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Audience researches are at the centre of mass media’s activity : they serve as a reference to quantify viewers and are considered to be THE way to survey audiences. This issue of Hermes first presents different audience ratings systems used by media (press, radio, television, multichannel television), emphasizing the fact that audience is the result of many constraints and of an always weak consensus between partners concerned. The second part, more particularly focused on traditional channels, analyses competition effects (and the logic of audience’s maximization resulting) on schedules and programming. The following part questions audience’s validity as a mean to get to know viewers, and also questions the possibility to create other types of links with the viewer. Eventually, Internet’s specificity in regard with traditional media allows to observe that audience rating might never play a central role in it, a new type of relations being created with users.