Eyal Berkovic complained about ratings, Noam Fathi retorted: "He never understood how he is measured"
Eyal Berkovic claimed that the rating measurement method is "nonsense" after discovering a gap between percentages and the actual number of viewers. Channel 14 panelist Noam Fathi did not remain silent and opened another front against the former footballer.
Eyal Berkovic, who hosts a program on 103FM radio and appears every evening alongside Moriya Asraf on Reshet 13, harshly criticized the way rating data is presented. During his radio show, Berkovic claimed there is a contradiction between official rating data and the actual number of viewers.
"I don't believe in ratings. This week I caught them, — Berkovic claimed. — Rivlin had 4.5%, which is 0.5% more than Moriya and Berko, so I looked at the number of viewers and saw that he had 90,000 viewers and we had 120,000. How is his rating higher? It's nonsense."
Media personality and Channel 14 panelist Noam Fathi did not remain silent regarding the criticism and responded with a sharp retort on social media: "Hahaha, the man has been on television for years and never delved into how he is measured, what these numbers are that determine his career. The main thing is that he has a firm opinion on everything and everyone. He will never delve deep."
The background to these remarks is last Monday, when the program "Moriya and Berko" recorded a rating of 3.2% (80,000 viewers) — a figure identical to that recorded by the program "Rivlin and Co.". That same evening, "Dancing with the Stars" on Keshet 12 led the table with 16% (441,000 viewers), the program "The Patriots" on Channel 14 was ranked second with 7.7% (234,000 viewers), while "Power Couple" on Reshet 13 reached third place with 7% (194,000 viewers).
Fathi's dismissal stems from a common confusion between rating percentages and the actual number of viewers. While rating percentages (%) measure the proportion of households tuned into the program, the viewer count figure (in thousands) counts the actual number of people sitting in front of the screen in each home. Due to differences in household composition between channels, it is possible for one program to have a higher percentage of households but a lower total number of viewers due to a smaller average number of people per measured home — this is an accepted statistical figure and not a contradiction in measurement.
The current confrontation adds to a tense history between the two. In the past, Berkovic filed a defamation lawsuit for 142,000 shekels against Fathi after the latter called him online a "rag, inarticulate, zero, and moron." The lawsuit, which concerned a tweet that Fathi quickly deleted, ended in a settlement agreement that included only an apology on Fathi's part.
