FBN on Dish Network…FBN at 50 million subs…so where’s the ratings?

TVNewser reports that FBN is now going to appear on Dish Network…

Fox Business Network has been added to the DISH network. The deal ups FBN’s total distribution to nearly 50 million homes.

According to my math FBN now has the built in subscriber base to be publicly rated by Nielsen (40 million was the threshold last time I checked). Ok, time for a refresher course on getting rated by Nielsen, which is taken from this blog entry from a year and a half ago…

There is a three stage process to getting rated publicly by Nielsen.

Stage 1 – This is the Test Data stage. It’s a bare bones data distribution of market data and TV viewing habits. It only arrives to the network once a month and only covers certain parts and demographics of a network. Test Data does not offer more than minimal guidance to a network so that it can begin tracking its monthly performance as a research tool.

Stage 2 – This is the Access Subscription stage. It offers more data for the network to guage its performance and the performance of its competition. As with Stage 1 the data is for internal use only.

Stage 3 – This is the Fledgling Subscription stage. This stage is where the network and Nielsen are in agreement with the reliability of the data being generated. At this stage the ratings data is distributed both internally and externally. All the major nets, CNBC, CNN, FNC, HLN, and MSNBC are fledgling subscribers.

Some of you may no doubt wonder why, if there is data being given at stages 1 and 2, that we don’t see it. The reasons are 1) because Nielsen doesn’t allow it, but more importantly 2) Stages 1 and 2 are used to refine the iterative process and verify that the data Nielsen is generating is being collected, calibrated, and reported accurately. I won’t bore you with the calibration details but it’s a necessary process that all new channels go through.

FBN must be somewhere between Stages 2 and 3 now. I thought it would have reached stage 3 late last year but it didn’t. Maybe they’re still quibbling with Nielsen over methodology. Here’s the question mark: Will the network move with all deliberate speed to get to stage 3? Or, will the network drag its feet getting to stage 3 in the hopes of having more viewers when they do have to go public with their ratings?

With the network at 50 million subs now, the valid argument that it doesn’t have a big enough base to be rated is rendered non-operative. And people are going to start asking questions about why no ratings…