Who’s Watching What on TV? Who’s to Say?

Media|Who’s Watching What on TV? Who’s to Say?

Last month, the Golden Globes drew 10.1 million viewers. No, wait, maybe 9.3 million.

The very same night, “Sunday Night Football” attracted 28.5 million people. Scratch that, perhaps it was 25.8 million.

The “Yellowstone” finale? Possibly 11 million — or 8 million?

Ratings have long been the currency of the TV business, helping to determine how much media companies can charge for commercials. But the $60 billion that advertisers spend on television each year largely depends on a shared leap of faith that the numbers are as good as gold.

That faith, though, is resting on shaky ground.

People now watch so many programs at so many different times in so many different ways — with an antenna, on cable, in an app or from a website, as well as live, recorded or on-demand — that it is increasingly challenging for the industry to agree on the best way to measure viewership. In some cases, media executives and advertisers are even uncertain whether a competitor’s show is a hit, or something well short of that.

The scramble to sort out a suitable solution began nearly a decade ago, as Netflix rose to prominence. It has only intensified since.

“It is more chaotic than it’s ever been,” said George Ivie, the chief executive of the Media Rating Council, a leading industry measurement watchdog.

For decades, there was no dispute — Nielsen’s measurement was the only game in town.

But things started to go sideways after the emergence of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. Nielsen had no ability — at least at first — to measure how many people clicked play on those apps. The streamers, of course, knew exactly how many people were watching on their own service but they either selectively disclosed some data or did not bother releasing it at all.