Slashdot Mirror
Nielsen to measure TiVo usage
ny_cable_guy writes "The following letter went out to all of Nielsen's clients this morning: 'Working together, Nielsen Media Research and TiVo have developed software that will enable the extraction of tuning, recording and playback information from TiVo's PVR system. TiVo has downloaded this new software as part of a normal system upgrade via phone lines to existing TiVo subscribers across the country. This software would be used only by Nielsen Media Research to retrieve data from sample households, and only with permission from the household, as is the case with all homes in our samples. It is otherwise inactive in non-Nielsen homes.' The full letter has been reprinted here on netWert."
The new Nielsens are out, and there's been a bit of a shakeup in the ratings war! Friends is out of its number 1 spot, replaced by the Simpsons and second runner Junkyard Wars... Anime appears to be America's new addiction.
.... thats a good thing. I don't see the problem with this, and since they are asking why is this a /. article?
Hah! I just scoured the Tvio forums for the reason why my Tivo (and a few others) oddly locked up Saturday night. I guess this explains it...
------
Today's Top Deals
I'm glad to finally see this. One of the big benefits of TiVo and the like is that they can so much more closely moniter what demographics are watching which shows with more accuracy.
What this means for TV viewers is that the shows that people actually watch will more frequently stay on the air, and the commercials they show will be better suited. It's about time!
Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
It seems to me that in this age of exploiting customer information, Nielsen has always gone out of their way to respect private information, through opt-in programs, and anonymizing data. As a marketing information company this is very unnusual, and should Nielsen should be commended for this.
Making these TiVOs useful to the corporate world is good, since they are getting a cheap and easy way to get to their data, and in return their interest is now vested with this machine that the MPAA isn't too comfy with. Hopefully, TiVO just got itself a supporter in the media camp.
Now perhaps if the money from Nielsen can be used to subsidise driving the subscription cost of TiVO down, I may finally get one :)
Ñ'
I'm surprised it has taken this long. Letting the studios and networks know what shows I watch and what shows I pass over will hopefully steer them towards more shows that I like.
-- Erv Walter
I have a TiVo ... I'd love for my habits to be known. -- Errr I mean that really. -- When I change the channel because a show I don't like it comming on... I want that to count as a vote against that show. -- Vice-versa for good shows. As it is right now... no one knows what *I* think is good, except me.
I am Jack's HTTP Server
Bob Poniatowski (aka TivoPony), TiVo's PR rep, posted here about how this doesn't monitor non-neilsen homes.
(Ripped from the post)
"'Every TiVo' is a gross overstatement. There is software we can enable if you're a Nielsen household. This software allows the Nielsen box to query the TiVo and find out what is currently being displayed onscreen. But you not only have to be a Nielsen family, meaning you opt-in to data collecting per their privacy policy, you also have to opt-in to data collection from TiVo, per our privacy policy. And, as I understand it, Nielsen comes out and does some serious wiring in your house. So it's not stealthy at all - the Nielsen households involved are well aware of what is happening. As far as how and what Nielsen measures or counts...you'd have to ask them! Again, this is only for Nielsen households - not 'every TiVo recorder'."
"TK-421, why aren't you at your post?"
Frankly, I see it as a good thing for everyone involved. This may require loosening your aluminum-foil hat if you're a Big Brother Is Watching type, but..
------
Today's Top Deals
This topic came up in the TiVo Community forum a few weeks ago, and there is a response from TiVo in the thread explaining exactly what is going on.
. ph p?s=&threadid=68099
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread
In part, "There is software we can enable if you're a Nielsen household. This software allows the Nielsen box to query the TiVo and find out what is currently being displayed onscreen.
"But you not only have to be a Nielsen family, meaning you opt-in to data collecting per their privacy policy, you also have to opt-in to data collection from TiVo, per our privacy policy. "
I've always wondered why they don't ask for participatory commercial effectiveness voting. The Tivo would be an ideal device for this type of system. It would work like this:
When a commercial comes on, the viewer(s) are allowed to rate it on something like a 1 - 10 system. The results could be compiled and bad commercials could be automatically blocked (as a viewer preference) while good commercials could be compiled on the Tivo's drive and watched in a manner that the late adcritic.com had assembled.
I *watch* the Superbowl for the commercials. If this kind of system was implemented and widespread, commercials would become more effective and entertaining (or even informative). As a sidenote, it'd be cool if slashdot did something similar. I'm hesitant to mod down a post that I might disagree with even though I still might find it interesting. I.E. - INTERESTING+1, DISAGREE+1.
