Does the Main Stream Media have an Achilles Heel?

Earlier this week Sky News was dominated by the story of the Achilles injury that will keep David Beckham out of the upcoming World Cup finals in South Africa.

They deemed it such an important news event that it lead their hourly bulletins for over 24 hours. This was greeted with derision from my football hating colleagues of several various nationalities. How can that be the top story in the UK they said, considering what a state your country is in?

This got me thinking, why do SKY think that everyone in Britain is remotely interested in whether or not Beckham goes to the World Cup, and more to the point, promote it above all other newsworthy stories.

Are the MSM really in touch with what the populace are interested in? Using the power of e-mail I contacted all of my British colleagues and asked them three simple questions.

Have you heard of the Jeremy Kyle show 70% said Yes.

Have you ever watched the Jeremy Kyle Show 94% said No.

Do you know anyone who watches the Jeremy Kyle Show 94% said No.

It would appear the viewing figures come from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) which was set up in 1981 to provide the industry standard television audience measurement service for broadcasters and the advertising industry.

BARB is owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BSkyB and the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and is a not for profit company limited by guarantee.

They base their figures on the viewing habits of 5,100 households. I’m sure there are many fancy formulae for converting this data to give estimated viewing figures for each particular show, but come on!

I am now convinced that they have no idea what people are watching, or are interested in.

Is it any wonder Newspaper sales are down? That the BBC are facing cuts, and the general level of TV programmes are rubbish. They have lost touch with what normal people watch and read.

Some of the most heard phrases from my e-mail survey –

Nothing on the Box tonight.

Who watches this rubbish?

Not more repeats

This paper is just full of Bloody adverts.

So, I wondered, can I join the BARB panel?

You cannot volunteer to join the panel. Panel households are selected randomly, with controls in place to ensure that all sectors of the population and all TV viewing environments in the home are represented. Every home has a chance of being selected to join the panel.

So my last question is. Do you know anyone who is on the BARB panel?

Well, do you?

1
Blink March 21, 2010 at 17:11

No

if you want a postal reply – 17 no-s

2
Richard B March 21, 2010 at 17:17

No. And despite the Govt’s frequent insistence on ‘public consultation’ and ‘what people tell us they want’, I have never ever been asked my opinion on anything, so it looks like either everyone else is getting my share of Govt surveys, or their sample size is as laughable small as BARB’s.

Could I suggest that next time you phrase your question slightly differently? I have heard of the Jeremy Kyle show, and once I watched about ten minutes of it to see what all the fuss was about. So if you had asked me if I had ever watched, I would have been among the 6% who said yes. And I loathed it and would never watch it again. I suspect the figures are about right, though. There are millions of brain-dead chimps who watch this stuff, who would never appear in your list of colleagues (or mine).

3
Stewart Cowan March 21, 2010 at 17:36

No. And no use me being asked what I watch as I gave up my licence in 2005. I still watch DVDs legally. I have just waded through about 100 episodes (3 series) of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Marvellous! At just over 20 minutes per episode, just the right length for a TV dinner.

I did get someone from Mori (I think) round a couple of months ago asking me to record my radio listening for the following week. I told her I hardly ever listened to the radio, but she said that’s all right because people like me matter too (aw, bless!).

She handed me a not insubstantial log book, so I felt slightly bad when I handed it back. All I’d listened to all week was “Any Questions”.

4
Ancient and Tattered Airman March 21, 2010 at 17:39

Many consider football to be the main religion of this septic land. It prevents the people from engaging any remaining brain cells and is thus approved of by the powers that be, for the plebs would surely revolt if they found out what was going on.

5
Man With A Very Hot Bladder March 21, 2010 at 17:43

People who watch the Jeremy Kyle Show can’t read.

6
Cato March 21, 2010 at 18:20

I’ve set my TV to explode if any soaps come on and aren’t extinguished within 5 seconds. Likewise reality shows, Jeremy Kyle and that sort of crap.
I do confess to being somewhat of an afficionado for quiz programmes though…if only to keep my ageing brain ticking over.

As for football, it can be stuck where the sun don’t shine. Under-brained, over-paid louts and serial shaggers earning a fortune for the ability to kick a piece of leather about.

I must also confess to being on the YouGov panel…if only to earn some pennies…and I do mean pennies.

