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Do Networks Ignore Sci Fi Fans?

screenrant.com — Neilsen Ratings are the measurement of selected "families" who actually sit down to watch television programs. This tells me that networks tend to rely on the black and white data, and not consider what the "unnoticed" audience watches.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 3, 2008

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  • soupr, on 03/03/2008, -7/+81Doesnt everyone ignore Sci Fi fans?
  • nightbird47, on 03/03/2008, -0/+44A long line of fantasy and science fiction shows have gone down this path. As the fandoms of this kind of shows today tend to be very internet savvy, the internet is a major part of the shows exposure. Until this is rectified, cable will be the sancuary for creative television.
    And Neilson itself discriminates by their methods. Those who view online or dvr are more likely not to have the time to deal with neilson. They may choose viewers at random, but they have to agree to be neilson families.

    With the new recognition of internet viewing from the writers strike, it is hoped that the system will catch up with the reality before the networks lose.
  • SuperSunny, on 03/03/2008, -2/+41Journeyman kicked ass
  • spyd3rweb, on 03/03/2008, -0/+36SciFi channel ignores the Sci-fi fans that tell it to dump ECW wrestling.
  • Norsu, on 03/03/2008, -4/+29Jericho has a dominant online presence and large fanbase. I fully expect they go right through these issues and return for a season 3!
  • BigJStudd, on 03/03/2008, -6/+28I know I will be buried for this, but didn't we have the exact same reasoning behind Ron Paul and his support? (IE: they aren't contacting the right people, cell phones, he actually holds the silent majority, etc..). In the end he did respectably in some places, and his support was decent in some states like Wyoming, but supporters drastically overstated their case.

    I've never had anyone talk to me in person about Firefly or Serenity. I wish it was otherwise - but people probably have a harder time relating to a drama in outer space than they do to a drama in someone's house. (On a tangent, most Science Fiction has very little science involved in it, but that's another thread all-together)
  • inactive, on 03/03/2008, -2/+24Sci-fi is expensive most of the time hence if you have 1000 viewers of sci-fi and 1000 of sit-com you may go with sit-com production.

    However, it must not be underestimated that extremely low budgets can give awesome sci-fi.

    For example:
    - The movie "Pi".
    - Certain episodes of "Farscape" and "Babylon 5" (or certain episodes of most series for that matter that centered on relationships or abstract concepts)
    - The movies "Gattaca", "Donnie Darko", most parts of "V for Vendetta", "Twelve Monkeys" or even "E.T.". or "Truman Show"

    Quality sci-fi can be made with low budgets too.
  • Spartan900, on 03/03/2008, -0/+20At least America has some tradition of Sci-fi production and broadcast.

    In Australia, if a new sci-fi show makes it through the first season without cancellation, being bumped to 2am or being replaced by tennis-football-cricket, its extremely lucky.

  • Pixelante, on 03/03/2008, -0/+20You forget the original "Doctor Who", which had a budget you couldn't really lower any more...
  • KaiUno, on 03/03/2008, -2/+20Well... Joss Whedon will soon remedy that! All hail Dollhouse!

    Scary it's on Fox though. Maybe the Firefly sales still has the fox folks eyes open.
  • Tyrghast, on 03/03/2008, -0/+18Fox and the idiot Neilson ratings were the reason that the genius Firefly was cancelled. Best show to ever grace television.
  • drstock, on 03/03/2008, -0/+17Here in Sweden the largest commercial channel, TV4, just started a sister channel exclusive to Sci Fi.
  • Jonmad17, on 03/03/2008, -2/+19Lost, one of the most respected, acclaimed, and watched shows on television, is 100% pure Sci-Fi.

    And last weeks episode cemented it as one of the greatest sci--fi (if not any genre) shows ever created. It was a real head-spin that episode.
  • Abomonog, on 03/03/2008, -1/+17Inaccurate. A.C. Neilson does not use selected families. They'll take anyone with a housephone who is willing to do the work involved. They are always looking for someone to carry around their mystery pager. It's just a matter of contacting them. I think Sci-fi usually comes up short on ratings because it caters to a demographic who is not very likely to participate in the Neilson program.

