TV Viewership Stats Wrapup

Back in July of 2008, I decided to keep track of my viewing time of WWE Monday Night Raw, ECW, TNA, and WWE Smackdown to see if I would be able to tell anything about the direction of the quality of the programming. After collecting a year’s worth of data, I’m officially wrapping this up.

You can find a summary of the results on the TV Viewership Stats page if you’re interested.

Going forward, I’m going to continue to collect some similar information, but in a way that won’t require me to keep track of every minute of the 7 hours of weekly wrestling programming I had to watch (and I’m not even watching WWE Superstars!). I’ll probably tweak things a little bit over the next month and see how it works out before I post anything here about it.

Fixed TV Viewing Stats for WWE Monday Night Raw

I had an error in the equation for the 4 week average in the WWE Monday Night Raw chart for TV Viewership Stats. Probably been there since I added it. Things looked a little too smooth for a while, and then the average ended up being lower than any of the data (you college kids should have caught that!).

Added a 12 week average to kind of smooth things out and show the trends as I’m coming up on a year of keeping track of this stuff.

As a side note, I’m planning on wrapping these up at the end of June. I think I’m going to be continuing to measure something, but not based on viewing time. I’ll let you know after I get a chance to think about it a little more.

Why I Don’t Track TV Ratings

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I was thinking about keeping track of the actual Nielsen ratings for wrestling TV programs in addition to tracking my own viewing habits. Here’s why I don’t think I’ll ever do it:

A story last week stated that ECW had the lowest rating in its history (or something similar). Was it that bad of a program? No, the ratings were down because of the presidential election.

I’m trying to measure the quality of the programming. The ratings are not direct measure of quality or how enjoyable the program was to a wrestling fan. The ratings can be/are affected by the enjoyment, but they can also be affected by other factors.

The ratings measure how many people (wrestling fan and non-wrestling fan) decided to watch the programming rather than doing one of a million other possible things they had available to them. They could have decided to watch another program, play a video game, read a book, or believe it or not even go outside.

BTW, “share” is a measure of how many people that decided to watch TV watched a given program. It is a percentage of the total viewers during that time period. A “10″ share would mean 10 percent of the people who were watching TV at the time were watching that program.

I’m more interested in what wrestling fans that watched the program thought of it than whether or not the general population watched it.

TV Viewing Update

I switched over to Google Docs to keep track of the wrestling TV viewing habits that I’ve been publishing here for a few months. One of the advantages is that the Google spreadsheet makes it easy to publish the charts using the same links every week. That means after watching a program I can put in the new numbers, update the chart, and it will immediately appear on this blog without me having to do anything else. No more offline spreadsheet. No more uploading of image files, etc. No more modifying links to point to the new images.

The only downside so far is that the Google office app is pretty weak in the charting area. In fact to get them all using the same scale I had to artificially put in a trend line of 100% to force it to come out the same. Hopefully they’ll improve this over time.

Since it’s pretty easy to update them, I’ll be doing it several times a week rather than waiting until the end (or the end of the month like I used to do). Most likely I won’t post anything here when I do an update. You can just go to the TV Viewership page whenever you want to see the latest data.

If I add any new metrics, like the number of annoying poses Matt Morgan does per match, I’ll let you know.

TV Viewership Update

I’m going to continue to keep track of how much of the weekly TV wrestling programs I watch, but I’m no longer going put those long postings and detailed graphs on the main page.

I created a new page/tab at the top of this blog for the TV viewership information. I’ll update it about once a week with the latest data, and probably just post a brief notice that it’s been updated.

I’ve been reading a few more things recently about blog formats and site designs. One thing I’ve tried to do in the past that it looks like I’ve gotten away from is mix up longer and shorter postings. I’m also trying to mix up some of the quicker news-related items (like the Daivari title win) with stories that are longer and specific to this site, like the training camp stuff.

I took a look at the main page and imagined what someone coming here for the first time would think. All I saw was extremely long postings of interviews and then a whole crap-ton of graphs. What’s up with the graphs? Isn’t this a wrestling site?

There were some decent (in my opinion) postings that got bumped off the main page because of some of this stuff, and to some people it might not be immediately clear that those are still available with a mouse click or two.

The advantage of having it a separate page is that it doesn’t get in the way of the normal flow of information posted here. People who are actually interested in that information can have a look at it. Everyone else doesn’t have to scroll past it. The only disadvantage I can think of is that it doesn’t show up in the RSS feed for the site when it’s updated. Posting a notice should take care of that issue, though.

TV Viewing Stats for August 2008

A couple of months ago, I decided to keep track of my viewing time of WWE Monday Night Raw, ECW, TNA, and WWE Smackdown over the period of several months to see if I’m able to tell anything about the direction of the quality of the programming (e.g. am I watching less, more, or about the same).

After looking at the data, there was enough variation there that a one week sample wasn’t going to tell me anything. So I decided to look at the trend of a longer period, like a month.

