I spent a lot of time in the States in the past, but it’s never quite the same as living in a new place. I don’t yet feel the need to write a Bill Bryson-esque memoir of all the amusing cultural nuances I’ve encountered since living here, but occasionally instances may occur that are relevant in this blog. This explains the odd mix of phrases or terminology I employ – so forgive me if I’m getting in a two and eight here, I’m just covering my bases.

The subject of cultural differences is what brings me to the core of this post, namely ratings of the television kind. I’m going to stick my neck out here and say this – in London I never felt pressured into chasing audience figures for the various shows or websites I worked on. I’m not saying they weren’t important – as part of the bigger picture, they were certainly a major factor, but at that stage of my career I placed most of my focus on delivering content. Combining this with the unique editorial remit of the BBC, namely it being a public service broadcaster, success can’t be judged purely on audience figures, and certainly not on ad revenue.

On the star-spangled side of the pond, however, the situation is completely different. I’m in a world of “prime time” and “syndication” now, and it fascinates me. Not only do I find myself investigating viewing figures more often, but I have begun to think more seriously about the marketability of concepts I plan to pitch. Fear not, I’ve seen Death to Smoochy, and I don’t want to go down the soulless corporate road of no return – I’m purely being realistic, and growing more because of it.

This brings me to the second difference being in the U.S. brings – competition. There’s a lot more of it! Nickelodeon, Disney, and Cartoon Network to name a few, are formidable competition in the U.K. , but they’re center stage here and the numbers involved, both financially and audience-wise are considerably higher.

On this note, Cartoon Network and the newly-launched Disney XD threw their all into capturing young male audiences last week. Both channels announced positive figures. Cartoon Network announced up to a 29% rise in viewing figures compared to the same time last year, but Disney XD had a record rating of 6.5 million viewers on launch day. This was countered by Cartoon Network holding the number one prime time slot for boys aged 6-11, and so it goes on.

There are obviously a lot of numbers being thrown around here, and a great deal to take in, but it’s valuable information that deserves being discussed. I’ll close for now, but my parting question to everyone is, how much awareness do you have of audience figures and how important are they to the project or concept you’re working on?