Last year, a producer for the NTV network was so concerned about his ratings that he decided to take the unusual step of employing a detective agency to find out where the monitoring panellists lived. He then bribed the panellists (in the form of shopping vouchers) to watch his programmes and boost measured performance. He only actually managed to influence six homes, and at considerable personal cost (his job, plus around US$80,000, which he had to refund to his TV station after being caught). The results?
A maximum increase of 0.5 per cent, which hardly seems worth all the effort.
Much of the debate now has been over whether we can trust the ratings figures out of Japan in future and how to stop this happening again. In reality, it could have happened anywhere in the world (and probably has).
In fact, in Japan, there is no guaranteed rating performance system. Some housekeeping by all parties is clearly needed and no doubt the legal ramifications will drag on, but the long-term damage to the system seems to be relatively minor.
Much more important to ask is why the industry as a whole remains obsessed with ratings in the first place and why (absurd) activity like this is even contemplated. Despite advances made over the last few years in the way we perceive media and its value, we are still often too simplistic when it comes to valuing the most important communication channel we use - TV. We all claim to be looking for more focused media strategies, that we are just as interested in appropriate targeting and environment as 'reach and frequency', yet, when it comes to paying money, we still reach for the ratings.
Without additional ways of measuring value, many of the intellectual advances we have made in media remain purely theoretical and unapplied.
Ratings will remain a critical measure, but clients and agencies need to think about things like viewer involvement, or ability to deliver discreet audiences or brand synergies, etc. In print, we also look at softer measures like 'environment' or even 'print quality'; but for TV, virtually all the post-buy reviews I see are still primarily ratings-focused.
Adherence to this policy in the long term is going to spell disaster for TV stations. As audiences continue to fragment, they need to start selling TV programmes or packages like magazine titles, and push not just what they deliver ratings-wise, but who and in what environment, too.
This seems to be happening among smaller multi-channel offerings which have to fight for share, but is rarely seen from the big terrestrials.
The alternative they have by focusing on ratings is a constantly weakening product that will command a constantly lowering price.