TV rating is problematic in today’s media
Introduction
TV rating is very influential in today’s TV media in Japan. TV rating results are shown almost everyday on various media such as newspapers, magazines and TVs and people know what programs are popular and unpopular. For TV media people, rating is even a matter of life or death as contents of a program are modified according to the rating and a series of drama will be cut short if rating is low. However, giving TV rating absolute priority is problematic because it distorts media ethics, deteriorates program quality and furthermore, it is not an accurate measurement method which we can trust without question.
Ⅰ．Current situation
Weight over TV rating has increased substantially over the years while its measurement system did not change so much. TV rating was introduced by a research company, Video Research Inc. in 1963(Haba 16). At first, it was based on the system which had been already used in the U.S. but Video Research Inc. had developed its own measurement system(Haba 17). Haba, who was a TV producer of TBS at that time remembers that TV rating was just a rough estimate at the introduction and it was not as influential as it is today (17). However, it has increased its influence along with the expansion of TV media closely connected with TV sponsorship system.
Video Research Inc. has a nation wide network of TV rating research. In Kanto region, 600 households are selected out of 17 million households at random (Taguri 17). The company sends detailed TV rating result by minute to TV stations next day based on the data gathered from the 600 households. The ratio of monitor household is about 0.0085 % of all households in Kanto, which means that there is only one selected monitor household in about 11,700 households. Thus, TV rating is far from thorough and comprehensive research.
Ⅱ Problems
A. Distortion of media ethics
One of the major problems is that competition over rating results in distortion of media ethics. Media people being obsessed with getting high rating often get their priorities backwards. They often put their priority scooping over conscience and dignity. This tendency results in irreversible consequences.
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 lawyer family by the Aum members. Haba analyses why the TV producers showed the video to Aum members despite the the risk on the lawyer (34). According to Haba, the TV producers intended to report the inside of this secretive cult as a scoop and get high TV rating by accepting the request of the cult(35).
Another example is manipulation of rating by Nihon TV in 2003(Asahi Samsun Oct.12, 2003). According to Asahi Shimbun, The TV producer of Nihon TV requested a detective agency to specify the monitor households of Video Research Inc. and paid 100, 000 yen per household if the agency found one. Then, he contacted the four households and paid them 5,000 to 10,000 yen in cash or coupons to watch his program to increase the rating of his program.
In addition, a health program of Kansai TV “Hakkutsu Aru Aru Daijiten 2”, which had been popular with constant high rating was cut off because it was revealed that the program had been prearranging performance and fabricating data repeatedly (Asahi Shinbum Jan. 22, 2007). Behind of these incidents, there is a fierce competition over TV rating. In TV media world, TV producers of high rating are highly appreciated while those who are not treated miserablely. There is always huge pressure for higher rating from the company and sponsors. For today’s TV world, rating is the only and absolute standard to evaluate the program and this structure governed by rating is a source of many problems.
B. Deterioration of quality
Another problem in TV rating is that it deteriorates quality of programs. Today’s TV advertisement system is closely connected with rating as CM charges are based on GPR, Gross Rating Point of TV rating (Haba 29). In other words, sponsors pay charges for CM according to how much rating the program achieves in total. Therefore, TV stations are trying hard getting high rate in order to get high CM charges. In today’s TV world, the higher the rating gets, the more income TV stations receive.
In this rating-dominated TV structure, the impact becomes more important than contents. Capricious viewers easily change channels if they get bored so TV programs are cut into small segments and have many subtitles to keep catching viewer’s attention. As the result, the programs are becoming hollow. Furthermore, 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 often hear TV programs are boring and superficial today.
C. TV rating is not an accurate measurement method.
Furthermore, TV rating is not an accurate measurement method. First, it does not reflect the reality anymore due to changes in our life styles. Our lifestyle has changed drastically since the TV rating was first introduced in 1963. However, much of today's rating measurement system is still based on a household. The tastes in members of a family became more diversified. One family used to enjoy one program together in the past but we have more than one TV sets in one household and lifestyle of family member are more diversified now. It is common that father is watching baseball at a main TV and his daughter is watching a drama in her room. However, the current survey of household does not reflect this reality accurately. The system only monitors the main TV.
Secondary, TV is so common today and it is not appreciated as before. So many people do not pay attention while TV is on. However, the TV rating survey system does not detect how many people actually watched the program. In addition, media technology has so advanced that we have a variety of media such as cable TV, Video, DVD, HDD and the Internet. However, TV rating does not count it if you are recording a program or watching it on cable or on the Internet. This is one of the causes of the gulf between the rating and the reality.
Finally, from statistic point of view, TV rating always accompanies accidental errors as a nature (Taguri 21). For example, accurate interpretation of the rating 45% is that " it is highly probable that 41% to 49 % of the selected households watch the program" (Taguri 22). However, people do not think about the accidental errors when they think about rating. Thus, it is a mistake to give the absolute priority on rating. It should be treated just as a rough estimate instead.
Ⅲ．Possible solutions
A. Education in media literacy
What could be done to solve these problems in TV rating? One possible way is to intensify education in media literacy for media people. Intensive education program for media people should be implemented not to repeat the crimes they have committed in the past. It is also important to educate children at schools. Children must learn how to watch TV critically.
B. Promote dual programming streams
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 for business purpose. Establishing a new prestigious award for a good TV program will be effective to improve motivation for creating better programs.
C. Diversified program rating scheme
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. The source of the problems in TV rating is there is not other indicators to evaluate programs except for rating. As people have different values and focuses, the indicators should be more diversified too. Introducing different values is one way to make the perspective more diversifiedd. As one of the interesting attempt, a new index showing how much the viewers are satisfied is introduced by some companies such as Oricon and Reserch Q(Oricon)(Reserch Q). All these combined efforts are necessary to solve the problems in TV rating today.
Ⅳ．Conclusion
According to NHK, the average Japanese watch TV 3 hours and 53 minutes a day in 2007. This is one of the highest in the world （EURODATA TV）. If we are spending such a large amount of time to TV, we should be critical about it and consider problems seriously. TV rating system of today has many problems such as distortion of media ethics, deterioration of quality of TV programs and outdated measurement system.
To solve these issues, media people must control themselves following media ethics strictly. The media industry must question itself the reliability of TV rating and make efforts to change this rating-governed industrial structure. TV viewers should watch programs more critically based on own values. We should not believe everything what TV says and avoid being manipulated easily by TV. To establish a better relationship with TV in the future, we must take multi-dimensional and comprehensive approaches from ethics, education, business and technology point of views.
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