The world could be a better place, eh?
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
First of all, Neilson has an excellent reputation for respecting peoples privacy.
second of all, It only applies if you are a neilson.
Thisr of all, Why would a media company need to "hack" this information? the Neilson PUBLISH there results in a fomrat that is far more valuable to media companies then hack each persons individually.
If they did break into every tivo box and gather the information, they could profit from it because advertisers and there rates go by the Neilsons.
Its good to keep an eye on this sort of activity, but its better to apply some thought into your concerns. For a change.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This is both good and bad news.
:) ) to find new and creative (and likely very annoying) ways to advertise to their audience.
The good news is that PVRs are gaining acceptance in the broadcast industry. Rather than being undermined, they're being recognized.
It also means that there are enough PVR systems (TiVo specifically) in the world that the audience is significant.
The bad news is that the various networks use the ratings to price advertising and make scheduling choices.
Since one of the major features of a PVR is to be able to rewind and fast-forward at will, an obvious side-effect is you can simply skip commercials. This is bad for advertisers for obvious reasons.
There has already been reported discussion of a higher level of product placement and "text crawl" type advertising rather than traditional commercials. PVR-based ratings will either confirm or refute the speculation that PVR users view few or no advertisements.
This in turn could motivate programmers (broadcast, not code
All opinions presented here aren't mine.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Since they'll be able to observe when people fast-forward through commercials, the quality and viewability of commercials will be under the gun. There are some good commercials worth watching if you're in the market for a particular product or the commercial is simply entertaining. Other commercials (ie those for feminine hygeine products) aren't worth it.
I've come to accept that if I'm not directly funding a channel like HBO with a subscription, then commercials are a way of life. So, they might as well try and pitch to me something I'd consider buying rather than talking about pouring blue water on things and playing tennis in white pants.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
...report when the shows are watched and is advertisements are skipped? I'd think this information is as important and useful, if not more so, than just whether a show was watched or not. Are people watching recording Friday night shows to watch them on Tuesday night when nothing really good is on? Are some poeple not watching the entire show? why not?
Honestly, how many times has a show been cancelled and you've wished to yourself, "Man, I wish I had a Neisen box so those network bastards would know what I really like?"
This seems like a great opt-in opportunity to democratize the airwaves, as it were. Neilsen gets a bigger market sample to forecast with, ratings become more accurate (at least for the tech-savvy, tivo-owning demographic), and we get more input into the shows we like - more than "boycott this sponsor!" or a half-assed writein campaign.
Hell, if it meant I could opt-in, Neilsen or not, I'd buy a Tivo. You betcha.
GMFTatsujin
The Nelson figures can be skewed by the fact that Tivo can "push" a program, and Tivo can watch a program that the members of the household will never view. Networks will know that the numbers are junk, but they will still base advertising rates on them.
I and my wife, for the past two years, have been using and loving TiVo. And I can't tell you how many times I said that I'd sign up in a second if they wanted my permission to take my thumbs-up/down rankings and viewing habits for use in the Neilsen ratings.
As I see it, I want my viewing habits to count. If there are thousands like me that love this show and dislike that show, then that should be reflected. There have to be cases where the determine-it-via-a-sample approach don't catch everything.
And better yet, it determines what we actually watch, not what we say we watch. If I say I really like show xyz because I want to like it but never actually watch it, that should be reflected in the ratings. Any Neilsen families using log books instead of automated devices goes through a filter we don't need it to.
Awesome. Sign me up.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo
Of course that is because the research is being run by a market research company who is bound by certain ethical standards.
this prevents them from passing on identifiable data unless the respondent specifically says yes.
In most instances (99.9%) companies belonging to the MRA do follow this code. I used to work for a market research company who once tried to pass on data without permission but our group (Data processors) refused. we won as they had no moral right to make us do that.
[Please type your sig here.]
Why do we have a content preference measuring system that only measures preference about what broadcasters are currently 'throwing at the wall'?
Why don't they measure what consumers want *before* the fact?
Largely, mediocre content is continually thrust into the broadcast arena, and Neilsen tells us which of the mediocre broadcasts are the best ones. Does that really improve the quality of broadcasting/programming, or give consumers what they really want?
