Neilsen's process is *far* more complex that "just a bunch of surveys", and the ratings themselves makes up a tiny portion of the overall data that they collect.
If you don't work in the business (I do) it is really hard to comprehend how contorted the broadcast business is. Relationships between content providers and cable companies is tenuous at best, and it takes an aweful lot of work to extract information from anyone... that's mainly because no one, providers or cable companies, want anyone else to have one smidgen of competitive data.
Aside from that, from the point of view of a content provider, around 90% of advertising revenue comes from 12 cable companies in the top 200 markets. Small markets just don't matter.
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Neilsen's process is *far* more complex that "just a bunch of surveys", and the ratings themselves makes up a tiny portion of the overall data that they collect. If you don't work in the business (I do) it is really hard to comprehend how contorted the broadcast business is. Relationships between content providers and cable companies is tenuous at best, and it takes an aweful lot of work to extract information from anyone... that's mainly because no one, providers or cable companies, want anyone else to have one smidgen of competitive data. Aside from that, from the point of view of a content provider, around 90% of advertising revenue comes from 12 cable companies in the top 200 markets. Small markets just don't matter.