Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

n 8 Programming WHAT TV-Q DOES: Of the 36 new nighttime network shows that debuted this season, 10 series — Hennesey, The Rebel, Dobie Gillis, Bonanza, The Untouchables, Dennis the Menace, Laramie, Hotel de Paree, The Deputy and Bronco, (not necessarily in that order) will be audience hits. On the sackcloth side of the research fence, 9 shows — Troubleshooters, The Lineup, Charlie Weaver, Fibber McGee & Molly, Dick Clarkes World of Talent, Dennis O’Keefe Show, Philip Marlowe, Revlon’s Big Party, and Love & Marriage — will be flops and are likely candidates for the axe. These "qualified predictions” were tossed at N.Y. admen gathered for an ETES seminar luncheon Nov. 24 by Henry Brenner, ex-Standard Brands research executive who now heads the most-discussed & least-understood new TV research ser^'ice — TV-Q. Sharing the luncheon double-bill with Brenner was Albert E. Sindlinger, who announced details of a Sindlinger plan to invade national TV audience measurement with an all-embracing new rating service. Brenner, who told the TV-radio executives his service measured “individual viewer reaction to programs” rather than families or sets, admitted that a new formula, developed to relate the present like-dislike levels of TV-Q to future Nielsen audience shares, was "an imperfect service, making predictions about another imperfect service.” Program appeal today, he added, varies by many factors, including sex, age, husband’s occupation, education, geographical region. Actual audience-size ratings of new shows do not necessarily show this. (“Sometimes, most of the audience is just watching the ‘least unacceptable’ show among 3 networks, and strong new competition could clobber it,” he explained later.) There is also a new research area to be explored in charting the relationship of program appeal to product usage & buying. Sindlinger Outlines New Rating Service Veteran researcher Sindlinger took a different tack on the rating issue, when his turn came. Charging that the recent quiz scandal “was created by the insistence on high ratings at any cost,” Sindlinger stated that “the broadcast rating appeals to most of us because we have educated & trained ourselves to over-simplification.” What Sindlinger will offer shortly is “our attempt to transfer the emphasis from size of rating to quality of rating.” It will be a fast-service measurement (“within a week following the telecast”) in most cases, covering such factors as: TV sets in use by section of the country, daily audience reports, national TV ratings, data on program selectors by sex & age, household & audience characteristics, in-home & out-of-home viewing data, and a special “custom series” of rating measurements including sponsoridentification studies. Henry Brenner’s TV-Q service is something of a Cinderella among veteran research firms like Nielsen, ARB, Trendex, Pulse and others. Now in its 3rd season, it counts among its subscribers all 3 networks and such major agencies as J. Walter Thompson, Benton & Bowles, BBDO, Ted Bates, Leo Burnett and Y&R. Further background on the TV-Q service, which an NBC-TV research executive told us last week was “definitely gaining importance in our program decisions,” was sketched for us by Jan Van Emmerik, who is gen. mgr. of TV-Q. HTI, the parent firm, was founded 8 years ago, but TV-Q was not born until the spring of 1957. In June NOVEMBER 30, 1959 1958 the first commercial service began. Research is done in a national consumer panel of some 10-12,000 families divided into 12 matched groups, using mail-in ballots. What TV-Q does is to measure public attitude toward specific programs on a 6-point “scale of preferences” ranging from “one of my favorites” to “never have seen.” The final TV-Q rating is the percentage of respondents familiar with the program who consider it a favorite. TV-Q reports are prepared fairly quickly. Ballots are mailed on the first of the month, tabulating begins by the 15th and by the 21st reports are ready. In themselves, the ratings thus achieved are interesting, but the real value of TV-Q, network & agency buyers told us, is in prediction. Almost immediately, researchers discovered a close relationship between audience like or dislike for network programs and the share-ofaudience levels that the programs would draw in the future. Predicted 1957 & 1958 Hits TV-Q figures in the fall of 1957 showed that such shows as Wagon Train, Leave It to Beaver, Have Gun, Will Travel, The Price Is Right and Maverick would rise in the ratings to become hits. They did. Last fall, TV-Q figures showed similar promise for The Rifleman, 77 Sunset Strip, and The Lawman, although TV audiences doublecrossed researchers by not awarding rating accolades to Yancy Derringer and Cimarron City. The growing popularity of TV-Q, Brenner & Van Emmerik told us, is closely related to the agency & network thirst for knowledge as to the validity of their program guesses. Most agencies can get within 75% accuracy in predicting Nielsen audience shares somewhere around the 7th or 8th week of a new show’s run. TV-Q’s box score, so far, is in the neighborhood of 80-90% accuracy, within 3 points of audience share. As to pinpoint accuracy, TV-Q claims a score last fall of 43% of its share predictions having come within a single rating point — a strong indication of the general validity of its deceptively simple method. There are, Brenner told us after the RTES meeting, some interesting general trends at work among the new crop of fall shows, as compared with the new shows of the 1958 season. Comedy is on an upbeat; the average “Q” score (listed as a “favorite”) of comedies is 4 points higher this season as compared with last. The adventure-show average among newcomers is up a point, but all other new shows in regularly scheduled categories (apart from news, specials) are down in varying degrees. Dropoffs this season: mysteries (down 7 points); musical shows (down 5); Westerns (down 4); drama (down 3). This means that more people are showing a greater liking for the new crop of comedies than they did for new comedies last year and that they are demonstrating a drop-off of interest in new shows of other types. TV-Q prediction came true Nov. 25 when ABC-TV suddenly dropped Dick Clark’s World of Talent from the Sun., 10:30-11 p.m. period “because of low ratings.” Advertiser P. Lorillard is sticking with the time slot and will program Filmways’ 21 Beacon Street reruns (Dennis Morgan), which was an NBC-TV summer replacement this year. The move “has nothing to do with Clark’s recent payola headlines,” a network spokesman told us. ABC gave Clark a vote of confidence however by scheduling “Dick Clark’s Iw New Year’s Eve Party,” a 90-min. WFIL-TV Philadelphiaoriginating show Dec. 31. A 2nd TV-Q forecast was realized u last week when The Lineup was dropped (see p. 13).