FIrst Draft

Mari Watanabe
Owen James
Theme Writing
January 25, 2008

TV rating is problematic in today’s media

I.　Introduction
TV rating is very influential in today’s TV media in Japan. TV rating result on newspapers, magazines and TVs affects viewers when they decide what they will watch. For TV media people, rating is further important as it is a matter of life or death now. A series of drama will be cut short if rating is low. Contents of a program are modified according to rating. However, overemphasize on TV rating is problematic because it distorts media ethics, deteriorates media quality and does not reflect the reality.
Ⅱ．Current situation
How did the TV rating started and how it is measured? TV rating was introduced by a research company, Video Research Inc. in 1963. At first, it was based on the system used in the U.S. but Video Research Inc developed its own measurement system later. At the start, TV rating was just a rough estimate and it was not as influential as it is today (Haba 17). However, it has increased its influence with the close connection with TV sponsorship system.　　Video Research Inc has a nation wide network of TV rating research. In the case of Kanto region, 600 households are selected at random out of 17 million households in this region (Taguri 17). Based on the data from the 600 households, the company sends TV rating by minute to TV stations next day.
Ⅲ Major problems
A. Distortion of media ethics
One of the major problems is that competition over rating results in distortion of media ethics. The significant case is the reporting related to Aum Shinrikyo cult. In 1998, Mr Sakamoto, a lawyer who was active criticizing this cult was murdered along with his wife and his one-year old son by Aum members. It was revealed later that TV station TBS showed an interview of the lawyer criticizing the cult to Aum members upon Aum’s request. It is criticized that this act let the murders of the three. At that time, most of this secretive cult was unknown. Therefore, Haba says behind this act, there was an intention of TV station that if they accept the request of the cult, they can report inside of this cult and get high TV rating. Another example is manipulation of rating by Nihon TV in 2003. TV producer of Nihon TV paid 5,000 to 10,000 cash or coupons to 4 monitor households of Video Research Inc. to watch his program. In addition, the popular program of TV Fuji, Aru Aru Daijiten was cut off as it was revealed the program prearranged performance and fabricated data repeatedly. Behind the distortion of media ethics, there is a problem of overemphasis on TV rating.
B. Deteriation of quality
Another problem of TV rating is that it deteriorates quality of programs. Today’s TV advertisement system is closely connected with rating. The sponsorship money is not decided based on the number of sponsorship program nor time of the commercials. It is decided based on GPR, Gross Rating Point(Haba 29). In other words, advertisement rate is based on how much rating the program achieves. Therefore, TV stations are trying hard to get high rate because high rating is money for TV now. In this rating-dominated TV world, the impact is more important than contents because viewers change channels if they feel bored. If content is not so important, TV people lose enthusiasm and dignity. As a result, the quality of TV programs deteriorates. This is the reason we see similar programs today.
C. TV rating does not reflect reality.
Furthermore,TV rating is that it does not reflect reality. Our lifestyle has changed drastically since the TV rating was first introduced in 1963. Today's rating measurement system is based on household. However, we have more than one TV sets in one houlsehold today. For example, when father is watching baseball at a main TV and his daughter is watching a drama in her room, the system only monitors the main TV. As a result, the data shoes that the household is watching baseball only. Moreover, TV is so common today that many people do not pay attention while TV is on. In addition, media technology has advanced as we have a variety of media such as cable TV, Video, DVD and HDD. TV rating does not count it if your are recording a progmram or wathing it on cable. Furthermore, TV rating always includes accidental errors from statistic point of view(Taguri 21). For example, accurate intrepretation of the rating 45% is that it is highly probable that 41% to 49 % of the subjected households watch the program(Taguri 22). Thus, TV rating is just a rough estimate that people should not put too much emphasise.
Ⅳ．　Possible solutions
What could be done to solve these problems in TV rating? One way is to intensify education in media literacy for media people and for children. Intensive education program for media people shold be inplemented not to repeat the crimes they have commited in the past. Education programs should be provided at schools. Children must learn how to watch TV from critical point of view. Another possible solution is that to promote dual programming streams. This is the attempt to focus on improvement in quality for a part of programs while preserving other programs as they are. Establishing new prestigious award for a good TV program will be effective to improve motivation. Another possible solution is diversified program rating scheme. As it is already implemented by Video Research Inc., individual rating is one way to improve accuracy of the data. As one of the interesting attempt, a new index to show the digree of satisfaction is introduced by an IT company. All these solutions are possible to solve the problems in TV rating today.
Ⅴ．　Conclusion
According to NHK, the average Japanese watch TV 3 hours and 47 minutes a day on weekdays. This is one of the highest in the world. If we spend so much time on TV, we should be critical about it and consider problems seriously. TV rating system has many problems such as distortion of media ethics, deterioration of quality of TV programs and outdated measurement system. Media people should consider roles of TV and their priority once again and viewers should watch programs critically. To establish a better relationship with TV in the future, we must take multi-dimensional and comprehensive approaches from ethics, education, business and technology.