Source: Pwinsider.com
According to sources, TNA President Dixie Carter was spinning recent ratings reports at last weekend’s iMPACT! tapings. Carter held a meeting with the talent and told them not to believe what they read on the internet about ratings or viewership.
Carter reportedly told the talent that there is ratings data which online sites are not privy to, particularly the +3 and +7 ratings. These are the ratings for the live airings plus three and seven days of DVR viewing, respectively. She added that the ratings are better than they seem to be and told talent to “pay no mind” to what the internet reports.
It is important to note, for context, that +3 and +7 DVR ratings are not what advertisers care about, and not what brings in advertising revenue. Under the Nielsen ratings system, advertisers pay specifically for the Live+Same Day numbers, focusing on the 18 – 49 demographic. The reason for this is that ads on DVR-viewed episodes are typically fast-forwarded through and thus have no value to advertisers. Live+Same Day are the commonly-reported ratings and viewership provided by Nielsen. Thus, while it is true that Impact draws better total viewership than what Nielsen reports the day after the show, that increased viewership does not affect the revenue that Impact brings to Destination America.
There have been rumblings in recent years that the current Nielsen model needs to change due to the spread of streaming services like Hulu, On Demand and DVR-viewing. However, since advertisers hold all the power in that respect no changes have been made, nor are they likely to be made in the foreseeable future.
