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Mike Rinder's Blog

Something Can Be Done About It

Curious About Scientology TV Rankings?

By 82 Comments

There is some mystery surrounding how many people watch scientologyTV.

Of course, there are no numbers available from normal audience tracking services as they are not selling ads, so they’re not subscribing. It’s convenient, as no doubt the numbers would be appalling.

But two things make this of interest.

They are spending a LOT of money to promote their “TV channel” with ads on the Super Bowl and Grammies and billboards plugging it (it is literally the ONLY thing the ad tells people to do — visit scientology.tv). Every one of the thousands of remaining scientologist on earth are being exhorted to get their friends, family and aquaintances to watch. According to scientology this is “must see TV” that satisfies the enormous number of people who are “Curious?”

And second, they accuse everyone else who exposes them — from The Aftermath to 60 Minutes to Anderson Cooper of “sinking ratings” and that the shows are trying to “gain an audience due to the popularity of scientology.”

Well, there is one way to judge the audience of scientology.tv. Using Alexa rankings.

Hmm, what does that mean? There are nearly 266 thousand websites with more traffic on earth and 157 thousand more popular in the US.

And no response at all to the Super Bowl ad.

But this is pretty abstract. What does it mean? Because the Alexa ranking are only comparative to other sites, the only way you can gauge the size is by comparing this to other sites.

So, here is scientology.org — the big kahuna of the scientology world. With dozens of subsites and enormous efforts made to get links to attract viewers, even if by accident.

That is certainly better than scientology.tv. But how impressive is it?

Well, here is my blog ranking. I have never bought an ad for this blog or done anything other than do postings and sometimes link to them on Twitter and Facebook.

I am less popular than scientology.org in the world (but then again, an inordinate amount of their worldwide traffic comes from Indian and the Philippines — hot spots for clickfarms, but not for scientology). But in the US my little blog gets more traffic than scientology!

And Tony Ortega’s blog — also no advertising and no legion of zombies being exhorted to watch — smokes them in the world (despite their clickfarms) and in the US. It’s not even close.

But perhaps the most apt comparison is the “failing” A&E TV site. That’s a direct head-to-head. Even though people may or may not watch AETV on the website, it is available on Cable as well as DirecTV (scientologyTV is only on DirecTV).

Oh dear, scientology is not even a flea on the leg of the A&E TV elephant. Though they try to pretend otherwise.

Next time you see Fast Eddie Parkin or any of the other scientology “spokespeople” proclaiming the enormous popularity of scientology and how everyone else has “sinking ratings” and “no audience because they are disgusted at the bigotry,” know that it is another in the endless string of lies that spews forth from the fire hydrant of hype that is scientology.

Comments

    • Birds fly
      Fish swim
      Scamatology spokespeople lie, lie, lie.

      How can you tell if they are lying? Look at their mouths. If their mouths are moving, then they are lying.

      Reply

  2. If the endproduct in the most ethical group is Shelly and Heber the way to total freedom is the way to total holes.

    Reply

  3. I paid fairly detailed attention to the debut of ScnTV, and just went back and had a peek at the current schedule.

    My quick impression is that it’s still pretty much the same-old same-old, repeated over and over due to a shortage of original content to really fill a broadcast schedule. The “meet a scientologist” or org tour type segments are formulaic even if some are new, but many are based on old spots that were put up on their website years ago, and the anti-drug and anti-psych pieces look like they are based on old material that may go back as far as the days of VHS tapes. The two multi-segment pseudo-documentaries about Hubbard’s life and work that were introduced a year ago, seem to be as far as they have gotten with the sort of real original production work that they should be turning out regularly.

    The one thing that caught my eye was a piece on nutrition for children. That might finally be some token fulfillment of the expectation they created that ScnTV was going to provide something for members themselves, rather than just serving up PR pieces and propaganda that appear mostly outwardly focused, but have little more effect than to try to reassure the members that the management is doing something about Scientology’s bad public image.

    I checked, and for comparison, the Christian Broadcasting Network (founded by Pat Roberton) puts out a new 700 Club show 5 days a week, plus news and other short segment series either every weekday or weekly, and a variety of other content. Oh, and they have a radio station – which Miscavige implied was going to come out of SuMP, but never has.

    Reply

  4. Just wanting to say hi! I love what Mike and Leah are doing and have followed their show from the beginning. I am a nearby resident to Clearwater and I have seen the destruction of downtown Clearwater because of Scientology. I also have direct tv and was upset that the Scientology station was on my line up.

    Reply

  5. If Scientology is supposed to free you from psychological hang-ups, then why does this guy Miscavige exhibit so many signs of having a terrible case of little-man’s disease, Napolean Complex, or whatever you want to call it?

    Reply

  6. 2019 Emmy Awards
    For your consideration

    David Miscavige, best performance as a straight man in a comedy series: Scientology TV.

