Appreciation Index
Encyclopedia
The Audience Appreciation Index (AI) is a score out of 100 which is used as an indicator of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom
. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by BARB, the organisation that compiles television ratings
for the major broadcasters and advertisers in the UK. Currently the AI is produced as part of an online Television Appreciation Survey, on behalf of the BBC
Audience Research Unit, by GfK NOP
.
As the individual ratings that produce the AI of a programme are recorded online the day after broadcast, the resulting score is usually available just two days after broadcast, though these scores are not generally made public by the BBC. The AI is considered especially useful for assessing the level of appreciation by viewers for programmes made for small or specialist audiences. If a television programme has performed only passably in the ratings, yet achieves a high AI, it can help to determine whether the programme should be recommissioned.
On average, BBC TV programmes (as of June 2011) receive an AI rating of 82. For radio this is 80. The average
AI for a drama programme on UK television channels BBC One
and ITV1
was reported, in 2009, to be 84. Programmes with specialist appeal will often score higher ratings. Internal guidance to BBC production staff is that an AI of 85 or over is to be considered excellent, over 90 is exceptional, 60 or less is poor, and less than 55 is very poor. Sometimes a programme will not garner an AI, as the response for that programme may have been too small. Nor is the AI a conclusive measure; while it is valuable for comparisons within a particular programme category, comparisons between the AIs of different programme types (e.g. dramas with quiz shows) carry no weight.
AI scores in the 90s are less common, though this is less the case for niche, targeted programming that attracts a limited number of viewers, such US imports on smaller channels (such as Sky1), or for specialist programmes, or some very popular dramas. The highest recorded score up until the end of 2009 has been 97 for a US import on Sky1. Scores lower than 30 are very rare, though some party political broadcasts
have received AI scores in the 20s. One criticism of the more general value of AI scores is that audiences tend to watch those shows they like, or expect to like, and so will tend to score them well.
A flaw in the method became apparent when programmes with low audience numbers were left with a small, yet loyal, core of fans. These would give the programme an inflated AI. When commercial television launched in Britain in 1955, advertisers were less concerned about attitudes to programmes than they were about viewing figures, and this marked the start of the frequent measurement of audience totals. With the establishment of commercial television, individual broadcasters began to gather their own ratings data, as well as viewer opinion in the form of the AI, until 1981, when the major industry players set up the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) to compile this information. In 2002, BARB ceased to compile AI data; currently the BBC commissions its own research.
Since 2005 the panel has been recruited and administered online by GfK NOP
, for the BBC
Audience Research Unit as a daily survey called Pulse, a panel of around 20,000 people (16+) who are invited to complete a survey every day to say what they have watched and listened to, and what they thought of each programme. Pulse measures a wide range of BBC and competitor stations.. The daily reporting panel is weighted for age, social grade, sex, presence of children, region and the household digital type on a daily basis to ensure it is representative of the UK as a whole. The main Pulse measure, the AI or Appreciation Index, is obtained by respondents being asked to mark out of 10 each of the programmes they watched or listened to the previous day, where 10 is the highest score and 1 the lowest. The average of all these marks out of 10 for a programme is then multiplied by 10 to give an Appreciation score (AI). For example, when aggregating scores for all programmes together for BBC TV (as of March 2011), the average score is 8.2, which gives an AI of 82.
The panel enables the BBC to collect over 5,000 responses a day on TV and Radio programmes. Panelists are encouraged, by means of a prize draw reward scheme, to log in at least ten times in any one month.
At this time only a limited number of TV channels are covered by this rating system, and only broadcasts watched live, or in recorded form the same day, are given AI scores. More extensive surveys, covering more channels and including programmes recorded for viewing within a week of broadcast, are occasionally carried out by smaller panels.
Additional measures include ratings for the quality and distinctiveness of the programmes. There are a selection of other questions that form part of the survey - some that are always asked, and some that may be asked depending on the programme. An example of the former is to note how much of each programme was watched, using a scale of 1-10, where '10' means that the viewer watched it all, and '1' means that they watched very little. Also of key importance to the BBC
is to find out whether the viewers considered a programme to be of 'high quality'. An example of the latter would be a question designed to gauge whether the viewer 'learned something new'. Viewers are also asked to rate how much effort they went to in order to view the programme—whether they made a special effort, just some effort, or watched it because it was on.
An extensive study undertaken by the BBC into how people score programmes and what variables help to make up an AI score found that one of the leading factors in determining an AI score was whether a programme was deemed to be “high quality”. Other factors such as the amount of effort people take to view the programme or whether viewers found it entertaining were also important.
The study found that scores can be affected in different ways for different types of programme. The score for a sport programme can depend on which team a panelist supports and who won or lost. Scores for a programme can vary according to how long a show has been running, so a new comedy will typically start with a lower average score and then increase over time as viewers become accustomed to the characters and settings.
The study found that changes in the TV market, such as the expanded choice offered by digital TV, the introduction of HD and the increased use of PVRs and catch up services such as BBC
iPlayer, have helped to increase the quality of the TV watching experience, and this is turn has improved average AI scores. People typically give programmes they have recorded, or have viewed in HD, a higher score than the same programme watched live or in standard definition. BBC HD
has a higher average AI (85 - as of March 2011) than any other BBC
channel.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by BARB, the organisation that compiles television ratings
Audience measurement
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...
for the major broadcasters and advertisers in the UK. Currently the AI is produced as part of an online Television Appreciation Survey, on behalf of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Audience Research Unit, by GfK NOP
GfK NOP
GfK NOP is a leading market research agency based in London, providing business insight through quantitative and qualitative research.- History :...
.
