is anyone else worried that when the new seasons air again, one country will get ahead of the others again and put episodes online? cause then people watch on their computers instead of their TVs and it might look like noone's watching, so they shut it down! anyone else affraid of that, or am i just up too late and my exhausted brain is freaking out for nuttin?
I watched most of season 1 and 2 online, because I don't have DVR and I'm never up at 10 AM on a Saturday! Am I part of the problem? I did buy both DVDs.
I watched some online and some on tv (whenever I could), but as long as fans buy the mechandise they will probably still show new episodes. plus I think the guys who put the vids up have to watch the show anyway, so someone's always watching it on tv.
Because the 20 fans who download it as opposed to the umpteenth number of kids who watch it on TV is REALLY going to skew the ratings... C'MON!
Buy the dvds and then it doesn't really matter. Every little bit helps, especially if you love the property. It's those few who say 'it's only a few, why does it matter' that don't realize that few still adds up in world wide revenues. It will air at different times in different areas, always does end up happening. Even ben 10 can't avoid that. But so long as many of us put the effort into watching the legit forms of availibility like toonami jetstream among other outlets, it's rather moot. The problem is the ease of availability to it on things like youtube and so forth that even a child or parent of children can turn to when they don't even realize the legit methods available to them. Hence why piracy should remain more lowkey than torrents and streamsites, and maintain some geekiness involved like Hubs or IRC. The easier it is to reach for the masses, the easier it is for even the intended audience to reach without watching it legitly. The double edged sword that is the fandom. In trying to make it easier for others of our own fanbase to see, we indirectly make it easier for the rest of audience interested in it to reach without ever checking the airings. The mainstream site torrents, newsgroups, and irc puts the statistics for each episode into the thousands. Including if you add in the tracker results from the torrents that were available on this site. Then if you add in the constant availability due to youtube and other stream sites, and you're looking at much higher numbers dipping into the ratings pool completely. That's a lot more cash than just the 20-50 fans you speculate about. If it wasn't for the global distro deal already being signed, it could have even fluctuated that price as well to higher, making their return even harder to grasp with fewer watching it prefering the earliest stream or torrent. That can make or break a property for international use.
so basically hakuna matata-excellent! my fears brought on by my exhaustion were nothing but an illusion
Ratings do not work like that. Every week, 1000 homes are chosen and have neilson boxes installed. Those are the only homes whose ratings matter. From the 1000 people, they can estimate how many people overall are watching it. If you're not a neilson house and choose not to watch Transformers, they won't know the difference.
Nielsen isn't the only system used nowadays. When ratings come in from various sources now they do get numbers from dvr watches, and digital watches, along with nielsen. Nielsen's been outdated for awhile now. They also do get numbers and revenue from ondemand services, and other legit stream locations. To say they don't is rather, well, stupid. The ones that aren't legit don't get recorded. They aren't numbers reflected at all. Networks tried to argue this before, even hide it, but it comes out in their financial reports and other aspects that started coming out during the WGA and other strikes. It's already been proven a study isn't need to judge the worth of online stream markets, and that networks have been profiteering it which has been stopped for the most part. >.> The other digital revenue and ratings has been monitored like this since the switch to digital. When you look at the technology(the bandwidth a digital cable signal uses vs analog, and the data freedom still available) and the various ratings reports from different channels you can see the marks of DVR watches vs real time watches, and more. Many affiliates have that technology, one of them even being the affiliate that owns CN. The privacy regards on this I am unaware of, but as far as I know it's a blind study, just numbers. Same reason why various porn-centric media appears at certain time spans as well. Best proven location to viewage while still abiding by FCC laws, or when outspoken mothers go to bed. Adult Swim may still use an antiquated ratings system though as it isn't airing things in prime proven marketing locations(Saturday morning cartoons, after school, primetime, and before school, though the before school and after school market seems to have more or less died). And I never have seen AS compare results to the likes of Letterman or Leno. Though I'm not sure of this, your cable company or sattellite provider may have ways to know what the statistics are analog-wise, a group that gathers those results to sell to various networks, or vice versa type agreements wouldn't surprise me. But this I have no knowledge of being in use, nor have I checked. Nor if that's what happens with the digital results. I've only seen the final statistics before. Though to be fair, even digital results are subject to a formula before being submitted. Now while nielsen may still be a report they get, they also have access to better forms of numbers that aren't outdated. If not, they are using a quite antiquated system that's been proven unreliable. Nor could their results even be compared to any other network's besides nielsen only. Nielsen's been dying for months now looking for alternative ways to stay afloat last I checked. Not sure how that's faired. But as I said it's also a double edge sword as it can potentially inflate the cost of licensing the show abroad from higher demand. This would raise the cost of use. And potentially make things to costly to reproduce for abroad audiences in their native languages among other aspects. Granted most of it is theory based on projections and numbers, it has killed a few decent shows by going about this habit. It is also rather, well, ironic that the people who cry out wanting stuff in the show and toys to be made, to pirate the media after getting their wish, or desire for a series/story. Especially something that's becoming so universally loved as of late like animated. Something Transformers has lacked for many years. Buy the dvds, then you're also letting the people who worked on it know directly how much you enjoyed it. Didn't they just get a whole contract of stuff worked out for fairness? That includes LEGIT digital streams? I'm sure they won't want to move on to a new series so long as they keep feeling the love for the work they put in. Though Ben 10 Alien Force needs more Isenberg. Hope CN won't shift him anytime soon. ^^;;
Although there are more up-to-date ways of checking how many people are watching, none of them are able to track demographs yet, so the Nielsens are still the primary system used to sell advertising space. (not that they really care if anyone outside of the target demograph is watching, anyway) So in closing, as long as you buy the DVDs and merchandise (which obviously isn't something that people here have a problem with), then it doesn't matter if you're not tuned into the premiers of new episodes.
Not really. While I did usually watch the episodes early online, I always watched them at least once, if not twice on TV. I'm more concerned in getting all the figures I plan on getting, and even then that's not a huge concern. I might watch the DVD's, but really only if I have some extra cash, and don't really have any other TF figures or any movies I want to get, which is actually very unlikely, as there are still a decent amount of TF figures and movies I want to get.
Lol I remember when I was kid here in Australia the rating where tracked by sending survey like sheets to select residences I used to think it was cool being one of those as my old man always let me fill them out.
Yea i was a little pissed off that the uk sets where getting split up into single volumes. Luckily my sister is in boston at the moment and she pick me a US set up . so even tho i watched from the episodes from torrents at first i am helping the franchise even tho Paramount and hasbro UK dont make it easy.
I watch them on the comp and TV and so does my son, I think many others do the same as also I do have the DVD`s
WHat a crock of horseshit. The number of net savvy fans who watch it online and NOT on Television is such a miniscule amount compared to those people who DO watch it on television as to be inconsequential.