It would be refreshing to see someone come up with a way to poll users (with appropriate rewards for their time) on what broadcast consumers *want* to see, instead of telling us which bad content is the best bad content.
btw, I'm not talking about the lame broadcast "focus groups" here; they simply have consumers watching still more drek that has been modeled after broadcast content created with Neilsen ratings in mind - that's part of the problem!)
In a way, Neilsen ratings - used as broadcast and ad marketing decision tools - are the antithesis of good marketing, because they don't get at consumer preferences *before* the 'product' is created. In the current scheme of things, Neilesn ratings serve primarily producers and advertisers of content, not the consumer - and this is one very good reason why content producers and advertisers are having so much trouble surviving.
but got turned down because of my TiVo.
A canvasser came to my door and explained how the program works. Apparently, the prior owners of the house were Neilsons as well. We filled out an application, but the canvasser didn't know if TiVo would be a problem -- it was.
We got a call a week afterward saying that we couldn't participate. I wonder if I'll get another call. If I do, I can't tell you. No one is supposed to know who the Nielson families are.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
The more I think about this, I would want to opt in with my tivo. Far too often I have watched some of my favorite shows go off the air. Perhaps if a large enough demographic of TiVo users do this, some of the more "geek" (for a lack of a better word) shows like futurama will stay on the air. I would be willing to bet that that audiance is largly the audiance that have TiVos.
Read the TiVo Terms of Service for yourself... they're very clearly posted on the website. See what TiVo promises.
I'm fine with TiVo's ToS... they're good about privacy, and are clearly committed to this.
I also like the automatic upgrades, just like I'd like to get a more efficient fridge or bigger TV while I'm sleeping.
Bottom line: TiVo has earned my trust, and I'm fine with them having this control over my PVR.
Seriously....where are they? Is anyone on here a Nielsen household? I don't know anyone in my circle of friends/family/acquaintances who's a Nielsen family, so I can't imagine the ratings are so accurate, as I know a fairly broad swath of people in the New York / Boston "under 25 professional" demographic.
Feh. This all boils down to my being pissed off at Family Guy and Futurama going bye-bye.
--noah
Ferrari and other exotic car rentals in New York
I am 100% for this method of data collection. Tivo has always been very supportive of the technical community. They do not try to block modifications to their systems and even build in features to assist (the new Tivo 3 software allows you to enter a certain area code in the dialing software to enable dhcp support if you happened to have put in a tivonet type card). They are supportive of me, I will be supportive of them.
.thumbs down)
As for the ratings systems, I'm all for them using my usage data as long as they keep it in an opt-in format. For those of you not familiar with Tivo, you can rate shows with up to three 'thumbs-up' or three down. The Tivo will use this data to pick out 'suggestions' on what you might want to see. You can also set priorities on your set recordings (season passes) so that say, Every Futurama episode is recorded, even though there is an anime showing on another channel at that time. In the event you don't have anything pre-set to record and the Tivo thinks you might like something, it'll record something else on if you've got the space. (after I watched the mining rescue on MSNBC one night, my tivo thought I might like to watch some other news type channels so it recorded an hour of the weather channel's 10 minute updates . .
So, not only could the data be used on what I watched, but it could show how many times I watched it and whether or not I'm giving it anywhere from +3 to -3 on my viewing scale. I may end up watching Ricki Lake at Tivo's suggestion, but it doesn't mean I wish I had.
I have to post as an AC because I am a member of one of A.C. Neilson's "panels", but not the one for TV ratings. They have been excellent at keeping my information private. I have never received any unwanted solicitation that could be traced back to my participation with them.
The way compensation works on the consumer panel (scan barcodes on what you buy and transmit once per week with acoustic coupler on scanner, also answer occasional surveys) is that you are awarded points for transmitting information. If you transmit four weeks in a month you get a "Super Scanner" bonus. The points for each week and "Super Scanner" go up if you've been with them longer. Also you get points for surveys.
The points are then used to "purchase" gifts from a catalogue. You scan the barcodes like a survey and in a couple of weeks your gift arrives. I've received about $1000 worth of stuff over the past 10 years and I still have a large number of unused points waiting to build up for a larger ticket item. The items change. Some of the nicer large ticket items include a small tv/vcr combo and a nice astronomical telescope (which I got for my kids).
Since I'm sure that the software won't report it as a view, if nobody watches it.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
I remember hearing a piece on NPR's "On The Media" a while ago that pointed out that many people don't mark down shows they only watched part of (i.e., 45 minutes of an hour-long show) and some people even lie to make themselves look more cultured. Hardly a reliable method for getting accurate viewing numbers...
