Slashdot Mirror
Nielsen Struggles To Track Modern Viewing Habits
RobotRunAmok writes "The Nielsen Company has been the principal entity tracking TV shows' popularity, and, by extension, their potential profitability. But as our media consumption practices change, some believe that Nielsen's methods have not kept pace. A new consortium including networks owned by NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp, Viacom, CBS, Discovery, and Walt Disney — along with major advertisers — is calling for the creation of a new audience measurement service, and planning to solicit bids from outside firms by the fourth quarter of this year. Nielsen says they're not worried about so many of their customers ganging up on them, having just invested more than a billion dollars in research to stay modern. Except that today Nielsen announced they would pointedly not be adding weights to DVR households, and that adding weights for the presence of a personal computer or Internet access in under-represented households would provide 'no significant change or enhancement' to its national TV ratings sample. The pundits deride Nielsen's 'archaic' methodology and 'disco-era tactics,' but others scoff that such a consortium will only 'put the foxes in charge of the henhouse.' Stay tuned..."
Seriously, is there anyone under the age of 40 who DOESN'T use a DVR anymore? And I don't mean the "I don't even *OWN* a TV!" snobs, I'm talking about average people. I can't imagine going back to watching live TV, and can't believe that Nielsen is still not taking me adequately into account. I think they do finally factor in some DVR's now (contrary to the summary), but only one per household and only under weirdly strict conditions (like having to watch the show within 24 hrs. of its airing).
Okay, I can understand them not weighing us DVR watchers as much as grandma watching her stories on live TV (since we're a lot less likely to actually watch the ads that the Nielsens are all about). But to only count us under a few conditions is to ignore the reality that we're in the 21st century (some of us are even watching *gasp* HD content, which Nielsen is also still undervaluing).
Come on, I'm tired of seeing crap network shows that my great-aunt watches in the top ten and the shows *I* like getting shitcanned for "low ratings." I would even be willing to "opt-in" to a DVR viewing log system if it meant that my viewing habits could save a few decent shows.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Just check mini nova. That should show you better then anything what people are watching.
Maybe they can justify Bittorrent "profit" losses by using download statistics to provide ratings. Nielsen is just an extrapolation anyways. At least for certain markets they could save a ton of money on this research.
The headline is inaccurate, as the story is more about how Nielsen isn't struggling to track modern viewing habits.
Caveat Utilitor
At least for my viewing habits. I maybe consistently watch maybe 1-2 shows live each week. Throw in a few hours of channel browsing, usually flipping between Discovery Channel, History Channel, Food Network, NatGeo, SciFi (SyFy), or Military Channel. That said, the shows I really watch, I am recording in HD on my custom built Home Theater PC (HTPC) for watching at my leisure, on my own schedule. It might be a week or two later before I watch a show, but I do watch them. And Neilson doesn't even count me. Probably one of the reasons why shows like Futurama were cut in the fist place, only to finally be put back into production from the out-cry and DVD sales numbers (which told them that Neilson's ratings for the show was complete utter BS).
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
You'd think that Nielsen would be more willing to compromise on the DVR issue, since all the "big spending" demographic groups use them heavily.
Stay tuned
Should have read "don't touch that dial!"
Damn kids, get off my lawn!
Free Martian Whores!
The media companies have a vested interest in getting the best audience data they can, so I'd say the "foxes...henhouse" argument is flawed in this case.
On a tangent - normally I watch shows on my Tivo, but lately I've used Hulu a few times to watch shows that aren't currently running "on the air". I'll tell you, it's reminded me of why I hate commercials (since you can't skip Hulu's) - it's because they are, for the most part, insipid at best! I don't actually mind smart, engaging, or funny commercials - but the vast majority are garbage, plain and simple. I can't imagine why anyone would think these ads would encourage anyone to buy a particular product. With my Tivo I use the 30-second-skip to jump the commercials. I'll actually watch ones that catch my attention (e.g. many of the Jack-in-the-Box ads); but most are just a waste of airtime.
#DeleteChrome
It's absurd that a company dedicated to providing ratings information doesn't properly track actual viewing. DVR in particular should be closely tracked, so that they can see what happens as more and more programs slip the advertising into the show itself (though hopefully in a more subtle way that Eureka! has).
All in all, I think we would all benefit because the networks would know which shows no one cares about and could adjust their programming quicker and the advertisers would have a better idea of how to reach their target demographic and how much they should be paying to do so.
Easy peasy.