    Oh, and you don't actually have to watch the program. Just be in the room for about 20 seconds and the pager records it as watched.
  • EpicSelekta, on 03/03/2008, -2/+18Big companies cater to the large, mainstream populous instead of a niche market like sci fi. Does this surprise anyone?
  • fearofsociety, on 03/03/2008, -0/+15Battlestar Galactica is surprisingly good, considering it's on Sci-Fi Channel which is horrible most of the time.
  • RealmDown, on 03/03/2008, -0/+14We have that in the states. It shows horror and wrestling. Bleh. And after Farscape was cancelled, they added more horror and wrestling.

  • dvntrsnsltd, on 03/03/2008, -1/+15Just give me the new season of Doctor Who already!
  • tetraelement, on 03/03/2008, -0/+13My girlfriend actually loves shows such as Firefly. I showed her the pilot a few weeks ago and before the week was up, she watched all the episodes and now cannot wait to see Serenity. And what is best of all is that she likes the show because of the science fiction. She appreciates that they show no sound in space, how the cultures of china and USA are mixed and everything else.
  • reaper527, on 03/03/2008, -1/+14if scifi didn't get ignored, we'd all be wearing our brown coats watching new episodes of firefly right now
  • inactive, on 03/03/2008, -1/+13I'm a single male sci-fi fan, and I was a Nielsen "family" 2 years ago. So there's that to consider. Could be we're being counted and there really are more of "them" than there are of us.
  • agentsarah6, on 03/03/2008, -0/+11Sci-Fi fans aren't just ignored in the US. They're forgotten over here in Australia as well.
  • wbeavis, on 03/03/2008, -0/+11TV will migrate to the Internet. This will allow improved statistics of viewers. Targetting ads such as google's web ads will improve ad dollars.

    For those who say TV will not be transmitted over the Internet, let me explain some things. First, analog TV over that air is dead next year. All other TV transmission for the past few years has been digital. Cable companies have built up their infrastructure specifically to do this. They did not jump into the ISP market for the sex appeal. We are in a testing waters and development phase. As the technology matures, content providers will jump on board. Once you digitize something, you can transmit it over the Internet.
  • MrDo, on 03/03/2008, -1/+12Horray for bittorrent ratings.
  • archivist, on 03/03/2008, -0/+10is it just me or is anyone else wondering wtf is an rss icon doing as an image representation of this digg submission?
  • kublerross, on 03/03/2008, -3/+13TV sucks period.
    they only work to sell you to advertisers.

    the greatest sci-fi movie/tv shows pale in comparison to what books are available
  • whaler, on 03/03/2008, -0/+9A friend of mine (mid-20s, married, no kids) just got a Nielsen people-meter installed. Dude told her everything she watches will count for nearly 30,000 viewers. Too bad she couldn't have gotten it a year ago when she was watching Veronica Mars every week.
  • jazzjeff, on 03/03/2008, -0/+9They should take Sci-fi fans into account. We are more loyal than the ordinary viewer, spend more on dvd's and are willing to stick with a lot of stuff that is just usually dumped.
  • nova912, on 03/03/2008, -2/+11In order for Jericho to overcome it's viewership issues it needs to just drop, completely, the human interest from the show for a while and move the plot along. I have watched the show since the beginning and I only have gotten this far because of Tivo's ability to skip the pointlessness. I know they want a show that's serial and slowly revealing, like LOST, but lost already exists and I can only take so much fluff.

    It's like they want the sci-fi crowd but also want to cater to 40 something stay at home moms; the two group's interests don't mix... even if the sci-fi crown lives in the 40 something stay at home mom's house still -- get a job!
  • martoq, on 03/03/2008, -0/+9Um..Yes?
  • omnithought, on 03/03/2008, -1/+10You only need one word to answer that question: Firefly
  • ianfin, on 03/03/2008, -0/+8Bring back the 4400. That show just kept getting better every season.
  • RealmDown, on 03/03/2008, -0/+8I still say they should rename to "The Wrestling channel with horror"
  • RealmDown, on 03/03/2008, -0/+8Just don't wear a red shirt.
  • judist63, on 03/03/2008, -1/+9I am a fourty something mom and also work nine hours a day five days a week.....so what does that mean? It means that just because I am fourty something doesn't mean that my interest in the SciFi channel and it's programming should be discounted. I enjoy a variety of televsion programs on differing channels and SciFi is a big part of my tv viewing. Jericho has a large fan base and SciFi is very smartly attracting new viewers who they wish to have on their marketing base. I think it is a good move on their part and should be commended for it.
  • hexydes, on 03/03/2008, -0/+7I can't figure out why the networks don't clump things together more (other than the fact that they have no idea what they are doing and are working with methods and ideas that are 50 years old). Like for NBC, just make a sci-fi night. They own Battlestar Galactica; they should have had, on Monday nights, Heroes at 8pm, Journeyman at 9pm, and BSG at 10pm. You might scare off some viewers, but there's a good chance that you'd be getting 90% of the sci-fi audience (as well as others).