I don't know...seems to me like they'll be getting more data on households where the Head-of-Household is 25-34, education/income is at a certain level, and at least one person in the household is an Early Adopter. EVEN IF they trim down their sample so that it is nationally representative (which is what it sounds like they're doing), the data is still skewed by the Early Adopter nature of most TiVo owners.
...it's really a new type of data, not more accurate old data.
Don't think that this will be any more accurate that the data they have now. They will still have to do a good amount of weighting/statistical manipulation to be able to extrapolate the viewing habits of the general population. So, if they are going to end up weighting/manipulating, it really doesn't become any more accurate in the areas of data that they already have.
In my opinion, the big gain here is being able to measure what people are recording. It tells less about viewership and more about personal preference...and will probably be of little use to advertisers (commercials are skipped)
Your point are good, and I agree with them as long as who I am is left out.
Imagine what would happen if i was found out you where watching something unpopular in the political sense?
Do you want people to take note that you watched an above average number of minutes on shows about aids? Do you want your insurance company to know that someone in your household has been watching shows on cancer?
Noe neilson has an excellent reputation, and I'd like to see that they intend to keep it that way.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Haha. I know you, heathen. We excommunicated you from the Church of Trolls years ago... now you hang out with that cult, what's its name? Church of the Glorious Crapflood?
--
Trolling for Jebus since AD 2101.
of course, it'll be interesting to see how they measure commercial viewership wrt PVRs (real-time viewers per slot? time-shift viewers per slot? fast forward x1, x2, x3 viewers per slot or per commercial?)
anyway, I've noticed a couple of things on Tivo, that lead me to wonder whether Tivo's already deriving revenue from content providers (not an intrinsically bad thing, but it could force Tivo to be beholden to their new meal tickets...):
Tivo had a *ton* of Goldmember links (videos, ads, etc) on their main page recently.
also, as i was watching network tv this weekend, i noticed that, as a commercial hyping a new (ABC?) series was playing, a "press (thumbs up icon) to schedule recording" message showed up on the top right of the screen.
wonder what Tivo got paid for *those* placements..? Anyone out there in the know?
mmm... yeah... You see, we're putting the cover sheets on all TPS reports now before they go out...
... that Tivo (or variants) is the best method I have to watch their programming. I'm sorry, but my life is not based around time-slots. If they want me to watch their commercials, they need to find a way to make that compelling to me.
If they use this data to say "people are filtering out commercials", the proper response is NOT to disable the commercial filtering technology. If commercials are so obnoxious that people will spend $400 for a gadget that filters them, then the problem is definitely not that people are thieves. The problem is that they're not catering to their audience. If I am willing to spend that much money to filter commercials, then removing my ability to do that will result in removing my interest in watching TV.
If they're smart, they'll use the data gathered here to say "Maybe we should cut commericals down from 2 minutes to one minute, and have fewer breaks. That way, people won't be bothered to use the 30-second skip." Heck, if AOL can learn this lesson, why not the TV Industry?
Funny thing is, I can see this approach resulting in people watching TV for longer. My attention span is short enough as it is. A commercial can kill my interest in a show. That's not good.
"Derp de derp."
> And 3 of the top ten shows are part of the law and order syndicate. That's pretty amazing if you ask me.
Why? L&O (and its offshoots) are intelligently written, well acted and excellently produced... Oh, I see what you mean - they're good television, which generally doesn't make for popular television.
Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
There's no rule that says you must adhere to a particlar position in order to participate on Slashdot. Therefore there will be people who disagree on such questions. I hope this clears up your confusion.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
TiVo viewers (along with ReplayTV viewers) DON'T WATCH COMMERCIALS. Why else would you own one of these machines?
You obviously don't own a TiVo.
Yes, most TiVo owners tend to fast-forward through commercials, though they can't skip them entirely or automatically (unlike ReplayTV). However, as the existence of primetime "best commercials" programs indicates, people will watch commercials if they're good. (Many people watch the Super Bowl for the commercials because advertisers tend to work harder on making those commercials better than the usual tripe.) While I routinely fast-forward through commercials on my TiVo, I also regularly rewind to watch one which catches my eye. The moral? If advertisers want people to watch commercials without needing to coerce them into doing it, they should make better commercials that are worth watching.
