Rating is a term with various uses. The most frequent refers to the number of people who are watching a television program or listening to a radio program. The higher the rating, the more people consuming the communication medium in question.
For example: “The premiere of the film reached a historical rating” , “The new comedy program was lifted due to the low rating” , “I am not interested in the rating: my intention is to make a program that makes me feel proud of its quality ” .
The rating is very important for the television industry since it is linked to the sale of advertising. Companies want to advertise their products in the most watched programs: therefore, they analyze the rating to find out how many people watch each program. If a program has a high rating, there will be more companies interested in advertising in their advertising runs. In this way, the cost of advertising per second rises.
In general, the rating is measured in points that represent a certain number of viewers. If it is established that a rating point is equivalent to 100,000 people, the program that has 8 rating points is seen by 800,000 people. There are various techniques to measure the number of viewers, from devices that are installed in the television to telephone surveys.
In Spain the term rating is used interchangeably with what is the audience index. It should be noted that this is considered to be one of the countries where it is measured the most and best, thanks not only to specialized companies with great experience but also to the fact that there are effective results given by devices that respond to the name of audimeters. These are distributed by numerous homes in the Spanish geography and their objective is to measure the aforementioned audiences.
Its results are very accurate and precise, giving as a result that the programs with the highest rating and share are the football broadcasts, both of the Spanish national team and the teams of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, and also certain programs such as the reality show "Big Brother ", The entertainment space" El Hormiguero "or the heart program" Sálvame ". All this without overlooking that, in the same way, national series such as "The Prince", "Sea of Plastic", "Vis a vis" or "Under suspicion" have a spectacular success.
It is known as a rating agency or rating agency, on the other hand, the firms that are dedicated to rating assets or financial products based on solvency and risks of default. A bond issued by a State, in this sense, can be classified according to the estimated possibility of payment of the country in question.
In addition to all the above, we can also highlight the existence of different companies specialized in this type of rating that concerns us. This would be the case, for example, of the Fitch Ratings Spain entity, which has offices in various corners of the world and which is in charge not only of reporting and providing analysis but also of establishing independent credit opinions based on what are future prospects.