New meters show TV shows that we love

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Looks like it will be a merry Christmas after all for Canada’s embattled broadcasters.

The greatest Christmas present of all may have been the introduction by ratings gatherer BBM Canada of Portable People Meters. Eliminating the need for participants to log on, the automatic receptors are worn by families in the ratings sample and provide a more accurate count of how many Canadians are watching TV.

This fall, they revealed that far more people are watching hit shows in Canada than previously estimated. Shows such as House, Survivor, The Amazing Race and Dragons’ Den have seen ratings spike close to double their average from just one year earlier.

Even Canada’s oldest prime-time series, Hockey Night in Canada, has scored big, averaging just under two million viewers a week for Game One each Saturday night, almost twice last year’s average.

Not even PPMs, however, can account for the rapid rise in fortunes for Dragons’ Den, which Kirstine Stewart, CBC’s executive director of network programming, says has doubled its audience every season since being introduced. The venture capital reality series has grown from a barely sustainable 200,000 viewers in 2007 to an average of 777,000 last season and 1,725,000 this past fall.

Other networks also have enjoyed the PPM bounce. Global senior vice-president Kathy Gardner notes prime-time offerings are up an average of 33 per cent this season, slightly higher than at rival networks. Survivor and House have doubled their numbers, and shows like Lie to Me, NCIS and Bones have seen significant gains.

CTV, too, has seen great gains under PPM data, with The Amazing Race up 46 per cent over last season, averaging 2.68 million viewers eight years into its run.

source : www.thestar.com

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