While skipping commercials may be popular (since we're all sick of being bombarded with commercial messages), timeshifting is the real killer feature of the TiVo, not commercial skipping. Until you "get it", the TiVo just sounds like a glorified VCR, but that's really an inadequate description. While a VCR is useful for timeshifting "must see" programs, it's enough of a hassle that it's only used when necessary. With a TiVo, most users soon find they're recording everything of interest (usually automatically), and watching programs when convenient. You stop scheduling your life around TV schedules, and there's always something you like available to watch no matter when you sit down at the TV. If you're interrupted by a ringing phone, you pause the TV. If you want to see something again, you rewind it. You can pause and rewind on live TV as well as prerecorded shows. (My 2-year-old daughter gets upset when we can't rewind the TV in the bedroom on demand!)
To the uninitiated, the TiVo's features seem more like parlor tricks -- neat tricks, but not really important, and not worth paying for when you have a VCR already. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what PVR's are really about. It's not just an enhanced VCR. It fundamentally changes the way you watch TV, and once you get used to it, you'd never go back to the plain old VCR. Just ask any TiVo owner.
Better yet, go buy one from a retailer with a 30-day return privilege and see for yourself. I doubt you'll end up returning it!
Deven
"Simple things should be simple, and complex things should be possible." - Alan Kay
> How can you trust a company which would upload code to your box without your consent !!!
Are you sure you didn't consent to it when you subscribed to their service? (This isn't a troll, it's a genuine question - I don't have TiVo)
Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
ue to a logic error, a "NOT" was missed in an expression, and we accidently turned on all of the TiVo's for collection...
My-bad.
-- You can't idiot-proof anything, because they're always coming out with better idiots.
While I think you are wise to consider the ways that we the public might get screwed, I would like to point out that both Neilson and TiVo have an established reputation of NOT screwing their customers. It seems like they understand that treating the public badly is poor business practice in the long run, so I don't think we should assume that these two parties will violate our privacy with impunity.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Just a few points...
... that's why the software went from 1.0, to 2.0, to 2.5, to 3.0, etc. If the Tivo system *didn't* do this, you'd be stuck with three+ year-old technology. In other words, they do this all the time, and it's a *good* thing! :)
1) The Tivo system is *always* uploading new code to your Tivo
2) Notice that the software doesn't do anything except for Nielsen households. In other words, just like Nielsen families have special hardware on their TVs to let the system automatically report what they're watching, the new Tivo software lets Nielsen see what they're watching (or re-watching, etc.) via Tivo, rather than just that "the TV appears to be tuned to channel 3 for 72 hours straight."
So, if you're not a Nielsen household, this means nothing to you -- no activation, and no use for it even if there was. If you *are* a Nielsen household, it's just an improvement upon a system you've already signed up for.
--Tom
but "they" might be (in fact I'm sure they are) quite interested in reaching the specific demographic we can assume TiVo users represent. Nielson doesn't just extrapolate the viewing of the aggregate, but also breaks down viewing of sub sets.
The big thing that is new about TiVo data is that it covers non-live viewings, which has never been done before. Until they actually get the data, we don't know what that means.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
They could just take the blanket TiVo data, but Nielson wants much better data than that and they need the viewer's cooperation if they are going to get it. They don't want the just know that the show was being played on the TiVo, they want to know who was in the room watching it.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
TiVo viewers (along with ReplayTV viewers) DON'T WATCH COMMERCIALS.
Perhaps ReplayTV has a 30 second skip button that blanks the screen, but Tivo's commercial skip is based on a fast-forward mechanism that backs up a bit when disengaged. Thus, if you place your brand name steady on the screen during a whole 30 second spot, the Tivoers will still see it.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I don't want to sound judgemental, or anything, but Come On!? Does he have to be that , um, stereotypical?
Apple has a policy of NOT paying for product placement. If you want to use their hardware as props, you can buy them at the store like everyone else. However, since people like how they look, they often buy Apples, still a cheap prop.
Many shows blank out the Apple logo, as Apple isn't paying them. If the policy is no freebies, no logo. Otherwise, they can use the logo.
People use Apple computers because they look good.
Alex
Glad I don't have a tivo, i'd be pissed!
Why would you be "pissed" at TiVo for allowing you to opt-in to the data collection? No one is taking data without your permission, assuming that the data is theirs to take, etc.
I'm hesitant to mod down a post that I might disagree with even though I still might find it interesting. I.E. - INTERESTING+1, DISAGREE+1.
