Since the beginning of the cable TV era, countless TV programming negotiations between operators and the program owners have been haggled over, and mostly lost, by operators. That’s because for years operators have relied on simple counts to measure the most and least watched channel performance - particularly how busy a channel is during certain times of the day or week.  

But these simple, national viewer counts are not always representative of what is being watched locally, and don't offer a lot of leverage when it comes to negotiations with programmers. Without that leverage you may be in the dark about which channels and programs are really important to your subscribers, and how much you should push back on programming costs. 

New analytics tools that go beyond simple viewer counts give operators clearer insight into their subscribers’ viewing habits. These TV viewership analytics tools are designed to capture every viewing event, such as what your subscribers are watching and when, how many subscribers are watching a certain channel, how long they remain on that channel, and how often they return to that same channel or time slot.

TV viewership analytics can also be combined with anonymized demographic data, which can then be used to better target promotions to subscribers, as well as to substantiate the value your ad inventory can provide to specific advertisers. 

If you’re thinking you need better viewership data but don’t have a clue what it’s about, then download this paper, ‘Going Beyond the Channel’, to gain some insight on the then and now of viewership data and the importance of having the right collection technology today.