Game of Thrones Ratings Climb

[Arya The Assassin]

I'm actually pretty sure the ratings drop was simply due to Bulls-Heat. That said, it might not get better next week because some fans -- including me -- have already seen the show.

Yeah, I read that there were several finals being shown on US television last weekend, so it has probably affected the initial viewership numbers somewhat. On the other hand, the Nielsen ratings are not scientific polls (ie. no random sampling), so the margin of error is bigger than for a major (and expensive) electoral poll. HBO has also pushed their HBO Go service in the last few weeks, and this may have affected the numbers as well. It'll be interesting to see HBO's total numbers.

Ah, I thought I'd read that the BR disc had been expanded to 33GB per layer recently.

It's a proposal that hasn't been approved yet, AFAIK. Besides, it wouldn't be a smart move for HBO to release GoT on BD66-discs, since it would require firmware updates. I think BD66 is (initially) more important for long movies that would otherwise require two discs (or more space-consuming 3D movies).

I've read somewhere that the BR disc will eventually reach 50GB per layer

They're aiming for a 1 TB BD within a couple of years. Sony is also developing a 1 TB dual layer BD. A 400 GB disc (16 layers) was developed back in 2008. But these capacities haven't been approved yet, and it'll take some time before it becomes a de facto standard after hitting the market.

19 Gig per episode (with extras) sounds like a lot (4 discs). 14 gig per episode (3 discs) seems reasonable.

11 GB per episode on average (like they did on True Blood) would require 3 discs for the entire season. That would also leave a lot of space for bonus material on the last disc. Even if they decided to squeeze 10 episodes onto 2 BD50 discs, they would still need another disc for the extras.

[adam snow]

I'm wondering how Game of Thrones ratings compare with other made for cable shows. Such as Sopranos, True Blood and Nurse Jackie.

I have always been suspicious of the ratings system anyway. It has seemed like arcane guesswork really because absolutely no one has ever asked me what I watch on a given night. So without feedback from at least 90% of the the viewers who could have watched the show (legally) how in the world can they make multimillion dollar decisions?

[The Anti-Targ]

They're aiming for a 1 TB BD within a couple of years. Sony is also developing a 1 TB dual layer BD. A 400 GB disc (16 layers) was developed back in 2008. But these capacities haven't been approved yet, and it'll take some time before it becomes a de facto standard after hitting the market.

Dang! Sony could remaster the entire 1st party PS2 back catalogue and put it on that 1TB big boy I'd wager.

What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, ratings. I hope it's just background noise with the ratings dip. It's a bit unreasonable to expect the ratings to go up every week for the entire season. I just hope the season finale cracks 4 million for the first showing, if not for Sunday over all at least.

[Slick Mongoose]

I have always been suspicious of the ratings system anyway. It has seemed like arcane guesswork really because absolutely no one has ever asked me what I watch on a given night. So without feedback from at least 90% of the the viewers who could have watched the show (legally) how in the world can they make multimillion dollar decisions?

The same way political polls work, you only need to ask a relatively small number of people to get a good idea of what the general population is doing.

[Arya The Assassin]

The same way political polls work, you only need to ask a relatively small number of people to get a good idea of what the general population is doing.

Adam Snow's criticism is highly valid. The Nielsen ratings are not based on scientific polling principles. A political poll, on the other hand, is usually based on scientific principles, with random sampling and a much smaller margin of error. The Nielsen rating pool is -- among other things -- not random and it's sensitive to response bias.

In a political poll the margin of error and sample size is usually published, whereas the margin of error for Nielsen ratings are never shown. The problem here is that people are made to believe that these numbers are accurate, because the margin of error isn't published and there's no mention of estimates.

A spokesman for the company said a few years ago that he believed that the margin of error was +/- 0.3 points. What does that mean? It means that, for example, a Nielsen rating of 2.5 could actually be the same as a rating of 3.1! Statistically speaking, the difference isn't significant.

So this week's small drop from 2.6 to 2.4 is within the margin of error. The change might be real or it might not be real.

[red snow]

I'm actually pretty sure the ratings drop was simply due to Bulls-Heat. That said, it might not get better next week because some fans -- including me -- have already seen the show.

On the brightside they should be able to get rock-solid ratings for those who watched it on HBO GO as surely they just need to see what the unique visit rate for the site was? Far more accurate than the way they usually gather ratings and they'll be shooting themselves in the foot if they don't add those figures onto the next ep? It being in HD will probably encourage some to watch again.

[Enteril]

You guys do realize that all the ratings drops/climbs for the past few weeks are almost assuredly within the sampling margin of error, right? For all we know ratings have actually been dropping for three weeks in a row, or rising for three weeks in a row, or have done absolutely nothing. The important point is that it's staying within a very narrow interval.

EDIT: and of course, I see that I've been beaten to this. carry on!

[Elainia Cassel]

Interesting that there was a wee drop. Need to see total week's number though not just Sunday night. Could be a bit of audience fatigue. People might have got to the end of Ep5 and decided the series wasn't for them after all. Perhaps they were put off by Theon's limp-on.

I thought it was more that people who read the books figured that the scene with Eddard leaving the brothel would be in it. I had a feeling it was in it.

