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Journalism & Media vocabulary · Radio and Television News

Ratings

Meaning in journalism & media, with examples

/ˈreɪtɪŋz/nounCommon term

In journalism & media, ratings means: Figures that show how many people watched a television programme or listened to a radio show, used to compare programmes and set advertising prices.

In Turkish: reyting, izlenme oranı, dinlenme oranı

How it is used

Usually plural: ratings go up, drop or hit a record. Shows win the ratings battle or are cancelled because of poor ratings. Audience share (or share) means the percentage of people watching TV at that time who chose that channel.

Example sentences

  1. The new evening debate show had disappointing ratings in its first month.

  2. Election night coverage often brings some of the channel's highest ratings.

Common collocations

  • TV ratings
  • high ratings
  • ratings war
  • ratings battle
  • boost ratings
  • prime timeThe evening hours when the largest number of people watch television, and when channels show their most popular programmes and charge the most for adverts.
  • broadcastA programme sent out on television, radio or the internet for the public; as a verb, to send out such a programme or to make information widely known.
  • readershipThe people who read a particular newspaper, magazine or website, or the total number of them.
  • circulationThe number of copies of a newspaper or magazine that are sold or distributed, usually counted per day, week or month.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Radio and Television News

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