Hello, welcome to this video on ratings and competition in television news.
In this video we're going to talk about the challenges
that broadcast journalists face when trying to deliver the news on television.
Specifically we'll look at how the competition between news programs
is measured.
And then we'll look at two ways television journalist try to compete or
try to get the most viewers.
Nowadays viewers have a lot of channels to choose from when
sitting down to watch the news on television.
There are even entire news channels dedicating 24 hours a day
to covering current events.
Which we'll talk about more in a later video.
Each program of course really wants to have the most viewers.
This creates a lot of competition or channels trying to get the most viewers.
How do channels measure how many people are watching their news program?
How do we know which news program has the most viewers?
The answer is ratings.
Ratings are reports that show the number of viewers each news program has.
Ratings are very important to producers, anchors and correspondents because
they want to know that they have the highest number of viewers.
So how does this competition for ratings affect the news?
Well if news programs compete with one another then
they're trying to have the most viewers.
But they're all reporting on the news, right?
Aren't their broadcast very similar?
Don't news programs generally cover the same events?
How different could they be?
Well there are a couple of things that news programs can do to stand out,
to offer their viewers something different and get More Viewers.
Let's look at an example.
In 2015, Canada hosted the Women's World Cup.
The US team won the game against the Japanese team.
Most news programs around the world reported on the Women's World Cup.
How can a news cover this story in a way that gets them the most viewers.
One way is by getting exclusive interviews with players or coaches.
Exclusive means not shared with others.
So if news at ten has an exclusive interview with the teams coach.
That means the coach will only talk with the journalist at News at ten and
not with any other journalist.
This exclusive interview will help NewsHour at 10 get more viewers,
because their viewers will learn information that they cannot find
on any other news programs.
What are other things journalists can do to get high ratings for
their news programs?
Being first to report a story is also very important.
For example, in 2015 Prince William and
Princess Kate of Great Britain welcome their second baby, Charlotte to the world.
Journalist camped, outside St Mary's in London weeks ahead of time.
So they could hear the announcement first.
That way their news program could have the story first.
If viewers think that news program breaks the story before other news
programs it's likely to have high ratings.
To summarize, television journalist have to find ways to have high ratings while
delivering the news.
High ratings are important because news programs want to have the most viewers.
One way that journalists try to increase their ratings
is interviewing people exclusively.
Another way that journalists try to beat the competition is by being first to
break a story.
In the next video,
we'll talk about other ways television journalists try to get high ratings.