From August 5th BigChampagne Challenges Nielsen With New Ratings Service http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/9002/bcdash.html
As a consequence, Nielsen will do whatever it can to stonewall, obfuscate, and generally hide the obvious: the day of Network hegemony is coming to a close.
This doesn't mean the Networks are going to disappear. What it does mean is that the Network business model of delivering motion picture, and the techniques, methods, aesthetics, and processes developed to support that system, is no longer the complete hegemonic force it used to be. In 1948 there was radio and TV and movies and... ummmm... not much else. Today there is broadcast TV, Cable TV, online video, radio, satellite radio, computer games, game consoles, Web2.0 social networks and similar systems (viz 2nd life), podcasts, etc. etc. etc.
The last actual advertisement I paid attention to AT ALL was last week (well, actually this morning - the girl on the billboard was f*cking hott. don't know what she was selling, but damn she was cute...) when I actually clicked on an advert to find out more about a certain brand of eReader (no, not the kindle...) So, that particular advert was successful, and it was online. Not on TV.
That's the mindshare competition TV is dealing with, and what Nielsen refuses to deal with. TV could actually GROW in size, and still be increasingly marginalised by the explosion of all the other media.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
I don't subscribe to cable, and don't really watch "over-the-air" TV, mostly because I don't really feel like fiddling with the antennae. I do watch lots of shows on Hulu, which is great from the network standpoint, because all they have to do is check website server logs and javascript reports to find out how many times someone is watching their show. The best part about it, is that they get an exact number of who's accessed the file, so there's no "sampling" of the population going on. Plus, they can sell ads based on an exact number. This is probably exactly why Hulu is so valuable to NBC and Fox (and now ABC).
Why isn't Panasonic introducing the next gen DVR? Is it possible to use TiVO without a monthly fee? Is it possible to edit clips in a TiVO and burn it off to a DVD?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Neither the networks (cable of otherwise) nor Neilson have any interest in accurate reporting. Accurate reporting would show that more and more people are using their DVRs to fast forward through pretty much all the commercials. And make no mistake, ratings are entirely and only about ratings, or, rather, the advertising rates that are based on ratings. Nothing else matters in the least. The day advertising rates are based on something else, we will never see another ratings list again.
And everyone, even the advertisers, but especially the networks and the people who make commercials, are terrified of this. They can't make commercials are aren't just annoying, it's beyond them. And people simply will not watch annoying commercials any more. On the very rare occasions I watch live TV, and it's no more than once or twice a week, I routinely (without even thinking about it) must the sound during commercials, because I refuse to let my own television scream at me that some retarded comapny wants retards to buy their retarded products (and that seems to be, literally, the gist of most of it - "OUR PRODUCTS ARE FOR STUPID PEOPLE - BUY OUR PRODUCTS OR YOU WILL DIE!").
Eventually, the truth will come out, and either televisionland will learn to make commercials that aren't offensive, or the entire advertising based business model will die. I expect the latter, given how stupid Hollywood is.
If Fox uses them to determine what shows to keep, either they are flawed, or the general population is retarded. Oh. Wait.
Perhaps executives should troll popular websites and such to see what the viewers themselves have to say instead?
Let me first say I totally agree with your point. But really, I think this is about something different than what most of us logically think it should be about.
I suspect the networks and advertisers are interested, primarily, in who is tuning in to the provided programming in "real time". Even if they find out that a certain TV series is wildly popular with people who recorded it to watch later? They may still be most fixated on the numbers who thought it was worth interrupting their day or night to watch it, as soon as it hit the airwaves.
I'm not in this industry, but I can see how an advertiser would place a lot of value on knowing their commercial is being viewed in a prompt manner by viewers. (EG. If you want to run an ad talking about a special sale "this weekend only!" at your local sandwich shop or car dealership, the ad is rendered useless to anyone who "gets around to watching it" on their DVR the following week.)
Most over-the-air television will be a think of the past. The external receivers / and servers for online viewing will measure this and Nielsen will be out of a job.
An episode of My Name Is earl used the Klondike Bar very effectively, with Randy soing all sorts of embarrassing things for one, and it was hilarious. I can see The Simpsons replacing Duff Beer with Miller -- product placement paid by Anheiser Busch.
Free Martian Whores!
Hulu is a nice idea but given the option I'll pay $2 an episode just not to watch ads, which as you are just insipid. Or like you say, use a DVR and just skip over commercials rapidly.