    Reply

  7. Hey Mike, I want to let you know that the sharing links still do not appear on your blog since the problems of last week.

    Reply

  8. I love your blog! You are very well spoken, and your arguments against Scientology are always thorough and we’ll thought out. Please write a book. Also, I’m a data analyst, so this last post was one of my favorites! Keep doing what you’re doing!

    Reply

    • Hello Kimberly,

      It’s always so nice when people post here for the first time. It’s not my job to welcome people here. In fact, I am retired and don’t have any real job at all these days. But lately I’ve just been filled with a powerful feeling that the tide is turning and this monstrous scam is about to implode (that’s one of Mike’s favourite words. He uses it a lot to talk about the future of This Scam). So, I’m happy to take the opportunity to encourage new people.

      Mike doesn’t usually welcome every new person who posts here. I can’t imagine how he could ever have the time to do that. I can’t believe he finds the time to do all the things he does (his TV show and this blog and a million other things). So, I just wanted to welcome you and express the hope you will post here often. I love to hear about new peoples’ experiences.

      I worked for many years as a software engineer and so I always enjoy hearing from people like you who work in the computer related industry.

      TTYL!

      Reply

  9. On a lark, I googled”How many websites are there?” They returned 644 million, as of some date in 2012.

    Reply

    • I have much work which shows most are only interested in Fluff so — if we get something done — then if fits what Hubbard originally posted about Ivory Tower and some citation just now by SCN Formally about «hold in contempt» what I call Office Help ~ I am field operations booking some ¼-million hours in construction and relaxed only 1 Time

      I have a Dimple in my face to show for it

      Constant ^willingness^ to fight back is not the same as actually doing it

      Nicholas Jordan is a screen-alias to avoid trainees at OSA

      Reply

  10. Bless your hearts for going after these crooks! Been in a cult myself and it can damage you for life. Hope more people can leave and scientology crumbles quickly!

    Reply

  11. I just looked at the channel on line, slick and superficial. What I saw was a glossy overview of what was said to be a church. “Two thousand people per week come through its doors” ha, ha.

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  12. I note that scientology.tv and scientology.org BOTH have 98,000 clicks from the outside-of-usa world. Not a coincidence IMO.

    You and Tony apply no pressure or coercement for anyone to visit your sites so your ‘stats’ are from free and willing participants. Unlike our toxic cult.

    Reply

    • And I’m sure some of those clicks are from Scientologists themselves, trying to boost the stats. Hard to tell whats real with the internet.

      Reply

  13. The millions they are spending on TV and social media do not appear to be yielding any appreciable results. I would love to have some insight into the cash flow of COS. Once cash-out starts exceeding cash-in, their strategies will change—particularly with their capital expenditures on real estate.

    Reply

    • The CofS is sitting on a lot of cash, and failing organizations – including regular businesses – often burn through remaining assets as they struggle to survive (witness, for instance, Sears), which usually involves some degree of unwillingness to change behavior and strategies, so I wouldn’t hold my breath about Scientology changing much anytime soon, absent severe internal problems or critical external ones. It’s possible that they’re already in the red, spending down cash to buy properties that are booked at cost or higher to make it appear as if there is no decrease in net assets, when the reality is that all but perhaps a few in the best real estate markets would only sell to a normal commercial buyer at a fraction of what Scientology spent to luxuriously customize them.

      But, yes, I think we’d all love to know what’s really going on with Scientology financially. Given that they’ve been granted “church” non-profit status for supposed public benefit, they really ought to at least be required to perform and report the results of outside-verified financial audits, as is the law in other countries. Maybe one of these days we’ll hear from a defector with knowledge of high-level CofS finances.

      Reply

  14. Noticed it was a free channel on my Roku stick. Just browsed the titles and had good laugh at just those. Clearly (pun intended) they’re trying to produce more advanced programs with todays technology. But they all still look ridiculous with added CGI effects.

    Reply

  15. I occasionally check into the Scn TV channel. I used to work on infomercials when they were popular. Miscavige is only 25 years behind the times. All their slick marketing videos reek of insincerity and staging. Talk about “fake news”.

    Reply

  17. “A flea on the leg of the A & E elephant”. LOL! But I would be a little more exact. “the bacteria on the leg of the flea on the leg of the A & E elephant”.

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  18. Comparisons of information such as this truly puts the imaginative spotlight on the source of income and whatever the intelligence level is of the Scientology whale community . Being stupid is pretty much the benchmark of relieving people of their money by the same lies over and over, as I see things. To be associated with a criminal enterprise such as Scientology and continuing to support it despite the evidence and statistical analysis exposing it as a scam… well, makes a good case for being classified for stupidity status. The time has for sometime been passed when being “in good standing” with the Cof$ is evidence enough of involvement in a criminal conspiracy. Being stupid as an excuse by observers of the Scientology community and its enterprises is a very logical and easy conclusion to make. It could be suggested being stupid is the key to continued belief in Scientology.

