Radio and TV ratings

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

Do increased ratings for the over the air radio broadcasts translate back into more money for App State sports.

Would it be a benefit to tune into the radio network as opposed to the internet feed, beyond the fact that one is not using up network resources?

I have been told that I should neither confirm nor deny what could be some sort of media measuring device that picks up an inaudible signal that tracks media consumption could be in my possession or not. So hypothetically speaking only, would taking in the local radio feed be a good thing for someone that was being tracked for ratings?

What about TV? Since the conference has the contract for TV is the SB getting a set amount for the TV coverage or is there some revenue splitting to drive more money to the SB to distribute to its member schools based on increased ad revenue from increased ratings.

Even without extra money it would be good to have the higher ratings as that makes the App and SB brand more valuable, both of which could help with finances in the future if not in the here and now.

Again all hypothetical.

[moonshine]

Not sure how they can track radio ratings except to take a random sample of the populations and ask them what they listen to. Nielsen television ratings use data collected from a device that they actually hook up in your household. My sophomore year at App, I participated in the Nielsen ratings and they came to install the box on my tv and paid me around $10-$20 per month during my participation.

At the time it tracked viewer's age (up to 4 at a time), time spent watching (lights went from solid to blinking after x amount of time and required viewer to check in to show you were actually watching) and channel. I imagine they would be more advanced nowadays. It would be great if we had a few avid App football fans who actually had the Nielsen box installed in their home to help pump up the viewership numbers.

As for TV revenue, the MAC just received a new long term deal this week. Don't quote me but I think it put them just above CUSA (for now) in terms of dollars per team. Programs should get paid double for playing on Tuesday night! If the Sun Belt can perform on the field in the next couple of years, maybe we'll see an increase in TV revenue that could go towards helping the SB programs cover cost of attending expenses once they come down the pipeline.

[AtlAppMan]

Would it be a benefit to tune into the radio network as opposed to the internet feed, beyond the fact that one is not using up network resources?

I guarantee you 99.999% of people prefer watching vs. listening only for any sports event when given a choice. I believe your underlying question is more whether to use broadcast or internet feed. Clearly each have to pay for their infrastructure to make them viable/cover their cost of operations. My understanding for radio it boils down to whether they can sell enough ads during a respective broadcast. If they can sell enough during App St game then it works, if not then they have to change content to something that will or close their doors. Internet delivery is in many ways the same. You either pay for infrastructure via subscription and/or ads. The advantage to internet is that you can carry both sound and video (assuming you have enough infrastructure). Clearly you need more for video than sound only therefore costs are more.

I live in Atlanta. I remember the days of barely receiving a distance radio broadcast of the App and GSU game and it sucked. That was basically the only game I even had a hope of listening to. The vast majority of the games, I could not hear or see. The next step was I was able to consistently receive audio of games via the internet. Much better. Then we got video via internet, huge improvement. Now all SBC games will be on some form of ESPN and most games will be on some form of TV/video that I can receive. I don't mind paying a fair price to watch my team. In the '90s I could not even listen to App football so I could not closely follow them due to my location. Over the years, the various improvements in coverage have allowed me to follow them much more closely. BTW, I do have season tickets but can't always go to every home game.

Bottomline is that now I go to more games and spend much more (time and money) to follow App Football because of improvements in my ability to watch my team as a result of technology and expanded TV coverage. In that regard, I do not think it has negatively affected my support but rather aided in improving my support.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

Again, this is all hypothetical for me but this can be found on the internet so what I am typing out in not something that only a metered person would know.

Nielson was the TV ratings company for many years and Arbitron did the radio ratings. Nielson has had the TV adapters for years as you mentioned. I have had family members be a part of Nieilson with both the little boxes attached to a TV and with the clicker one has to hit every so often.

Arbitron was purchased by Nielson a few years ago. Arbitron had and I think still has a few markets were people are paid a very small amount and they keep a diary of radio listening. Arbitron now has this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_People_Meter

which can pick up a high frequency signal that radio stations broadcast. This could also pick up TV signals or even Netflix if Netflix wanted to participate. Of course Netflix knows who is watching and what is being watched and when. With the merger of the two companies I am not sure if the PMM that Arbitron has is used only for radio or if Arbitron merges their data with the Nielson side of the company to help with TV ratings being more accurate.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I know in TV ad sales the sweeps months determine ad rates going forward for a few months with the ads paid for based on the ratings and demographics. I would think the ad buyer would have some sort of out if the ad they placed ended up with a really low rating where they get a discount and on the flip side there may be times when media outlets can do the same on their side and with sudden ratings increases may ask the ad buyer to kick in a bit more, though I doubt the later is happening much. With all the media outlets it seems to be a buyers market for ad space.

We had a discussion a few weeks ago about the radio network. Some of the questions were

Does App pay the radio stations to host the games, and then IMG sales the ad space. Basically we are buying time like an infomorcial (but wait there's more.) and in turn hope to sell ad space to cover the cost we incurred in buying airtime. We pay each station. OR

Is the radio station giving App some money to carry the game as we have a brand in demand and they can in turn sell ads. This would give us a set fee from each station. OR

We pay the stations a small amount and then split some of the ad revenue in some matter. OR

The stations pay to us is a smaller amount of money and we split the add revenue.

Of course if someone with a meter (and again I can neither confirm nor deny my involvement in this possible metering of media habits.) is effecting ratings it may only matter after the fact, as in for games a few months later or even the next school year.

If I am not at the game and the game is not on TV stations I can receive then I fall back to the audio feed. That generally has been the internet feed as I have good speakers and it sounds better than AM radio. And I can be part of Gameday Chats here on YC.

What I am still unsure about is whether my listening to a lower quality audio off a radio would help App versus listening to the internet feed they may not be picked up by a PMM, if I had one which I cna neither confirm nor deny. If, and again this is all hypothetical, the ratings help, then I know the answer. But if App is going with option 1 above and buying airtime themselves and they are not bothering with ratings then it would not matter.

On a related note, I wonder how much some of the small AM stations can charge for their ads for App football. I assume a 30 sec spot would be a few hundred, but would it be in the four digits? That seems a bit high to me.