Comments on: Top 10 TV Websites, June 2009

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:49:09 +0000

This is not a list of TV SHOW sites, but TV-related websites (TV Guide and Yahoo, for example) and seemingly somewhat arbitrary at that.

Where TMZ would’ve ranked in that list is hard to say because it depends on whether HitWise even classified that as a TV-related web site in the same way as the above sites.

There are probably millions who use The Weather Channel’s website without ever watching the Weather Channel (I count myself among them).

I’ll contact Hitwise and see where things like TMZ and Hulu ranked or if they were even included in this ranking. My guess is they were not.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:20:39 +0000

I must admit, i always take a quick look at the weather and news online so the figures make sense

By: RJ

RJ — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:07:48 +0000

^or 279 million page views^

By: RJ

RJ — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:07:24 +0000

Someone said something about TMZ not being in the top. On Mediaweek, it says TMZ had its biggest month EVER with 11.7 million unique users.

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:58:36 +0000

My grandfather watches FOX News ALL DAY LONG, lol.

Look up “angry white guy” in the dictionary, and you’ll see his picture.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:55:25 +0000

That all makes sense. Thank you very much

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:50:14 +0000

“So does that 3/4 of a viewer or 1/4 of a viewer only count when the reach the 15 minute mark? Because it seems like if that’s true, they do measure by the minute, but don’t count you as a viewer unless they’ve measured 15 minutes.”

No. I just used 15 minutes and 1/4 of an average hourly viewer as an example.

Someone who watched for one minute would be counted as 1/60 of an average viewer for the hour.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:38:41 +0000

So does that 3/4 of a viewer or 1/4 of a viewer only count when the reach the 15 minute mark? Because it seems like if that’s true, they do measure by the minute, but don’t count you as a viewer unless they’ve measured 15 minutes.

I apologize if this is not the right place for this, and if it’s easiest to send a link to a page that explains it all that’d be great, I just haven’t found anything that explains it clearly online.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:33:20 +0000

Anon, you may well be correct, but CUME numbers are not routinely provided to us or published online. And they’re really more of a PR number. What matters isn’t how many people tuned in during some part of the day, but how many people saw the advertisements. While the commercial ratings show that best, average viewing numbers are a pretty fair analog to them.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:30:08 +0000

I think Jeff is referring to the CUME numbers, because CNN DOES in fact have a large CUME advantage over Fox News (viewers who tune in for as little as 6 minutes a day). But clearly, Fox is more successful at keeping their viewers around for a longer duration vs. CNN.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:29:45 +0000

Jeff, only Nielsen families are measured for any Nielsen produced numbers.

DVR viewing is measured in exactly the same way as Live viewing. If someone watches a one hour show, but FF’s past 15 minutes of it, they’re counted as 3/4 of an average viewer. Similarly if you watch show A Live, but switch to show B during 15 minutes of its hour, you are counted as 3/4 of a viewer for show A and 1/4 of a viewer for show B.

To my knowledge Nielsen doesn’t track VOD, although they may and I just have never seen the numbers. VOD is certainly not included in the ratings numbers we (and everybody else) reports online. Of course the cable and satco know their VOD numbers, but we’ve never seen them presented in a public way that allows comparison. Our anecdotal understanding is that VOD is very lightly used.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:23:35 +0000

Thank you Bill. That makes sense that the website might just be better run, and overall, people who do not like fox news probably don’t like TV news much in general, and so may head to cnn.com, but there’s no way to know any of that for sure.

I also really appreciate knowing they measure viewing by the minute. I had always wondered about how exactly it was all measured. On that subject, do they measure DVR or VOD differently than they do live TV? I imagine when I access a show on demand, they can record that just like when I watch something on hulu, getting real numbers. Do they measure those by who is actually watching or who is using those things within the Nielsen families?

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:17:01 +0000

Jeff, I have no idea why the website traffic stats would be so different than the TV viewership numbers, not even a personal anecdotal one, I visit CNN.com once every 2-4 years on election night, I do think their site is best for national election numbers. I don’t recall every having looked at foxnews.com.

As for your “I had heard”, that’s at best an urban myth, Nielsen people meters measure viewing by the minute.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:11:43 +0000

Bill, it’s very interesting that cnn.com has almost double the numbers of foxnews.com, but Fox News has almost double the viewership of CNN. I imagined the cnn.com numbers would be higher figuring who their audience is, but I didn’t think it would be that different.

I had heard that Fox News viewers tend to watch shows on the channel long enough for the Neilsen numbers to register, rather than CNN viewers, who tend to watch for maybe 15 minutes and then tune out. Is there any truth to that? And do you have any thoughts on reasons the difference in website verses television is that extreme?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:26:08 +0000

^ I’m sure TBTN is #11

By: Mumbo

Mumbo — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:23:52 +0000

Ah, the Weather Channel. Apparently people don’t trust their weather reports on their MSN or Yahoo homepages.

And no TV by the Numbers?

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:11:08 +0000

Wow I’m surprised TMZ isn’t there. Or are they considered “TV” ?

I’m also surprised CNN isn’t #1