Disclaimer: I work for a company that produces TV ratings.
It is probably true that diaries (in addition to people meters) are still used in the USA. In Europe, practically all countries have a people meter panel.
Personally, I find this a bit odd as the USA is probably the biggest TV market in the world. One would think that they would also have the most accurate audience measurement system.
I have recently received some emails that I think may be legitimate but look like phishing attempts. Also Thunderbird thinks that it is a phising attempt.
I am a registered at the BBC Shop. I have allowed them to send me email and they have been sending some offers. Lately the links in the email seem to go to http://bbcshop.msgfocus.com/ with some unique id added. Even to the point that a link that has a text "bbcshop@bbc.co.uk" and looks like an email link is actually a link to a http request at the bbcshop.msgfocus.com.
All this was enough to make me not click any links. I did not find much information about msgfocus.com either.
It could be a phishing attempt. I really am not sure. On the other hand, the email has some personal addressing that matches the information I have given to the web store. Maybe BBC has decided to use some clueless emailing service. But my point is that if respectable web stores send emails that look like phishing attempts to their customers it will become more and more difficult to identify phishing in the future.
Still, I would love to figure out exactly how it works.
What the device sends to an outside party depends on the technology.
Some solutions require that broadcasters insert audio codes (invisible to human ear) to the transmission. The measurement device identifies these codes and the decoded channel is transmitted.
Other solutions take a "fingerprint" of the audio and try to match that to a refence recorded elsewhere. Privacy should be protected.
Dislcaimer: I work for a company that does television audience measurement (in Europe).
In most countries the viewing data is collected by a peoplemeter device installed at the panel household's tv set. It automatically identifies the channel and can measure viewing behaviour second by second, although one minute is usually the smallest reported time.
This kind of data makes analyzing all the things you mentioned (and much more) possible. For example, the gain and loss analysis of a program shows minute by minute chart of where the viewers are coming from (from another channel or just turned tv on) and where they are going.
There are several software products that are used to analyze TV viewing data and the TV companies do use them.
If the data is collected using diaries where the smallest reported time may be 5 or 15 minutes, this kind of analysis is more difficult. I believe that diaries are still used at some parts of USA.
Slashdot Mirror
Disclaimer: I work for a company that produces TV ratings.
It is probably true that diaries (in addition to people meters) are still used in the USA. In Europe, practically all countries have a people meter panel.
Personally, I find this a bit odd as the USA is probably the biggest TV market in the world. One would think that they would also have the most accurate audience measurement system.
I have recently received some emails that I think may be legitimate but look like phishing attempts. Also Thunderbird thinks that it is a phising attempt.
I am a registered at the BBC Shop. I have allowed them to send me email and they have been sending some offers. Lately the links in the email seem to go to http://bbcshop.msgfocus.com/ with some unique id added. Even to the point that a link that has a text "bbcshop@bbc.co.uk" and looks like an email link is actually a link to a http request at the bbcshop.msgfocus.com.
All this was enough to make me not click any links. I did not find much information about msgfocus.com either.
It could be a phishing attempt. I really am not sure. On the other hand, the email has some personal addressing that matches the information I have given to the web store. Maybe BBC has decided to use some clueless emailing service. But my point is that if respectable web stores send emails that look like phishing attempts to their customers it will become more and more difficult to identify phishing in the future.
Still, I would love to figure out exactly how it works.
What the device sends to an outside party depends on the technology.
Some solutions require that broadcasters insert audio codes (invisible to human ear) to the transmission. The measurement device identifies these codes and the decoded channel is transmitted.Other solutions take a "fingerprint" of the audio and try to match that to a refence recorded elsewhere. Privacy should be protected.
Dislcaimer: I work for a company that does television audience measurement (in Europe). In most countries the viewing data is collected by a peoplemeter device installed at the panel household's tv set. It automatically identifies the channel and can measure viewing behaviour second by second, although one minute is usually the smallest reported time. This kind of data makes analyzing all the things you mentioned (and much more) possible. For example, the gain and loss analysis of a program shows minute by minute chart of where the viewers are coming from (from another channel or just turned tv on) and where they are going. There are several software products that are used to analyze TV viewing data and the TV companies do use them. If the data is collected using diaries where the smallest reported time may be 5 or 15 minutes, this kind of analysis is more difficult. I believe that diaries are still used at some parts of USA.