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According to a Canadian Media Research
Inc. study commissioned by Rogers TV, the CRTC is incorrectly interpreting
Bureau of Broadcast Measurement statistics on television viewership
numbers.
The CRTC is currently examining its community television policy. As part
of this proceeding, it issued a report on April 8 which has been used by
some critics of cable-provided community television to "prove" that Rogers
TV is not often watched. The report states that in the 2008-09 broadcast
year, Rogers' community television stations generated a 0.2% share of the
Canadian English-language television market.
The figure is misleading, the CMRI study concludes, because BBM share
numbers measure viewership on a Canada-wide basis. But the fact is that no
community television services are broadcast to national audiences. Barry
Kiefl, President of CMRI states:
It is not possible to isolate Rogers subscribers in BBM data but if one
could, the audience reach (and audience share %) of Rogers community
channel would be substantially higher than shown in the table.
"The share figure is extremely misleading," says Colette Watson, Vice
President Rogers TV. "Given that Rogers Cable serves approximately 20% of
TV households in Canada, Rogers TV's share is actually closer to 1.0%.
This figure compares favourably to other programming services available on
basic cable, including CBC Newsworld, CTV News Channel, and YTV," explains
Watson.
Furthermore, according to Kiefl, audience reach and audience satisfaction
are more suitable metrics for evaluating a community channel's
performance. Reach calculates the number of different people who watch the
channel over a given amount of time, i.e. a week, a month or a broadcast
season. By that standard, Rogers' community channels are serving the needs
of local viewers in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.
"Millions of people are watching our community channels," says Watson.
"According to BBM data, audience reach for Rogers' community channels was
approximately 2 million viewers through most of the broadcast year," adds
Watson. "That's the number we focus on."
Audience satisfaction levels are high. CMRI conducts the "TV Trends and
Quality (TVQ) Survey" annually to test consumer satisfaction with all
channels available today via cable, DTH or over-the-air. In the 2009 TVQ
Survey, over 20% of Rogers and Shaw subscribers indicated they watch the
community channel at least once per week. The survey also revealed that
over 70% of Rogers subscribers said they were satisfied or very satisfied
with the community channel.
These findings echo similar research conducted in March 2010 by The
Strategic Counsel. That study found that 73% of Rogers' cable customers
strongly value their Rogers community television service.
Source: Broadcaster, 04/28/2010 |