Doctoring of audience ratings has to stop

GUO JINGYU, a TV play director, claims to have exposed the shady deals to forge audience ratings in the industry. A TV station demanded that he pay the cost for raising the audience ratings for his work as a condition for broadcasting his play. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

The National Radio and Television Administration has vowed to investigate the case, saying that if Guo's allegations are right, the involved parties will be held accountable.

By declaring a war against the industry's dishonest practices, Guo has won wide support from society. Corruption in different forms still exists in the system－like a chronic disease－despite the authorities' repeated rectification drives.

The inflow of huge amounts of hot money into the industry has given birth to many successful TV plays, but it has also resulted in the production of many more shows than would be broadcast owing to the limited broadcasting schedule of TV stations. The competition among TV stations to attract popular plays, and that among TV plays for prime time or to just go on air is fierce.

That's why the TV station demanded that Guo pay extra money to doctor the audience ratings, the leading indicator of a program's popularity and the main reference for advertisers, so as to minimize its loss in case Guo's show doesn't get enough audience to attract a sizable number of advertisers.

The doctoring of TV plays' audience ratings is an "industry" that generates more than 4 billion yuan ($583 million) in profits, and has evolved into a "fourth force" along with producers, TV stations and advertisers.

To influence the audience rating survey in their favor, the TV production companies pay the "sample homes" to turn on their TV at the time a certain play is broadcast. It seems almost everyone is enjoying the "party", except that the quality of TV plays is suffering. Supervisors for the audience rating survey, it appears, have failed to perform their duties.