November 2010

Nielsen, the primary source for audience measurement within the television industry, only tracks the viewership of 25,000 pre-selected households compared to the estimated 116 million total U.S. households with televisions. Nielsen uses the sample to represent the viewing habits of everyone in the country.

Nielsen ratings most-often used do not take into account viewing on Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), online streaming platforms like Hulu.com, paid downloads from the iTunes or Amazon stores and illegal streams or downloads.

In short, the measurement of television consumption considered the most important by the networks, the ad industry and viewers includes only a small fraction of the overall audience.

source: tvsurveillance.com

[Edited 11/12/10 9:43am]

Same goes with radio, print, and internet. Everything is scaled to the actual size compared to the sample. Arbitron is used for radio. The same thing. The people that ACTUALLY fill out the diaries is weighed against the percentage of the population.

Statistics. It is also very easy to make the numbers favor one or the other. Like in politics, for example.

who watches telly when there's so much internet porn about?...

Neilsen ratings do take DVR usage into account, I believe. Not sure about Hulu and other platforms, but I think they are starting to do that as well. If not, I think they will adjust to accomodate it.

As for the 25,000...why wouldn't that be enough?

Efan said:

Neilsen ratings do take DVR usage into account, I believe. Not sure about Hulu and other platforms, but I think they are starting to do that as well. If not, I think they will adjust to accomodate it.

As for the 25,000...why wouldn't that be enough?

Everyone is NOT got oing to fill their diaries or allow a Nielsen person to install a ratings meter in their house. There is no possible way for EVEYRONE to be measured. Which is why it is all measured to scale.

KatSkrizzle said:

Efan said:

Neilsen ratings do take DVR usage into account, I believe. Not sure about Hulu and other platforms, but I think they are starting to do that as well. If not, I think they will adjust to accomodate it.

As for the 25,000...why wouldn't that be enough?

Everyone is NOT got oing to fill their diaries or allow a Nielsen person to install a ratings meter in their house. There is no possible way for EVEYRONE to be measured. Which is why it is all measured to scale.

Exactly. (Although I don't think people need to fill in diaries anymore; I think it's electronic.)

Efan said:

Neilsen ratings do take DVR usage into account

Nielsen only reports who watched a show on DVR 7 days after the initial airing.

Efan said:

KatSkrizzle said:

Everyone is NOT got oing to fill their diaries or allow a Nielsen person to install a ratings meter in their house. There is no possible way for EVEYRONE to be measured. Which is why it is all measured to scale.

Exactly. (Although I don't think people need to fill in diaries anymore; I think it's electronic.)

Nielsen uses set meters and (yikes!) diaries.

Identity said:

Efan said:

Neilsen ratings do take DVR usage into account

Nielsen only reports who watched a show on DVR 7 days after the initial airing.

is that why some shows make you wait 8 days to watch them on the internet?

whistle said:

who watches telly when there's so much internet porn about?...

what do you mean? internet porn?

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Identity said:

Nielsen only reports who watched a show on DVR 7 days after the initial airing.

is that why some shows make you wait 8 days to watch them on the internet?

I meant to type "within 7 days". My bad.

Identity said:

Efan said:

Neilsen ratings do take DVR usage into account

Nielsen only reports who watched a show on DVR 7 days after the initial airing.

But wouldn't that be a better measure of how "hot" a show is? If you record it but don't watch it for a long period of time, you're probably not too interested in it. Also, the ads on that show (which you're probably going to fast-forward through anyway) would likely be out of date after a week.

Identity said:

OnlyNDaUsa said:

is that why some shows make you wait 8 days to watch them on the internet?

I meant to type "within 7 days". My bad.

no i understand. but the other night HOUSE did not record so I went on line and it said I had to wait 8 days to watch it online.

Efan said:

KatSkrizzle said:

Everyone is NOT got oing to fill their diaries or allow a Nielsen person to install a ratings meter in their house. There is no possible way for EVEYRONE to be measured. Which is why it is all measured to scale.

Exactly. (Although I don't think people need to fill in diaries anymore; I think it's electronic.)

Wow, what a difference 3 years makes! They were still doing actual diaries "back in the olden days of 2007".

KatSkrizzle said:

Efan said:

Exactly. (Although I don't think people need to fill in diaries anymore; I think it's electronic.)

Wow, what a difference 3 years makes! They were still doing actual diaries "back in the olden days of 2007".

i did them for sweeps week in 2007 too i think.

This flawed system explains how a totally lame show like Two & A Half Men can still be on the air, and supposedly garnering 19M viewers.

[Edited 11/10/10 19:23pm]

KatSkrizzle said:

Efan said:

Exactly. (Although I don't think people need to fill in diaries anymore; I think it's electronic.)

Wow, what a difference 3 years makes! They were still doing actual diaries "back in the olden days of 2007".

Really? I just thought they were done by boxes that connected to the TV or the cable box. My bad. Weird that they still rely on diaries.

Efan said:

KatSkrizzle said:

Wow, what a difference 3 years makes! They were still doing actual diaries "back in the olden days of 2007".

Really? I just thought they were done by boxes that connected to the TV or the cable box. My bad. Weird that they still rely on diaries.

Arbitron is used for radio stations. I don't know TV, but I worked in radio for 8 years. I had a friend that worked for Nielsen, and she installed the meters. Now Nielsen does do theirs electronically. I think we misunderstood each other.

my dad used to date a woman who was in this selected group. she had a special remote for the tv that tracked wut she and her kids watched...

Nielsen ratings should be ignored. The set meter doesn't even take into account that people in the same house may be watching different shows on different televisions at the same time.