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TV People Meter: Monitoring What You Watch
bj3g2j writes "CNN has an interesting article about the People Meter that is built by Arbitron. It seems that the device is portable and picks up on signals sent from the TV (and/or radio) to determine what people are watching. This is supposed to improve the accuracy of tracking viewer habits. The best quote is that 'it includes a motion detector to verify someone is actually wearing it.' Lots of motion while sitting on the couch? Interesting concept in light of the recent ruling in California."
Telescreens a la 1984?? Stuff like this freaks me out, there is no need for the TV to be a two way device, it was meant to be one way, the signal goes out, no need to get info back, trying to build functionality into a system like this is playing with fire.
ahh, the egg in the basket..
Take it from a guy in commercial radio. Arbitron only deals in radio ratings and internet radio webcasts. That's it. There's no TV tracking going on with Arbitron, no matter what the story says. They've done the diary thing for years, and now they're looking at a better way to track RADIO LISTENING. Your TV watching habits are safe. This entire process also requires the stations in the TSA (Total Survey Area) to have special encoders for the stations to be picked up by the PPM. If a station doesn't have the encoder, they're not picked up. Sucks for low-budget stations, huh? Nielsen could use a PPM if it needed to, and I'm sure they're considering it. However, they'd probably be better off using set-top boxes like they've been trying out. Just remember the following equations: Arbitron = Radio Nielsen = TV.