How Do Ratings Work?

You've probably heard about sweeps months or ratings months. Most likely you've heard about it in the context of the television networks rolling out the big specials and "all new" episodes.

Well there are four times a year when television ratings are taken. Three of them are considered important. November, February and May. July is a secondary ratings month. It's in the middle of summer, so not many people are watching TV.

So how does this work? Well, Nielson Media Research handles it for all TV stations in the country. They will call people up and ask if they would like to keep a ratings diary for one week during one of those months. I think they might pay you a dollar or something for your trouble. They will send it in the mail, with instructions to write down everything you watch, along with what station you watched it on.

The May ratings actually began on April 28th. So the first diaries will run from Thursday the 28th, until Wednesday the 4th. Then some people will have diaries with instructions to begin using them on Thursday the 5th until Wednesday the 11th. You get the idea. This will go on for exactly four weeks.

As people finish up their diaries they mail them back to Nielson. They will total them all up and about the end of June, the stations will get the results. This is how the networks and local stations determine how much to charge for commercials. The higher your ratings, the more you can charge. So higher ratings translate into more money.

So that's how it works. Now you know, maybe.