After experimenting with a few different ways to graph this, the best way I can think of is to show the trend for each program separately. I’m also showing a rolling 4 week average that could be useful as I get more data. I’m showing the “Percent of Episode Viewed” for each program. I also had a suggestion to make sure the vertical scales were all set to 100% so that you could compare the graphs.

Here is the data for WWE Monday Night Raw through August 2008:

Raw % of Episode Viewed (thru August 2008)

My Raw viewership is holding steady at about 60% of the episode viewed. Higher viewings are usually after PPVs where I tune in to get the results. For example, there was a PPV on 8/17, which caused a bump in Raw viewing time.

Here is ECW:

ECW % of Episode Viewed (thru August 2008)

ECW viewing is staying around 40% of the episode viewed. ECW and Smackdown take a little bit of a hit after a PPV because they give you a similar PPV recap (they don’t assume that you watch Raw, or in the case of Smackdown that you even have cable). Since Raw airs first, I skip through the recaps on the other two shows.

TNA:

TNA % of Episode Viewed (thru August 2008)

TNA is holding around 60% of an episode viewed. Pretty steady week to week. They go off in directions that I’m not interested in, but they’ve got a lot of talent that I enjoy watching. And of course they have Daivari Sheik Bashir.

Smackdown:

Smackdown % of Episode Viewed (thru August 2008)

Smackdown sits a little above 40%. Again, there’s a dip on the 8/22 episode because of me skipping the PPV recaps. Even though ECW and Smackdown are kind of the “B squad” for the WWE, new talent like former TNA wrestler K-Truth and the loss of JBL from the announce team can make the program interesting. Also, Minnesota wrester Bam Neely makes appearances on both ECW and Smackdown.

So how did the month of August look overall? Below are the 4 week averages for Percent of Episode Viewed and Time Until First Match (time from the start of the program until the opening bell of the first match, or first “unofficial” brawl):

Overall Percent of Episode Viewed (Aug 2008)

Looks like TNA takes the slight edge over Raw for my time. ECW and Smackdown are distant 3rd and 4th.

Overall Time Until First Match (Aug 2008)

Raw continues to have the biggest delays until the first match of the program, followed by Smackdown. Anything more than about 10 mins means that you went through the whole first segment and through a commercial break before seeing any in-ring action. I guess maybe some people like that. I still haven’t gone and looked to see how the actual ratings compare to my viewership, but I’m guessing that it wouldn’t show me anything I don’t already know. When I used to look at the ratings, the interview segments at the top of the show or the top of the 2nd hour (or the overrun, since the Raw program regularly goes over by a few minutes) where the highest rated quarter hours according to Nielsen.

TV Viewing Stats for July 2008

A little over a month ago, I decided to keep track of my viewing time of WWE Monday Night Raw, ECW, TNA, and WWE Smackdown over the period of several months to see if I’m able to tell anything about the direction of the quality of the programming (e.g. am I watching less, more, or about the same).

After looking at the data last week, there was enough variation there that a one week sample wasn’t going to tell me anything. I mentioned last time that I decided to look at the trend of a longer period, like a month.

After experimenting with a few different ways to graph this, the best way I can think of is to show the trend for each program separately. I’m also showing a rolling 4 week average that could be useful as I get more data.

Here is the data for WWE Monday Night Raw during July. The “Time Until First Match” graph didn’t look too useful as it bounces all over the place, so for now I’m just showing the “Percent of Episode Viewed” for each program.

RAW % of Episode Viewed (July 2008)

 My Raw viewing time looks to be trending upward, but I can’t imagine it breaking 80%. As you’ll see in a few graphs it’s my most watched program of the past month.

Here is ECW:

ECW % of Episode Viewed (July 2008)

 Sharp dropoff in the last week. Time will tell if it continues. As I mentioned last time I think it is due to several wrestlers that I tuned in for (C.M. Punk, Kofi Kingston) have either been “traded” or are temporarily wrestling on other shows due to them holding title belts.

TNA % of Episode Viewed (July 2008)

 TNA is trending down. Sick of the whole “Sting in the rafters” thing again and some of the other out-of-ring time wastes.

Smackdown % of Episode Viewed (July 2008)

 This one is kind of surprising considering my previous opinion of Smackdown was low enough that I didn’t even watch it. The WWE draft/talent exchange must have helped.

To wrap up the month, here are some bar charts of the 4 week averages of each program (the red data points above) shown together for comparison.

July 2008 % of Episode Viewed (4 week average)

 Raw is my most watched program, followed by TNA. ECW and Smackdown are about even.

July 2008 Time Until First Match (4 week average)

Raw continues to chew up the most time at the top of the program with non-wrestling material but it still was my most watched. I think I watched more of the opening than usual to find out what was going on with the general manager position, so we’ll see if I watch less since that storyline is mostly resolved.