    Reply

    • Luckily, stupidity isn’t catching! Also- as I think Mike and Leah pointed out, there is no way that people still can claim ignorance about what is actually going on inside the cult. By turning a blind eye to the abuses, they are willfully endorsing it. It’s time to demand that public figures take a stance regarding the cult.

      I apologize for any typos- I generally use my phone to post and the edit function is no longer available….

      Reply

  19. I have directv so I have the cults channel. I’ve never watched and don’t plan to. It actually pissed me off when it showed up in my channel line up. I’ve watched your show from the beginning and love it. I hope and pray that Scientology crumbles. You and Leah are doing great work.

    Reply

  20. Leah & Mike; Set up GoFundMe – donations – 100% to hire PI’s to investigate “their” PI’s.

    That would make some new news!

    Reply

  21. What blows my mind is that there are “jobs” like people pretending to be from “Internal Revenue Services” telling you they will arrest you if you don’t pay them immediately, twitter bots to make people look popular, and click farmers who sit in front of hundreds of devices and click on a specified website just to make someone look like someone is going to their website.

    The thing that is the most appalling about these things is that the people who are using these frauds or perpetrators of these frauds are the ones screaming loudly that their victims are the defrauders.

    I know the polite society that I was raised to believe existed never really totally existed, because people like L. Ron Hubbard were able to perpetrate their frauds back in the day without being discovered due to lack of internet and mass media.

    But sometimes it just feels like social media and the internet just makes it so simple to hide behind a keyboard, and put on a face of what you want people to believe you are, and that fraud has become a way of life.

    It sometimes feels like we have all become numb to the massive frauds committed in the name of scientology due to the pretty little lies we see each day.

    Reply

  23. if anyone has information:

    I just visited Tony Ortega’s blog, and there is an article about Scientology trying to gain approval for a foster care group home where Narconon has a previous proposal (Birch Run, Mich). I’m concerned that they may be trying to gain access to children and teens who will be vulnerable to this cult- it would also bring in government money and would be another front group to solicit donations. However, I am more concerned with the safety of possible foster care children being placed under Scientology control. I am not sure what can be done to block the proposal, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know so that it can be averted if possible. I may be overreacting but I don’t want to ignore it- the implications are frightening.

    Reply

  25. Mike, you left out an important stat: Daily Time on Site. As of this moment scn.tv gets 2:17 average per viewer, per day. (That’s two minutes and seventeen seconds.) A decent number of visitors, but they’re not staying to watch anything.

    By comparison, the average length of visit to your blog is 4:05. Ortega’s is 5:04. Even at my puny site, I at least do better than scn.tv with a humble 3:27.

    The COS can beat their chest all they want, but they can’t show favorable statistical numbers no matter how much Dan Sherman tries to spin it. As an organization, their lack of stats may be their Achilles heel.

    Reply

    • Chris – thanks so much for sharing this important stat. Legitimate marketing firms will always look at the time spent on a site/channel as well as the “bounce rate,” which means that someone went to a given site, but left quickly thereafter without clicking on another link or staying long enough to take-in the material on the page. SciTV would get a big fat FAILURE by these marks. Even if someone visits the site/channel, they don’t stay. Who could? I’m sure it’s like nails on a chalkboard.

      Reply

      • Chris, thanks indeed for pointing out that telling piece of real empirical data!

        Also, for perspective, the average amount of time visitors spend on this blog or Tony Ortega’s, is about enough to read an typical daily article to the end. On ScnTV, it’s only 7% of the length of the shortest 30-minute segment – what would seem to be just long enough for someone “curious” to realize that they don’t really want what Scientology is trying to sell, or can’t even figure out what the crazy is about (particularly if stumbling into something like one of the anti-“psych” segments, or “reefer madness” type anti-drug nonsense with bizarre claims).

        Reply

  26. This makes no sense Jesus is the reason for this season and Dianetics was a creation by LRH who studied and emulated satanism. not to mention the current ad on the Scientology has a baby in a mothers womb funny from a church that makes some of its people get abortions!
    Manage https://www.facebook.com/ThaiDianetics/?eid=ARAbJZXd_14aPMCwHUWOUmuw35OhZhVlyy5m-ZR4p06Z-wcPOGilgBIlK-yoGcHO3QVS4Pko94pOk2pi

    How are the legal cases going against them has any one of them been decided in a lower court yet? You should be publishing the court cases so the media can follow them and also people can vote to help change things when these judges come up for reelection!

    Reply

  29. I watched it for a bit the first week it was in. Like a train wreck, I couldn’t take my eyes off. Utterly ridiculous and fascinating at the same time.

