TV Sweeps 101

POSTED BY elaine ON February 3, 2011

Today is February 3rd. A pretty ordinary day by most standards, but it’s big for the television industry – it’s the first day of February sweeps!

You’ve no doubt heard the term “sweeps” referring to television, but what exactly does that mean? Good question!

Sweeps is a measurement period in the TV world during which Nielsen Media Research (the firm that measures ratings for various media) mails out “diaries” to select households around the country four times a year: February, May, July and November. In theory, the participants record their viewing habits and the results are processed in a specific geographic order, thus “sweeping” through the country.

Another, more technologically advanced way of gathering the viewer data is through Set Meters, small devices connected to televisions that gather real-time viewing habits of the home and transmit the information directly to Nielsen every night through the phone line (kind of creepy if you ask me!).

But most of us don’t see any of this. What we DO see is TV networks attempting to ramp up their viewership during the sweeps periods with various, shall we say……gimmicks. These are times when your favorite TV shows feature Oscar-winning special guest stars and uber-hyped season and series finales air in all their we promise to answer years of questions and reveal all the island’s secrets glory (hello, LOST fans).

You may notice a slew of blockbuster movies-of-the-week and you will also see your local news shows running their more intense investigative pieces and sensational news items.

All of this is in an effort for local stations to grow their audience as much as possible, so that when the ratings for that period come out they can set their ad rates for the next three months.

Hyped up TV gimmicks = larger audience = more ad money. There you have it!

So if you’re pitching television producers during the sweeps periods, bring your A-game. Keep in mind what sweeps means for them and find creative ways to help them achieve their ratings goals. Offer exciting visual elements or demonstrations for your segment, clue them in to an issue facing your community and offer yourself as a source, be generous and round out your segment idea by offering other sources who would make it a more complete package.

TV sweeps is fun for the average viewer. So for the next few weeks, watch out for those “special, exclusive reports” on your nightly news and see who stops by on your favorite sitcom.

Tags: Nielsen, ratings, sweeps, tv ratings

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