It would be interesting to see if there is any correlation between my viewing and the actual ratings for the program, but I don’t want to create more work for myself. In the past, the interviews and all the parts I normally skip through were the highest rated, so I don’t know if it would be worth looking at. I’ll think about it.

Viewing Stats- Week of 7/28/08

About a month ago, I decided to keep track of my viewing time of WWE Monday Night Raw, ECW, TNA, and WWE Smackdown over the period of several months to see if I’m able to tell anything about the direction of the quality of the programming (e.g. am I watching less, more, or about the same).

I think this will be the last weekly update I give on the viewing stats. It’s becoming clear that this thing is kind of like the stock market: up, down, up, down… Week to week things change quite a bit in one direction and then the other, so I think it will be the longer trend that may show something. I’m still planning on tracking each show, but I’ll only post something about once every 4 weeks to see if there are any noticeable changes. We’ll see how that ends up looking. I have 4 weeks of data for July, so I’ll probably post something on that later this week.

For the week of 7/28/08:

Time To First Match (wk of 7/28/08)

Last week Raw was back up above 20 minutes before airing the first match. They had an excuse the previous week because they were coming off a PPV. No excuse this week, and ECW was right up there with them.

Percentage of Episode Viewed (wk of 7/28/08)

Even though Raw had a long wait until the first match, I ended up watching more of this program than any program in recent memory. For some reason the show held my interest more than usual. There was one match that stood out, and maybe the whole general manager shakeup was enough. ECW viewing was way down. My main reasons to watch ECW were CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, and seeing Bam Neely. Those guys have moved around to other programs so that’s probably why the Raw and Smackdown viewing was higher.

Raw Highlights:

• William Regal vs. CM Punk

ECW Highlights:

• None

TNA Highlights:

• Petey Williams

Smackdown Highlights:

• Mr. Kennedy vs. Shelton Benjamin

Viewing Stats- Week of 7/21/08

A few weeks ago, I decided to keep track of my viewing time of WWE Monday Night Raw, ECW, TNA, and WWE Smackdown over the period of several months to see if I’m able to tell anything about the direction of the quality of the programming (e.g. am I watching less, more, or about the same).

Still haven’t worked out how I want to show week-to-week changes for each promotion. I think I’ll only show those once a month, but I haven’t really thought any more about how to display it.

For the week of 7/21/08

Time Before First Match (Wk of 7/21/08)

The WWE had a Pay-Per-View on 7/20/08. What seems to be the trend is that after a PPV the first part of the programming consists of speeches and interviews related to the outcome. I would expect the “time until the first match” to increase. Both Raw and Smackdown increased, but ECW dropped by 5 mins. TNA was about the same as last week.

Percentage of Viewing Time (Wk of 7/21/08)

Partly because I hadn’t read up on any PPV results, I watched more of the Raw program this week to find out some of the match outcomes. ECW was identical to last week, TNA down a bit, Smackdown up. Smackdown was up because of finding out that Bam Neely is not a mute.

Highights for this week…

Raw Highlights:

• Kade vs. London

ECW Highlights:

• Evan Bourne

TNA Highlights:

• 4-way
• Table Match

Smackdown Highlights:

• Bam Neely speaks

Viewing Stats- Week of 7/14/08

This is the follow-up to what I started last week where I will be keeping track of my viewing time of WWE Monday Night Raw, ECW, TNA, and WWE Smackdown over the period of several months to see if I’m able to tell anything about the direction of the quality of the programming (e.g. am I watching less, more, or about the same).

I just have the data for the week this time. I had intended on having a couple of additional charts to show trends from week to week, but I haven’t quite figured out how to display that yet. I thought I would just do a line chart with the data points for each week, but it comes out looking like a mess. It might be a bit before I find the best way to display it, so for now I’ll just show the numbers for the current week.

For the week of 7/14/08

Time To First Match (wk of 7/14/08)

Quite a reversal this week, with Raw going from 28 minutes to 4 minutes until they showed their first match, and TNA going from 2 minutes last week to 18 minutes. (I’m counting the brawl on the ramp between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho as the first match for Raw. Otherwise it would be 7 mins).

TNA did have a Pay-Per-View the Sunday before, and there is probably a correlation between that and spending the first part of the program on non in-ring activities.

Percentage of Episode Viewed (wk of 7/14/08)

For the actual viewing time, I switched the chart to show it as a percentage instead of minutes, so I don’t have to scale the ECW totals since it is a one hour program. I’m assuming 100% is 90 minutes for the 2 hr shows, and 45 minutes for the 1 hr ECW.

RAW, ECW, and Smackdown viewing went up a bit, and TNA came down. Raw had less filler at the start, TNA had more, and Smackdown had a couple of decent matches (see below) which would account for the change.

This weeks highlights…

Raw Highlights:

• Kofi Kingston match

ECW Hightlights:

• Evan Bourne
• Hardy’s

TNA Highlights:

• Kaz vs. Petey Williams

Smackdown Highlights:

• Kendrick vs. Yang
• Umaga vs. Kennedy