    Also, don't be afraid to leave a show on for more than a season. Sometimes it takes a season or two to build up a fan-base.

    Finally, it's time for TV networks to start paying attention to torrents. We can play this little game of not acknowledging each other as much as we want, or they can admit that 15,000 people downloading a show is a pretty telling statistic of a shows popularity.
  • sdellboy, on 03/03/2008, -0/+7Hmm. Global conspiracy, you say? This is a case for Mulder & Scully.
  • EpicSelekta, on 03/03/2008, -0/+7The strangest thing is the difference between TV and movie success for Sci Fi. For TV shows, I agree with you, it is difficult for the modal audience to relate to just about anything on the Sci Fi channel. Movies, however, seem to have had a different success: Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien, Back To The Future, and Godzilla are all (negotiably) sci fi franchises that have enjoyed enormous success. Moreover, when Sci Fi combines with comedy, it produces even better movies: Men In Black and Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure, for example.

    Oh, and BLADERUNNER. Not really successful immediately, but the cult following sure sold out the DVD release pretty damn quick.
  • Etchii, on 03/03/2008, -3/+10I'm probably the only person who wants a 5th season of Enterprise.
  • VinceNoir, on 03/03/2008, -0/+7Who the hell dugg you down! Is there no decency in the world today?
  • RealmDown, on 03/03/2008, -1/+8Firefly is the direction Sci-Fi should be going.
  • inactive, on 03/03/2008, -0/+7Hope you like ghost hunting shows and bad, bad, baaaaad B movies.
  • starkruzr, on 03/03/2008, -0/+7Yes, it did. How it got such ***** Nielsens is beyond me.
  • rz8472, on 03/03/2008, -2/+9Short answer is yes. I saw Masters of Science Fiction on ABC... and while it wasn't great, it was good enough to keep around for a few seasons, and had some of the more obscure stories from Heinlein and other scifi authors. ABC cancelled it after 4 episodes.
  • Metis2be, on 03/03/2008, -0/+7It's a valid point, but the article uses viewer feedback from TV guide as his supporting evidence.
  • artzylady, on 03/03/2008, -1/+7Absolutely! Jericho is an excellent example of how and why decent programming, which appears to be the favorite show of many fans is often ignored by the Nielsen numbers. New methods need to be put in place immediately so that these excellent series have a chance to succeed
  • jamesdew, on 03/03/2008, -0/+6well yes, I remember looking at market research while studying media studies that said that the average sci-fan has a large amount of disposable income and are willing to spend large amounts of money on their interests (possibly because they dont have girlfriends, live at home with their mothers and work with computers)
    Ok i'm only half serious about that last part but seriously they are a valuable and specific audience to market products too.
  • BlueChivalry, on 03/03/2008, -0/+6If its so much trouble getting sci-fi shows to stick why do they keep making them? Yet you'd think if they're going to keep making sci-fi shows why not put the effort into collecting accurate ratings? And if the networks played their cards right they could make a lot of profit online as sci-fi fans tend to be hardcore and interactive with games, chat, and collectibles.
  • bsteger, on 03/03/2008, -2/+8The Ron Paul comparison is a good one. Sci Fi fans are passionate and vocal, especially on the internet. Normal people outnumber scifi fans significantly, and watch stuff like Two and a Half Men and Deal or No Deal. As bad as it sucks when a show I like gets cancelled, the networks are there to make money, and they wouldn't cancel a moneymaking scifi show out of spite for the genre. There just isn't the audience to support it on a network. But syndication (Star Treks, B5) and cable (Battlestar, Stargates) have been very good for science fiction, so there's not all that much to complain about.
  • starkruzr, on 03/03/2008, -1/+7This is like saying "motorcycles suck in comparison to cars." They serve the same general purpose, but are completely different and equally valid experiences.
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