If you drop extras on your cable (or cable TV altogether) and only watch a few shows, iTunes is still cheaper than cable. And I get to watch things at my own pace.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So...tv networks decide on their own what to show and no show. This effects me how, exactly? They'll still kill intelligent shows in favor of the window-licker specials, so why do I care?
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
VERY rarely do I watch live TV. Mostly, I TiVO everything, and fast forward through the commercials(I know advertisers don't want to hear that). I'm guessing I'm not alone and, contrary to Nielsen's thinking, we probably represent a statistically significant group.
When my neighbors, a proud Neilsons household (I hated the idea, personally), got a second TiVo that enabled him to share recordings not only on his time but between spaces, they removed his neilson's box and said they weren't able to compute a second DVR in the house. Personally, I don't like being monitored like that.
Nielsen has software to participate in their web rating service which though all in java has never been ported to Linux. After a decade of explaining that I also use Linux and not being able to get any action on that front I gave up. If you really want to be a player in the ratings business you need to be where the people are who you want to follow, not changing your sample source to keep the relative value of your investment intact at the expense of being able to follow your demographic. Nielsen wake up! It's no longer the 1950's!
"Can there be a Klein bottle that is an efficient and effective beer pitcher?"
I'm in Canada and have been wearing a Neilson (BBM Neilson) meter. It clips to my belt or fits in a pocket and has a microphone and can pick up in-audible signals embedded by broadcasters into the audio track. I believe that when I watch a recorded show it should record this fact. I don't know the resolution of the audio signal, i.e. does it send one signal repeatedly for the duration of the show, or does it encode the point in time within the show as well as the commercial time. I suspect it does simply the former.
They even provide an acoustic coupler for headphones (i.e. it inserts inline in the headphone cable path and then acoustically couples to the meter). which could then, in theory, track other media, such as podcasts (I listen to the CBC Radio 1 shows on radio as well as via podcast) but I don't bother because it is too cumbersome.
Anyway, while they might choose to weight recorded shows due to the increased ability to skip commercials, they shouldn't weight them due to under-reporting within this system.
With digital (cable) TV here, the cable cos know what you are watching and how long.
As a former TV repair tech, I've seen how Nielsen rigs sets to track users; It's not just a set-top box that tracks your channel, but is WAY more intrusive than that.
Speaking of CRT TVs, they cut holes in the TV cabinet with leads from that box; these leads were wired to the V sync of the TV (don't know why, maybe verify the TV is on?) and the speakers (presumably to monitor volume and muting habits) and other places I can't remember....
I have not seen a more modern flat panel wigged with a Nielsen box yet...
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
We were a Nielsen family for a couple of years, up until about March. The amount of equipment that they attached to the TV and all the associated devices was staggering. We also had a TV in the bedroom that contained a DVD player. They took the TV apart and put lots of wires inside and a box on the outside. Some how they amanged to break a VCR during the installation, which they replaced. Both TVs in the house had a complete PC attached and ran a separate wireless network as well as connecting to the house phone lines. There were zillions of wires and lots of little boxes behind the TV. If the whole gamisch didn't call in daily to report on us for a day or two, the technician would schedule a visit and pound on his PC for an hour or so and then leave, satisfied that he's done something. Last March, during the Final Four, our old 1994 27" Sony Trinitron died and when I went shopping for a new TV, I decided that it was time for Nielsen to go. It was an interesting experience but I was very unimpressed with the complexity of their equipment. Now I know what a modern Rube Goldberg device looks like.
Seems to me that Nielsen's metrics are just about useless these days.
How many people actively watch television without a DVR? Wouldn't it be fairly easy for those DVRs to simply report back what shows you're watching? Yeah, I know, privacy and all that... But your average person is just renting it from their cable/dish provider and doesn't have much say in what the box does anyway.
And folks watching television programs through on-line services like hulu or whatever can easily be tracked as well. Just record the number of views a given show's gotten - much like the counters on YouTube.
Hell, even folks who don't use a DVR typically have some kind of cable/dish de-scrambler box... Those could report viewing habits as well.
I certainly understand the appeal of having an impartial party responsible for the data... But it doesn't seem like this kind of data collection should be terribly difficult to do these days. Seems like the bigger challenge would be for viewers who don't want to participate to keep their usage private.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
They wanted to install the box in our house so we let them, Put it on a TV we were about to replace with a nice plasma, stuck the TV in the office to play porn 24/7 on directTV.
Hooray for boobies!!!
oogly boogly!
In this day of digital broadcasting, why is Nielsen even relevant anymore? Can't cable companies track who is watching/DVR'ing what nowadays? Maybe not with over-the-air or satellite TV, but wouldn't the cable-only subscribers be a large enough sample to get a good idea of what people like on TV?
