Nielsen Media Research, the company that is responsible for tabulating and posting viewership numbers on TV, has announced that they will be changing the way they determine these numbers beginning late 2020.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, this change will now feature the addition of measuring audiences included out-of-home-viewing in places like bars, airports, offices and other public establishments.
The company has been doing research about this sort of outside-the-home ratings and has found that sports events — live sports events in particular — more than any other type of television programming, should see an average increase of 11-percent with the added viewership coming from the new measurements.
The substantial increase in viewership is largely attributed to people watching the sports events in bars and sports-themed restaurants/arcades, such as places like Dave & Buster’s, Buffalo Wild Wings and others.
News shows, which are often watched in airports and offices, are estimated to increase by an average of 7-percent with Nielsen Media Research adopting the new method of tracking programming viewership.
Ultimately, a lot of sports-based organizations and leagues — including WWE, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, UFC and pro boxing — will see some sort of minor bounce-back when these changes are implemented.
How much of an increase in viewership this will lead to for shows such as WWE RAW on the USA Network, WWE Friday Night SmackDown on FOX (starting Friday, October 4th), NXT on the USA Network (starting Wednesday, September 18th) and AEW On TNT (starting Wednesday, October 2nd) remains to be seen.
Additionally, this will also be interesting to see how much this affects things when the time for promotions such as WWE, NXT, AEW, UFC, Bellator, NFL, NBA, MLB and the NHL to renew their television rights fees for their deals with broadcast and cable television networks, as well as their television commercial rates for potential interested sponsors looking to buy ad-time on those highly-viewed, live sports programs, which generally draw the exact target demographic that significant advertisers are attracted to.
On the surface — particularly right now while things are still new and being figured out as they go along, playing out organically over time — this may not appear to be major news story by any means.
Depending on just how much the added viewership will play a factor in the business side of things, however, will be a very interesting beat to follow, as will the way the television landscape and the key executives involved adapt to try and avoid losing the much-needed leverage they are accustomed to having when negotiating television rights fees and things of that nature with potential television content-providers.
We will keep you posted right here at eWrestling.com, your number ONE source for EXCLUSIVE, extensive, in-depth, late-breaking WWE and AEW news and rumors, as more information on this story continues to surface as things continue to play out and develop over time.
Another excellent way to ALWAYS be on top of the KEY behind-the-scenes WWE, AEW and other pro wrestling and MMA news stories, rumors, spoilers, videos and photos is to follow our lead reporter Matt Boone on Twitter @MattBoone1984 and/or the official Twitter page of this website — @eWrestlingCOM.
Very detailed, in-depth breakdown on what new @nielsen #TV #Ratings changes mean for future of #WWE #RAW, #SmackDown, #NXT, #AEWOnTNT & others (..and it could be VERY, VERY good news for #wrestling fans!)
FULL EXTENSIVE BREAKDOWN @ewrestlingcom HERE: https://t.co/XVOOoGxWze pic.twitter.com/6A80GyuWnf
— Matt Boone (@MattBoone1984) September 12, 2019
eWrestling.com Social Media Interaction
@MattBoone1984
@eWrestlingCOM
Facebook.com/eWrestlingCOM
Disqus.com/home/forums/http-ewrestling-com
