Upset with the BCS? Time shift another program!

According to a Variety article, the ratings for the BCS National Championship Game last night saw a large jump in overall viewers and ratings while people continue to question the merits of a big-time college football post-season without a playoff format.

Beginning at 8:20 p.m. and stretching to 11:49 p.m. when the game ended, Fox's 9.5 rating was up 16% versus last year's BCS championship contest when LSU defeated Ohio State. Total viewers also took a 16% jump: 26.8 million against 23.1 million. The game took each hour handily.

They complain, and complain some more. Yet, they watch.

So, what is an angry fan to do? Well, in order to hit them where it hurts, you need to go after advertisers. That doesn't mean egging the nearest Coca-Cola truck you see. It means effecting ratings.

Nielsen is the major company that polls a large sample of Americans and their viewing habits every day and it's the most commonly used ratings company out there.

Ratings effect how much a television network can realistically charge advertisers for a 30-60 second advertisement during a program. We have all heard about the incredible prices that advertisers pay for Super Bowl ads every year, and that is because of their huge pull in the ratings department. When an average of 97.5 million people tune into last year's Super Bowl, those ads have a high chance of reaching a huge and diverse market. And this is almost always the case.

But, if you aren't directly polled by Nielsen in any of their various ways, you aren't left with many options to let your voice be heard. And let's face it, who can name one person that you know that IS being monitored by Nielsen? Exactly.

So, enough with the background, here is what you can do. Got a Digital Video Recorder (DVR)? If so, you are in luck. You see, Nielsen uses their voluntary polling systems, but data is also collected by those people with DVRs when you actually use them to time-shift a program.

So, what you can do is time-shift a program in the same time slot as the game or program that you despise and this data will be recorded and passed on. Make sure to actually watch that program within the three days of it airing, and I'd even go as far as not skipping the commercials. It may not be the most ethical thing you can do, but as a consumer that doesn't have a direct voice, it's at least SOMETHING.

However, advertisers are reluctant to let time-shifting directly influence the price they pay for ads, but you can be sure that they keep track of it as well as television networks, so it's highly likely this will at the very least have a sub-conscious effect.

Just remember, they also monitor things online. And you can always watch the game in a regular fashion even if you have a DVR, just make sure not to use the pause button or any other time-shifting feature.