You're not SUPPOSED to mod down a post because you disagree with it. Whether it's wrong is for every reader to decide for themselves.
You're supposed to moderate on whether other people might want to see it, to direct their attention to interesting/insightful/funny stuff and away from flamebate/troll/redundant/etc.
(It might be interesting to allow a separate right/wrong moderation system. Perhaps with slightly different rules: No mod points to consume, probablility of being allowed to moderate moderately high for newbies, 100% for those with a significant preponderance of agree on right/wrong metamoderation.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
A while ago I was contacted by Nielsen//NetRatings to allow them to monitor my Internet use. They gave me a $50 savings bond that I can't cash in for some time and so I think I lost it. Their software was basically an open proxy server that sat on the host machine. That was probably a security risk for people not behind firewalls, and I told them so. I don't know if they ever did anything about it because their members website was basically just a place to download the software. It lagged my net connections considerably and I routinely turned it off. At the time, I was also a bit of a BeOS fanatic and they only had a Windows version, so a lot of my browsing went undetected when I booted into BeOS.
You've probably noticed all the past tense I've been using. I could only endure their annoying software for so long, so I quit before they could give me another savings bond I would probably lose too.
The atomicity allowed by this system could revolutionize TV ratings.
If a substantial portion of viewers use TiVo's "instant replay" feature on a given portion of a program, the data gathered could be used to figure out why people like certain shows.
Think of the ramifications. Nielson discovers which jokes are funny, which commercials are entertaining, how many times we're willing to sit through a given commericial, how many times viewers use "instant replay" to see Britney's tits bounce.
All of it leads to fewer repetitive commercials, better programming, and a valuable catalog of desirable programming attributes. Maybe it could even convince American networks that a little T&A goes a long way, and attracts enough viewers to compensate for the overly vocal "religious right". To be honest, I think watching T&A is a bit like picking your nose or peeing in the shower. Most people do it, but they'd never admit to it.
Hell, give out one remote per family member. The "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" can tell you that Mr. Jones loves The O'Reilley Factor, but The Mrs. can't stand it. Voting with your eyeballs just became possible.
Personally, I'd like to see commercials targeted to my demographic. I (and my wife (thank God)) could give a damn about the "New Size 14+ Maxi-Pads", but show me a commercial about the new Nissan 350Z, and I'm not gonna use the 30-second skip. And stop showing so many damned AOL ads. I ain't buying it.
I want a TV that knows what I like in commercials and in programming. Pretty soon, I'm going to have it.
"Saddam Hussein cavorts with terrorists."
In particular, I wonder how well non-conventional households are represented.
<speculation src="FAQ">
Representation in the Nielsen selection process is entirely based on how many land-line telephone numbers you have. They dial random ten-digit U.S. phone numbers, but they exclude mobile phones because of the federal junk fax law.
</speculation>
Will I retire or break 10K?
I recently was "selected" to do one of the Nielson TV ratings. As my taste in television programming is probably "off beat" from that of most of America, I wanted to make sure that my favorite shows got some respect.. :)
The system that they use for logging TV shows may make sense for the old days of rabbit ears, but it was completely ridiculous for me (a DirecTivo user). They actually want you to write down a list of all of the channels you receive!! Ha!!
Also, as a Tivo user, I usually don't watch live TV. As a DirecTivo user, I have dual tuners and can record two different live shows while watching a third. Trying to capture my recording/viewing habits on their grid was pretty ridiculous.
I don't mind sharing my viewing habits back to Tivo -- it would be nice though if I was given a discount on the service for providing them the data.
Evolution: love it or leave it
I moved into an apartment, which may explain why I was selected (previous owners?? who knows...)
When I got the guide, I had a hard time figuring out how to explain my DirecTivo (dual tuner.. etc) usage in their format. I had a call with a very confused customer service represenatitive who had no idea what a Tivo was or what its capabilities were. I ended up just pretending like I had two TVs each w/ a VCR and wrote it up that way.
Evolution: love it or leave it
1) Buy a 433 or better (faster is better)
2) Buy a video card with TV out
3) Buy a TV tuner card
4) Find a hard drive with 20 gigs free or so
5) Get some PVR software, such as IUVCR
It's not nearly as user friendly, but you can be absolutely sure that no company is tracking you. Plus you end up with standard DivX AVI's that you can do whatever you want with.
Travis
Wife (sobbing hysterically): "We lost Punky!!!"
It may have been difficult, but she did the right thing. What a hero.