One column is the Seed and one is the Leech.
3A 4E 22 05 C1 83 0B 7A
It's random, but my posting it here is probably considered illegal to someone.
1. Do you like Science Fiction Stories? (Y/N)
(Note to test processor, if the answer to question 1 is Y then discard survey immediately)
2. Do you like Matlock and/or HeeHaw? (Y/N)
(Note to test processor, if the answer to question 2 is N then discard survey immediately)
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Just look at Family Guy. The show's ratings eventually dwindled (according to Nielsen) and the show was eventually canceled. (I realize other factors may have been involved). Then the show comes out on DVD and does extremely well, and the show goes back on air.
For a few bucks a month in cash, or maybe even free SchedulesDirect service, I would happily install a plug-in to MythTV that would tell the ratings people what I've been watching.
SURVEYS. Seriously, there would be very few reasons to lie about what you are watching but screening the survey participants can serve to limit that anyway. "When do you watch entertainment video? What were you watching during this time slot? What about the next?" The results should pay the same whether or not they even watched TV or other video entertainment at all leaving less incentive to be "inventive." So if I downloaded an episode of Weeds from The Pirate Bay and watched it this morning, that would count as a viewer of that show. If I watched it again, it should count again. I'm sure they'll figure out the details better than I would, but the bottom line is that technology to track viewership when the options are too many to track, one would simply need to revert to more primitive methods of collecting information. Ask people!
from slashdot summary
A new consortium including networks owned by NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp, Viacom, CBS, Discovery, and Walt Disney â" along with major advertisers â" is calling for the creation of a new audience measurement service, and planning to solicit bids from outside firms by the fourth quarter of this year.
from Deadline Hollywood Daily
This sounds a lot like putting the foxes in charge of the hen house starting in September. The very idea that NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp/Fox, Viacom/MTV, CBS, Disney/ABC and Discovery are forming a consortium to challenge the dominant force in TV audience measurement gives rise to all sorts of scenarios.
The first quote is excerpted from the slashdot summary and lists the parties participating in the consortium. The second quote is excerpted from an editorial at something called Deadline Hollywood Daily and is used to support an allegation that network executives will conspire to deliberately manipulate ratings. Note that the portrayal within the opinion piece omits two crucial facts: 1) The consortium includes advertisers. Advertisers presumably have a financial stake in receiving accurate,not inaccurate ratings 2) The Network consortium does not propose that network executives would rate programs, as the editorial piece portrays it, but that ratings would be determined by "outside firms"
It appears that this "Deadline Hollywood Daily" outfit supports its editorial position by omitting some facts and inventing others.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
I still have a hard time believing the numbers for FOX News... they routinely have as the same as MSNBC , CNN and the others combined (from tvbythenumbers.com). The only rationalization I ahve heard is that a lot of Fox views watch ALL DAY so it somehow skews....
You've got plenty of bad attitude. The relevant part of the world has habits just like YOU, people over 40 are all like grandma, and the shows *you* like get artificially low ratings for some unexplained reason. What part of the country do you live in? I need to know what direction to turn when I bow down to worship.
Shouldn't he be doing Naked Gun 4.0 instead of that tracking thing?
I used to work for Nielsen as a field rep. The way they gather the data is solid, but they have some serious issues with quality control. Meaning too much QC. If the power goes out in one section of the home, and the box is reset, the whole days viewing data is thrown out for the WHOLE household. They should just throw out that one viewing site. As for DVRs, the article fails to mention that Nielsen already accounts for DVRs, quite well I might add. It's live+7 days. Meaning that if you recorded tuesdays american idol, and didn't watch it til sunday, it still counts for tuesdays viewing data. How it deals with the nightly numbers was a bit above my pay grade, but i think the DVR equipment tracked the SID codes while it was recording.
:)
Biggest problem Nielsen really has is internet usage. They just (like 3 years ago) started tracking internet sites with their A2M2 program. The sample is very very small, about 1/5th the size of a TV sample. And a lot of the households are former TV sample homes. (they offer them the I2 program as the home comes out of the LPM sample) They also now are able to track distance family members, like kids at college are counted now away from home, but count as part of the household. (figure that one out if the parents live in Minneapolis, and the kid goes to school in LA?)
