Sci-Fi Faves Top Nielsen DVR List
December 17, 2008 by brian
Nielsen is slowly but surely getting clued in to the significance of DVRs and has released the Top 10 shows that increased in DVR usage in 2008. It probably won’t surprise our readers that several genre shows rank among them.
Variety reports that Heroes picks up an additional 1.83 million viewers off DVR recordings, Lost gains 1.79 million, and Fringe adds 1.60 million. A second list ranked shows by the percentage of viewership increase from DVR. SCI FI Channel did very well in those ratings as Battlestar Galactica topped that list with a 53 percent increase. New show Sanctuary sees a 35 percent increase in its ratings with DVR factored in, while SCI FI Channel mainstay Eureka gains 34 percent.
Now the next step is getting network bigwigs to take notice of these numbers before dropping the axe on shows.
Pictured: Hayden Panettiere as Claire Bennet–NBC Photo: Adam Taylor
Nuts to Nielsen is right.
DVR Numbers are probably more representative of what TVviewers are watching than 5,000 to 10,000 “super secret” boxes are…..
In 2008 TV viewers should be getting far more accurate ratings. The technology is there to sample 50 Million Homes but at every Turn the Nielsen Monopoly buys out competitors, litigates them out and create long term contracts that “lock” out competition.
Jericho was a top 15 DVR’d show – TIVO
Jericho was a top 15 DVR Adjusted
Jericho was #1 rated Download Itunes and Xbox360
Jericho was top 5 Amazon Downloads
Jericho had “Million(s)” of weekly online views (source CBS Interactive press release, & USA Today article
Jericho was a top 10 TV Fan website
And those are all real and tangible counts.
The only numbers that made no sense was Nielsen’s. And this fact is really starting to be exposed – good article!
Yes, I hope, networks will check DVR numbers too, before they cancel another good show… like Jericho, or Stargate Atlantis.