7
Joe Bratley March 21, 2010 at 18:35

The only time I have had to watch Jeremy Kyle was while sat in a Crown
Court ( I am a pensioner and first experiance of these establishments)
waiting area before a case to gain Possession of a house from G Brown,s
benifit scum. But the TV worked, pity the heating(January) bill had not
been paid.

8
Demetrius March 21, 2010 at 18:49

Like Cato I admit to taking Yougov money. But I have a lot of fun playing the system. The answers I give depend on how I want the results to come out, not what I actually do or like. As for TV there is the delicate question of “captive audiences”. A great many pensioners (and others) I know have TV on all the same to avoid living in silence. I have radio when on the computer whether or not I am listening or not. Similarly there are many people who watch stuff because they thing they “ought to” as opposed to wanting to. How many BARB recorded viewers actually really watch or listen?. As for News, at one LSE media seminar I was at they cheerfully admitted that it was “info-entertainment” and anyone wanting actual news had to look elsewhere. Actually, Al Jazeera gives better coverage than any of BBC, Fox, or CNN.

9
martha March 21, 2010 at 19:55

About 20 years ago I was stopped outside do-it-all and asked what I had watched the previous evening, don’t know anyone on the BARB panel, never heard of it, i presumed they got the figures from stopping people in the street.

I also receive pennies from yougov, I don’t really watch much tv, it’s all pretty much rubbish anyway.

10
Sue March 21, 2010 at 22:38

Do you know what? I was thinking exactly the same thing. Now, I don’t have an awful lot of choice for viewing here in Spain. I get Spanish TV. Spanish TV is similar to programming in the UK. We have the “chav” chat shows and Big Spanish Brother. We even have a type of X factor effort. Spanish TV is crap except for the news which is very explicit. If there are dead bodies in the news, then you get to see them here instead of being protected by a nanny state.

I get freeview. I refuse to get the whole Sky package and pay for movies that are ancient by the time they are aired, but I do love to watch the news and current affairs programmes. Sky news ain’t great but it’s preferable to the BBC for obvious reasons:)

The day that this incident occurred, you would think that nothing else had happened in the world. Why? I don’t care if Beckham falls off a cliff and breaks his neck.

I don’t mind hearing about it, but I don’t want it rammed down my throat continuously.

I did email and complain. Alot of good that did! I’m just glad I don’t pay for the crap channel.

Wouldn’t a good unbiased news channel be a wonder to behold?

Now, I’d pay for that!

11
Joe Public March 21, 2010 at 23:14

No.

And now with this interwebby thing, TVs are redundant.

12
Subrosa March 22, 2010 at 00:28

I can say yes. Friends from the SE of England have been part of this for years. It’s a palaver. If I remember rightly they’ve to code in the number of people watching and their ages along with other things I can’t remember. I think they get paid a very minimal annual sum but I’d have to check that out to be sure.

As for making money with YouGov – all I’ve ever had are requests about cleaning materials and I didn’t make a bawbee.

13
Saul March 22, 2010 at 07:56

Seen elsewhere..

There are two kinds of people. Those who enter a room and turn the television on, and those who enter a room and turn the television off.

Invariably these two people get married.

14
Sabot March 22, 2010 at 08:51

Not having Sky, I watch a lot of French Television. It’s quite surprising how much you can understand about what is going on even if you haven’t got a clue about what they are saying.

15
Gloria Smudd March 22, 2010 at 09:23

‘No’ in reply to knowing anyone on the BARB panel.

‘Yes’ to having watched the scream-fest that is Jeremy Kyle’s show. I think everyone should watch Jeremy Kyle’s show at least once, if only as proof that there are more stupid, aggressive and ugly people in the UK than you ever dreamed possible. If you totted up the combined IQs of all the various toothless & drink-swilled combatants featured since the show began (some years ago) you’d be pushed to make double figures.

At first I thought the programme was a modern-day freak-show but as the years have rolled by it’s clear that these people aren’t freaks. There’s an awful lot of them. And concurrent with their prison sentences, episodes of domestic violence, infidelity, drug & alcohol addiction, they’re all breeding like mad: it looks like Mr Kyle won’t have any trouble finding ‘guests’ for the foreseeable future.