Filed under: Apple Corporate, iPod Family, iTS, Video, iTunes
TV network viewings dip post-iTunes 6
It appears that Lost is the top television download in the iTunes Music Store. Not surprising, I guess, but here's what I find interesting. The number of Nielsen-monitored network viewers of both Lost and Desperate Housewives has dipped since the announcement of iTunes 6 on October 12th. According to CNN, “Three Desperate Housewives episodes averaged 27.2 million
viewers before the iPod announcement, while four episodes since then
have pulled in 25.2 million viewers." According to Nielsen, the network numbers for Lost were 22.7 million pre-iTunes 6, and 20.7 million after.Now, we certainly can't determine causality from the information provided here, but it would seem to suggest that some viewers have swapped one distribution method for another. Expect advertisers to notice this trend soon.
At the very least, it seems that people want portable, on demand television. Including me.
[Via Macsimum]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AH said 6:01PM on 11-16-2005
It's an assumption based on flawed data.
Lost had 3 straight weeks of repeat episodes.
Desperate Houswives had 1 repeat during that time period. Explaining why both shows had a drop off in viewers, moreso for Lost than DH. It is only natural for regular viewer numbers to drop off when reruns are on.
I am sure more people will adopt portable video as a way to watch new programming but let's not get ahead of ourselves here, a few million people didn't make the switch minutes after the last keynote.
Come back a year from now with some solid numbers if we want to get all worked up over what everyones watching and how.
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Brad said 4:31PM on 11-16-2005
It would be interesting to see if that downward trend after iTunes 6's release is network-wide. For example, what were CSI's numbers before and after the release? Without that information it's difficult to say whether or not the drop in viewership can be attributed to their availability on the iTMS.
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R.Padilla said 5:46PM on 11-16-2005
I had never watched Lost on TV before iTMS started offering it... but I would much rather download my TV and have it portable. I'm always on the go.
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zander106 said 4:45PM on 11-16-2005
Nice try.
The release of iTunes in mid-October coincided with a couple of weeks of reruns for Lost that ended just this past week. Naturally viewership will always be down for reruns than for new episodes.
If they compare averages only for new episodes pre- and post- iTunes, it'd be interesting to see what the result would be. But it's very premature to think that people are shifting their viewing habits because of the availability of shows on iTunes. At least, not on the order of millions of viewers.
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Kyle said 4:53PM on 11-16-2005
Despite how ofter I download shows I've missed (not from iTunes, I live in Canada) the biggest reason I stop watching or miss a show is because it's been pre-empted for something else or is taking a break for a few weeks.
I almost NEVER sit long enough catch all the ads for when shows will be on air.
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djones said 4:59PM on 11-16-2005
In addition to Zander's correct assessment (Lost's reruns were max annoying, and were a result of World Series coverage, which, I should note, dropped the ratings of ALL shows for the month of October), it's a simple matter to compare the number of published downloads of the shows with the number dropped in the ratings. In addition to there not being anywhere near 2.7 million Lost downloads, it's safe to assume, from even the comments of the authors here, that many of the downloads were for Season 1, NOT the latest episode coinciding with broadcast.
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R.Padilla said 6:14PM on 11-16-2005
Another thought: I've read on a couple other blogs that lost is losing its momentum. Now I'm not quite through Season 1 yet, but *maybe the show just isn't as good as it was before?*
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AH said 6:06PM on 11-16-2005
"*maybe the show just isn't as good as it was before?*"
It has more to do with the fact that the same people who loved the shows slow and deliberate pace, as far as revealing plot points, last season are now complaining about it.
You can attribute that to the typical mentality of your average message board addict, which is to say the bellyachers of the world.
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