As for people wondering why Nielsen is a viable company in this digital age? Simple demographics. Nielsen has every household members income, job title, where they work, shopping habits, age, etc. The cable company can find out what a person is watching through an STB, but doesn't have ANY of the demographics of the household. Nielsen using LPM systems can tell you EXACTLY who was watching what at a specific time, including the persons age, wine buying habits, primary shopper in the home or not, and what kind of car(year, make, model) they drive. (yes, these were the questions i had to ask households every 3 months) Obscene target audiences. Even with the old NSI sample, Nielsen had more data than the cable companies. (NSI is total household data, LPM is persons data)
For those really wondering, Nielsen does track homes that pirate satellite/cable. They just don't show that number anywhere.
Right on - Neilson's customers really aren't the broadcasters or the producers. It is the advertisers. If the people paying have to rely on the broadcasters for figures without absolute transparency, well they won't pay. That is the card Neilson is playing here. They are independent and conservative in their estimates of audience. I bet they have real good models that track their current methodology to actual sales for major advertisers.
Or soon will be.
Sell shows on Hulu, iTunes and what not. Let me buy X credits for Y dollars and let me pick what to watch. If i want commercial free i pay more, if i want HD i pay more. The more credits i buy the cheap each credit will be. Maybe "watching" commercials gives me credits.
Timeslot becomes irrelevant - All you need to know is *ding* there is a new episode, my account knows to buy it and download it. Maybe premium subscribers get things first.
Seasons becomes irrelevant - Just upload the next episode when it's done.
Networks become irrelevant - Instead of networks all you need are production houses with the infrastructure. Even these could be disposable.
Ratings become irrelevant - You don't need a show to be popular to be profitable. If the show loses audience the producers can charge a bit more for it.
Audience warnings become less relevant - Cuss all you want. Release a censored version and a non-censored version. Put parental controls in the account profile. Time to watch True Blood... *enter PIN*.
But what about people in BFE? - The networks can broadcast a selection of the shows available for download (currently the model is the other way around). The US is ages behind on broadband access. That will soon cause a new set of problems as we divide into connected and unconnected classes. Lay the cable, the money will come.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
Not that I can provide any of the details, but Nielson DOES (or at least DID) use DVR-watchers' data.
How do I know?
I'm a TiVo-Nielsen family. There was a specific enrollment they had about 5 years ago for Nielsen to use TiVo data from selected households, and I was chosen & signed-up. Now, what Nielsen and TiVo do with that information, if your Nielsen-family status is based on your location or your account or your physical DVR... or if Nielsen/TiVo are even still collecting the data -- I don't know.
What I can tell you is that, circa 2005, Nielsen was collecting data from TiVo DVR users.
And I thought I was bad at wielding metaphors.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Sure, they're accurate. But they're not making much money.
http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/11/hulu-profitable-please
I hardly even watch real cable anymore. I PVR just about everything I care about... stream online media... or download torrents ...all through my PC hooked up to my TV. Maybe this explains why all of the shows I like keep getting cancelled (Kings, Medium, etc)... while garbage like "America's Got Talent" is still thriving.
What's the purpose of Neilsen counting audience members?
The purpose is to determine how many eyeballs are there watching the advertisements so that the channels/stations know how much to charge the advertisers.
Why else would anyone pay Neilsen for that information? If Neilsen wasn't being paid for it, why would they compile it?
Can anyone seriously suggest that even a measurable minority of those DVR viewers aren't merely skipping over all that advertising? If they don't, then should they count, for the purposes of determining how much to charge advertisers for their spots?
Let's not forget the number one dirty little secret of the broadcasting industry:
You, the viewer are not the customer.
The advertisers are the customer.
You, the viewer, are the product being sold.
The TV stations / networks have almost exactly as much interest in keeping you happy as a shepherd has in keeping his flock happy.
No subscription: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05757709000P?mv=rr
DVD Sales.
Hey, look! It's Bono's brother.
you need to build it, tune it, besure you ahve the rigth card, and dozens of OTHER problems added.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The studios have to do something sooner or later. The Nielsen way of tracking things sucks. For certain genres of television, the viewing habits of it's audience will tend to shift. If it shifts in a way not tracked by Nielsen, an otherwise good show may be canceled. Science fiction in particular is hurt here as it's audience tends to be the technophile crowd who are just not as likely to watch it broadcast at primetime.