[ryamano]

I'm wondering how Game of Thrones ratings compare with other made for cable shows. Such as Sopranos, True Blood and Nurse Jackie.

I have always been suspicious of the ratings system anyway. It has seemed like arcane guesswork really because absolutely no one has ever asked me what I watch on a given night. So without feedback from at least 90% of the the viewers who could have watched the show (legally) how in the world can they make multimillion dollar decisions?

Wikipedia is our friend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sopranos#Ratings

The Sopranos had Nielsen ratings near 3.5 million in the first season. At its peak, the series had an average of 11 million viewers per episode. It's considered the most successful cable show in American TV history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Blood#Ratings

True Blood had a first season average of 2 million viewers. Season 3 had an average of almost 5 million viwers.

Wikipedia doesn't have statistics for average season ratings for other shows that I heard of. I should watch more TV to know about other shows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Men#Ratings

Mad Men's 1st season premiere had 0.92 million viewers. The ratings of the premieres rose each season. In the 5th season, the season premiere had 2.92 million viewers. I think season premiere and season finales have more viewers, as a rule of thumb.

[80r]

One bluray would result in a heavily compressed mess, though you could certainly fit the whole season on one bluray if you wanted the show in 480p standard def.

Hardly. I regularly compress 50 minute HD shows to about 1-2 GB per episode (depending on motion and audio; something like Planet Earth is fine at 1GB, but Rome needs 2) and there is very, very little difference; you can only tell when comparing stills. 2 Hour movies need 3-4 GB.

I'm pretty hardcore about my encodes. If I can see a difference while the video is in motion, I redo it.

Note that I am not including foreign languages and multiple tracks. I'm just saying that it wouldn't need to be 480p.

[Spring Bass]

Wikipedia is our friend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sopranos#Ratings

The Sopranos had Nielsen ratings near 3.5 million in the first season. At its peak, the series had an average of 11 million viewers per episode. It's considered the most successful cable show in American TV history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Blood#Ratings

True Blood had a first season average of 2 million viewers. Season 3 had an average of almost 5 million viwers.

Wikipedia doesn't have statistics for average season ratings for other shows that I heard of. I should watch more TV to know about other shows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Men#Ratings

Mad Men's 1st season premiere had 0.92 million viewers. The ratings of the premieres rose each season. In the 5th season, the season premiere had 2.92 million viewers. I think season premiere and season finales have more viewers, as a rule of thumb.

Mad Men hasn't had a fifth season, yet. :P

I would imagine the lower Mad Men rating is a bigger issue than it would be for a show on HBO, since Mad Men is partially dependent on advertising.

[The Anti-Targ]

Mad Men hasn't had a fifth season, yet. :P

I would imagine the lower Mad Men rating is a bigger issue than it would be for a show on HBO, since Mad Men is partially dependent on advertising.

You doubt the accuracy of Wikipedia? Where's my sword?

[Arya The Assassin]

Hardly. I regularly compress 50 minute HD shows to about 1-2 GB per episode (...) and there is very, very little difference

Only if you downscale to 720p, and even then the degradation is slightly noticeable :) Anyway, this thread isn't about video compression and there's been a lot of off-topic talk in this thread already, so I won't go into further detail here (send me a PM if you want to discuss this)

[Kese]

Fantasy drama Game Of Thrones had 527k (2%) on Sky Atlantic from 9pm

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s107/britains-got-talent/news/a322310/britains-got-talent-semi-nabs-almost-11m.html

and small dip...seems about 500K is the core audience for first showing.

[valacirca]

Interested to see how the ratings ended up for E07 considering it was shown on HBO GO ahead of schedule, which might have resulted in less viewers when it was eventually aired in its regular time slot.

[Werthead]

According to BARB in the UK, Episode 5 got a weekly total of 1.429m, up on the 1.352 for Episode 4. This is interesting as Episode 4's overnights were a strong 628,000 whilst Episode 5 was a more restrained 522,000.

Not sure what that really indicates, except that when the overnights are down, the repeats and online viewings seem to perk up to compensate.

But impressively, Thrones' worst week so far in the overnights is still hugely more than the best audience Boardwalk Empire ever managed to draw on the same channel.

[nzk0]

the drop in the UK might also be due to the football (soccer) game. People in the UK forget everything else when football is involved lol

[Arya The Assassin]

Rating numbers for episode 7 are in (my emphasis):

As you'll recall, last week the numbers dropped for the first time (a bit inexplicably given the show had just aired its creatively strongest episode yet). This week things were set up for a high degree of muddiness. Episode 7 was offered on HBO's online service a week in advance, plus there's the three-day holiday weekend to contend with — a period that often results in lower viewership. Thrones viewership was … unchanged. Another 2.4 million viewers for its premiere airing and a total of 3.2 million for the night including the repeat. What's vaguely still impressive about this: Overall TV viewership for the night was down 21 percent due to the holiday.

Source:

'Game of Thrones' episode seven ratings are in

[Calesta]

I have stoped watching the show. Why they think they need to make it a porn show is beyond me.

Am so disapointed

[Bahimiron]

I have stoped watching the show. Why they think they need to make it a porn show is beyond me.

Am so disapointed

So you're informing us that the ratings are 'one less than before, okay!'?

Thanks?