    PS I like your blog and loved your post defending LR! You’re both awesome.

    Reply

    • Yikes! When I read your saying that you, “… loved your post defending LR!”, I mistakenly thought you had written LRH. I was drinking some coffee and when I read that, the coffee wound up all over my shirt.

      I thought to myself, “Mike Rinder defending LRH?” What the Heck is going on. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out you meant Leah Remini.

      It was kind of funny though and I thank you for the good laugh. I agree with you wholeheartedly insofar as saying that Mike and Leah are both awesome. When the awful saga of Scamatology is finally over, I’m certain that both Mike and Leah will go down in the history books as Heroes of this planet – as they well deserve.

      I would encourage everyone who reads this blog but has never posted to introduce yourselves and say hello. You should take this opportunity to join the people who want to ride Mike and Leah’s coat tails as Heroes of Planet Earth. OMG! I just realized the acronym for “Heroes of Planet Earth” is “HOPE”. Ain’t that sweet?

      Reply

    • Dee,
      I went to the church web site several times while I was trying to look into Scientology. I’m willing to bet that a large number of non-click farm generated hits are exactly what you say. Just regular people who are looking at the church due to all of the public interest. It proved to be a complete waste of time- all propaganda and no facts that can be verified by independent sources.

      Reply

  32. I’m guessing that all their desperate efforts to attract more attention to themselves may have worked in one case. I recently read that President Trump is now considering revoking their ridiculous TES (Tax-Exempt Status). I have a few links but will only post the most recent one:

    https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/national/president-trump-might-challenge-church-scientology-tax-exempt-status/FcoKDGoFfaxV1BcV71S9zO/

    Be advised that I have no idea what this site is or where it comes from. At first glance, it appears to be a site pertaining to a city named Dayton. But I’m not at all certain that is Dayton Ohio.

    I’ve also read that one of Mr. Trump’s people have said that he opposes the Tax Exempt Status and is considering taking some action to revoke it. If that is true (and unfortunately so many of the things reportedly said about Mr. Trump turn out to be NOT true), this world will be one giant step closer to becoming a wonderful world indeed.

    Personally, I would be extra happy for Leah because I have heard her say words to the effect that revocation of their stupid TES is near the top of her list as it should be for most everyone. I hope and pray that Leah and everyone else will see this fervent dream come true.

    Reply

    • I heard him say that too, and he should do it. This is cult with abusive practices and it doesn’t deliver any positive benefit to its members. Scientology is a confidence game.

      Reply

    • According to Wikipedia its from Dayton Ohio – seems legit

      The Dayton Daily News is a daily newspaper published in Dayton, Ohio, United States. It is a product of Cox Media Group Ohio, an integrated broadcasting, publishing, direct marketing and digital media company owned by parent company Cox Enterprises, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Wikipedia

      Reply

  33. I’m sure everyone has figured out that whenever Scientology places words like “stratospheric”, “epic”, “unprecedented”, “soaring”, and other over the top adjectives then they are almost always lying about the reality of the situation. It’s their tell. If they had actual data to back up their claims then they would use it instead of disguising it in launguage designed to make them seem “popular” or competent. It’s a giant shell game that’s seemingly created to overcompensate for failures. I think the internet and the ability for people to dig into actual numbers so easily may very well be the final nail in their well deserved coffin. The places left for them to hide from the truth are disappearing quickly. The utter failure of Scientology TV just demonstrates how desperate the true situation within the church is. By opening themselves up in such an open and easily tracked media, they can no longer completely obfuscate the lack of members- It will be interesting to track the numbers over the course of two years (if they last that long, but I don’t see Miscavige folding a channel that he has spent so much time and effort on- he doesn’t strike me as someone who gracefully admits failure). That will filter out people who may have looked just to satisfy the urge to see if it’s truly as horrible as they report…

    Reply

      • Robert,
        I think there is a delay during which posts are held for review. Your posts should get through as long as it’s not something inappropriate or completely redundant.
        Good luck

        Reply

      • Robert,

        Mike’s blog seems to be acting a little unusual today. Usually, whenever I make a post, I can see it right away. But as Kat said, there is a note at the top explaining the post is awaiting a moderator review before it can be posted. That does not seem to be happening today. But if you just make your post, I’m pretty sure you will see it within an hour or two after someone has reviewed.

        Also, a note to Mike. Today, the Name, Email and Website entries seem to be blank. They usually “remember” my Name, Email and Website. But for some strange reason, today they all are set to blank. I just wanted to let you know that things are acting a little unusual today.

        Reply

          • Welcome back, Old Dude.

            You may think of yourself as old. But I know the truth about you.

            Your age has imbued you with Wisdom. So you are not really old. You are really wise!

            Reply

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