne: “Last year one of my favorite shows, Arrested Development, was canceled. It was probably one of the greatest shows on TV, but they didn’t think enough people watched it, even though it won a ton of awards and everyone I know loves it.

“I bet if [Nielsen] had been taking college kids into consideration, then it would still be on the air.”

More information on which TV programs are viewed most frequently may affect advertising. Neckowitz said the TV industry is about making money and is more concerned with who tunes in to the shows and what advertisers they can match with programs to have the most profit.

“I think that [Nielsen] weakens programs,” Neckowitz said. “There’s less quality programming as a result of the whole Nielsen system, but maybe college students can improve programming.”

Neckowitz also said media is converging. With more shows available on demand, many have the option of not viewing commercials. This has resulted in more outrageous advertisements.

“Nielsen has the potential for a positive by taking into account what programming college students would watch,” Neckowitz said. “But it could also be used in a more crass way just to sell more products.”