For example, Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles (which as a series I enjoyed far more than the latest movie) showed terrible Nielsen ratings, yet it's DVR numbers were good, it's foreign market numbers were excellent, and week after week it was among the top downloads at the iTunes store. It was doing good in other areas, just not in the over the air live audience arena, and so it got canned. Hopefully we'll see less of this as studios start tracking things more accurately.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
I second this. I used to work for their auditers - Arthur Anderson.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Broadcast television has changed. Digital cable companies do not need Neilsen statistics to estimate who may or may be watching a particular show - they have exact, concrete numbers. Any digital cable company can tell you with percision exactly how many customers are tuned into any given show at any time. Heck, by monitoring use trends over time for each unit, they can probably even guesstimate the age range of the people who use that particular TV!
Yes, you can't do this for digital sat. or for OTA users. But I would think that the number of digital cable users is BY FAR a large enough sample to extrapolate trends across all age groups and demographics.
All of the above is also true for online media like Hulu et. al - you know exactly how many people are watching. If you are broadcasting using YouTube, you even have all of their aggregate Google profile information for age ranges, etc.
Advertisiers don't care about DVR's because something like forty percent of more of viewers using DVRs fast forward through the ads.
Advertisers care about LIVE viewers sitting in front of the TV screen watching ads.
Go to the Web site http://tvbythenumbers.com/ which tracks the ratings of TV shows. They have a number of articles explaining how the Neilsen system works and why DVR's and Internet viewing DO NOT matter when it comes to your favorite TV show getting canceled.
Back when Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was on, I wanted to know if the show was going to be canceled, since the quality was going down and I'd heard the ratings were bad. I went over to TV By The Numbers and got an education on how that stuff works. So it was no surprise to me when TSCC got canceled. OTOH, it WAS a surprise when Dollhouse, whose ratings were even worse, got renewed. But the explanation for that is that Fox Studios cut the Dollhouse budget down so substantially that it was not unreasonable for Fox Networks to renew the show. Still, that renewal was close to a miracle for the show.
Robert Seidman and Bill Gorman at TVBTN use the ratings data provided to predict which shows will be canceled and which will be renewed. They are usually on the money as long as extraneous factors don't enter into it, such as a satellite network picking up the tab for a show and other special deals.
They also cover this whole issue of whether Neilsen ratings are accurate and the broadcast industry's reservations about it. Best source of info on the subject.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
and I can tell you they are struggling to stay current with 1980's technology. Their tracking equipment looks like something out of a steam punk novel and doesn't really work worth a crap. The stuff they expect their field technician to work with would be send the average slashdotter into fits of uncontrollable laughter and/or tears. Here are some of my actual questions during training: "Are you joking? Is that really how you do it? What is the best method of duck tape application? Does every installation take 50 usb cables?" I just couldn't believe it. It's really that bad. Not to mention the fact that any one of their low level field technicians with any smarts could easily manipulate the television ratings for fun and profit.
It's not surprising they aren't going to track "them fancy computer thingies", since they haven't even figured out exactly what them thingies are used for.
Nielsen is a dinosaur waiting for a comet..
For out household it is easier than ever. Netflix and Hulu know exactly what we have watched and when.
How can they mess with a rented cable / sat box? The cable co can hit you a bill $600 for a new box to replace the one you hacked.
also does this hack job kill hdcp so Direct tv ppv will not work right?
Also why just uses direct own in house system that does this?
Well of course these old school dogs of an era gone by are having troubles, and they deserve them. They need to get on the band wagon with the iTunes "false commentators" and just bypass any sort of "ethical" surveys and just lie to their clients and to us - face up! Program something that creates user ratings to boost Nielsen Company revenue and be done with it already, why pretend to be different?
I think therefore I can't be ~TTNH
Question: What do you do with a dog with no legs?
Answer: Take it for a drag. He Haw He Haw HAW HAW HAW
I didn't need to hook up any special equipment or have anyone install anything on my TV. The diaries showed up in an envelope with $40 cash (two $20 bills) and I was requested to start writing my viewing habits on a certain date, then return the diaries when the week was up. It accounted for DVR watching, you just listed what channel you had DVR'd, the show's name, and when it was originally broadcast. You also noted if anyone watched it with you (there were lines for each member of the household, as well as spaces for guests). It was all very low-tech, but I found the process interesting to document what I actually watched on TV for a week or so. It pretty much 100% relied on someone's honesty to fill it out properly and accurately. I was actually really surprised to see how often I had the TV on, but I wasn't watching it (was playing World of Warcraft a lot with the TV on, but not paying attention it). I did the TV diary thing two years in a row, and it was really easy. If you're ever called about it, I recommend going for it - it wasn't hard at all. And it's an easy $40 cash.
Lua I learnt from WoW!
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.