As the individual ratings that produce the AI of a programme are recorded online the day after broadcast, the resulting score is usually available just two days after broadcast, though these scores are not generally made public by the BBC. The AI is considered especially useful for assessing the level of appreciation by viewers for programmes made for small or specialist audiences. If a television programme has performed only passably in the ratings, yet achieves a high AI, it can help to determine whether the programme should be recommissioned.
On average, BBC TV programmes (as of June 2011) receive an AI rating of 82. For radio this is 80. The average
Arithmetic mean
In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean, often referred to as simply the mean or average when the context is clear, is a method to derive the central tendency of a sample space...
AI for a drama programme on UK television channels BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
and ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
was reported, in 2009, to be 84. Programmes with specialist appeal will often score higher ratings. Internal guidance to BBC production staff is that an AI of 85 or over is to be considered excellent, over 90 is exceptional, 60 or less is poor, and less than 55 is very poor. Sometimes a programme will not garner an AI, as the response for that programme may have been too small. Nor is the AI a conclusive measure; while it is valuable for comparisons within a particular programme category, comparisons between the AIs of different programme types (e.g. dramas with quiz shows) carry no weight.
AI scores in the 90s are less common, though this is less the case for niche, targeted programming that attracts a limited number of viewers, such US imports on smaller channels (such as Sky1), or for specialist programmes, or some very popular dramas. The highest recorded score up until the end of 2009 has been 97 for a US import on Sky1. Scores lower than 30 are very rare, though some party political broadcasts
Party political broadcast
A party political broadcast is a short television or radio broadcast made by a political party....
have received AI scores in the 20s. One criticism of the more general value of AI scores is that audiences tend to watch those shows they like, or expect to like, and so will tend to score them well.
History
In 1936, the BBC began conducting surveys of its radio and television audiences. The intention was not to count the number of listeners or viewers, but to gauge opinion on the programmes themselves. The BBC used volunteers, who kept diaries of their listening and viewing habits, submitting them to the corporation periodically. From these, the first Appreciation Indexes were calculated and privately made known to the programme-makers.A flaw in the method became apparent when programmes with low audience numbers were left with a small, yet loyal, core of fans. These would give the programme an inflated AI. When commercial television launched in Britain in 1955, advertisers were less concerned about attitudes to programmes than they were about viewing figures, and this marked the start of the frequent measurement of audience totals. With the establishment of commercial television, individual broadcasters began to gather their own ratings data, as well as viewer opinion in the form of the AI, until 1981, when the major industry players set up the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) to compile this information. In 2002, BARB ceased to compile AI data; currently the BBC commissions its own research.
Method
Under BARB, viewing diaries were sent to 2,000 people on a panel made up of members of the public each week, with a further four panels consisting of 1,000 people each receiving diaries every four weeks.Since 2005 the panel has been recruited and administered online by GfK NOP
GfK NOP
GfK NOP is a leading market research agency based in London, providing business insight through quantitative and qualitative research.- History :...
, for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Audience Research Unit as a daily survey called Pulse, a panel of around 20,000 people (16+) who are invited to complete a survey every day to say what they have watched and listened to, and what they thought of each programme. Pulse measures a wide range of BBC and competitor stations.. The daily reporting panel is weighted for age, social grade, sex, presence of children, region and the household digital type on a daily basis to ensure it is representative of the UK as a whole. The main Pulse measure, the AI or Appreciation Index, is obtained by respondents being asked to mark out of 10 each of the programmes they watched or listened to the previous day, where 10 is the highest score and 1 the lowest. The average of all these marks out of 10 for a programme is then multiplied by 10 to give an Appreciation score (AI). For example, when aggregating scores for all programmes together for BBC TV (as of March 2011), the average score is 8.2, which gives an AI of 82.
The panel enables the BBC to collect over 5,000 responses a day on TV and Radio programmes. Panelists are encouraged, by means of a prize draw reward scheme, to log in at least ten times in any one month.
At this time only a limited number of TV channels are covered by this rating system, and only broadcasts watched live, or in recorded form the same day, are given AI scores. More extensive surveys, covering more channels and including programmes recorded for viewing within a week of broadcast, are occasionally carried out by smaller panels.
Additional measures include ratings for the quality and distinctiveness of the programmes. There are a selection of other questions that form part of the survey - some that are always asked, and some that may be asked depending on the programme. An example of the former is to note how much of each programme was watched, using a scale of 1-10, where '10' means that the viewer watched it all, and '1' means that they watched very little. Also of key importance to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
is to find out whether the viewers considered a programme to be of 'high quality'. An example of the latter would be a question designed to gauge whether the viewer 'learned something new'. Viewers are also asked to rate how much effort they went to in order to view the programme—whether they made a special effort, just some effort, or watched it because it was on.
An extensive study undertaken by the BBC into how people score programmes and what variables help to make up an AI score found that one of the leading factors in determining an AI score was whether a programme was deemed to be “high quality”. Other factors such as the amount of effort people take to view the programme or whether viewers found it entertaining were also important.
The study found that scores can be affected in different ways for different types of programme. The score for a sport programme can depend on which team a panelist supports and who won or lost. Scores for a programme can vary according to how long a show has been running, so a new comedy will typically start with a lower average score and then increase over time as viewers become accustomed to the characters and settings.
The study found that changes in the TV market, such as the expanded choice offered by digital TV, the introduction of HD and the increased use of PVRs and catch up services such as BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
iPlayer, have helped to increase the quality of the TV watching experience, and this is turn has improved average AI scores. People typically give programmes they have recorded, or have viewed in HD, a higher score than the same programme watched live or in standard definition. BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
has a higher average AI (85 - as of March 2011) than any other BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
channel.
See also
- Broadcasters' Audience Research Board
- Audience measurementAudience measurementAudience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...
- Nielsen ratingsNielsen RatingsNielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...