Why do tv companies worry about ratings?
Well, TV companies base their advertising rates on how many people watch their shows. So, if more people watch CBS during a typical time slot than ABC, they can charge more for their ads. The ratings are determined by a specific small group of people who keep logs of what they watch. The are supposed to be a representative sample of who watches TV, what they watch, how much, etc. This is still open to debate, since TV has changed so much. TVs don’t track what you want, nor do the cable companies. However, even if they could, there would be a difference in someone watching a show while it was being broadcast and watching it on a delay (like a VCR). With regular TV, there is a greater chance that you will stick around to watch the commercials. If you are watching a tape of the show, there is a greater chance that you are going to fast forward through the ads. Ratings are concerned with advertising exposure, so there would be less exposure of the ads on a recorded show than one watched li
