How do they know how many people watched tv?

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#62894 16-Jun-2010 18:37

Something that has always bemused (or scared the crap out of) me is - how do companies know how many people "watched the world cup", etc ...

see this http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/7409424/all-whites-fans-still-went-to-work-despite-late-night/ for example

i can understand if sky knows how many people watched a sky channel. can anyone explain how you'd know how many people tuned in to a terrestial signal?

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#342423 16-Jun-2010 18:40

A small number of people have a box on their TV that records what was watched and sends the data back to them.

Dont work with timeshifted recordings or inbuilt freeview so I dont know what they will be doing soon when noone uses analog.

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#342426 16-Jun-2010 18:53

I think that most of the people with these boxes must watch TVNZ 1 judging by the ratings of junk..

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#342429 16-Jun-2010 19:07

Very good question, something I have always wanted to find out too!

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#342430 16-Jun-2010 19:13

AC Nielsen do it. Known as 'People Meters' I think.

They usually some how monitor a set top box (Sky, TCL etc) using an interface with their own box sitting next to it. Some people might also be doing it the old fashioned way using printed viewing diaries.

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#342444 16-Jun-2010 20:33

There are also a very small number of people that determine these ratings - there are approximately 500 households in NZ that are part of the AC Nielson system.

Zippity

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#342467 16-Jun-2010 21:55

It is pure guess work and BS created and perpetuated by highly overpaid marketing types who onward sell their hype to gullible sponsors and tv channel producers.

Same as those who conduct polls.

The answer is quite simple. Think of a number, double it, add 63, divide by point four and then multiply the final sum by 27 - or, suck on your index finger and hold it up to see which way the wind is blowing.

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#342593 17-Jun-2010 10:51

Zippity: It is pure guess work and BS created and perpetuated by highly overpaid marketing types who onward sell their hype to gullible sponsors and tv channel producers.

Same as those who conduct polls.

The answer is quite simple. Think of a number, double it, add 63, divide by point four and then multiply the final sum by 27 - or, suck on your index finger and hold it up to see which way the wind is blowing.

Pretty much, it's a giant bunch of BS.

Fortunately broadcast tv is a sunset industry, on the way out.

On-demand services overseas like Hulu, Boxee and Netflicks have real numbers of who watched (and/or purchased) what.

Times they are a changing.

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#342596 17-Jun-2010 11:00

My personal [unrelated] gripe about the ratings whole system is this is SKY's rationale behind NOT providing the EPG data for PRIME on TiVo.

From SKY's reply to my email of 24/11/2009

Hello Joseph

Thank you for your email.

Prime's listings are not available on TiVo's EPG (electronic programming guide) as at this time TiVo does not measure ratings data. This information is important for a free-to-air broadcaster as we need these ratings to put a value on PRIME's TV commercials.

We expect that this feature could be available in 2012 when we will review this decision at that time.

Bah!

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#342606 17-Jun-2010 11:11

They have thousands of people who look through your curtains at night and make notes.

The main problem with this method though is that people with vicious dogs and those in high rise buildings are completly left out of the ratings system.

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#342607 17-Jun-2010 11:15

I got asked to do this years ago.
Told them where to go because the whole thing was floored.
You had to give 1 channel per large time period and we just didn't watch a lot of our TV like that. Not to mention the record and watch later bit that others have referred to.

In essence, it's huge BS, but hey so is charging for ad space as if people watch them all anyway.

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#342609 17-Jun-2010 11:17

I have some friends who have one of these boxes. They get paid a small nominal fee for using it but you have to tell the box who is watching and what channel you are watching, it won't automatically change so when they change channel, they are supposed to change the channel on the box as well... invariably it doesn't get changed and will sit on the channel for sky sport 2 under the husbands name all day because they're a little lazy.

I guess they then use demographic stats to infer results based of statistical data on the number of people under that demographic in NZ and then pull a number out of their arse to get the totals.

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#342617 17-Jun-2010 11:34

Jaxson: I got asked to do this years ago.
Told them where to go because the whole thing was floored.
You had to give 1 channel per large time period and we just didn't watch a lot of our TV like that. Not to mention the record and watch later bit that others have referred to.

In essence, it's huge BS, but hey so is charging for ad space as if people watch them all anyway.

They are 15 minute blocks and the TV companies, who pay for AC Neilsen to collect the data, are resisting moving to shorter periods.

Overseas they measure continuously and now incorporate PVR behaviour so have evolved to LIVE and LIVE+x days. The assumption is if you havent watched a recorded program within 7 days then chances are you wont watch it - although thats a simplifying assumption.

Back in the day with the early PeopleMeters if you had an old telly and it always defaulted to TV1 when you switched it on then you'd end up with lots of TV1 viewers. That was the myth anyway.

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#342618 17-Jun-2010 11:36

Forgot to mention that you can find out more on the NZ Television Broadcasters Council website.
www.nztbc.co.nz under research.

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#342634 17-Jun-2010 12:25

Disrespective: I have some friends who have one of these boxes. They get paid a small nominal fee for using it..Wrong
but you have to tell the box who is watching.. correct
and what channel you are watching,... wrong
it won't automatically change so when they change channel, ...wrong
they are supposed to change the channel on the box as well ...wrong
... invariably it doesn't get changed and will sit on the channel for sky sport 2 under the husbands name all day because they're a little lazy. .so the channel data is correct, just not the No of viewers

I guess they then use demographic stats to infer results based of statistical data on the number of people under that demographic in NZ and then pull a number out of their arse to get the totals.

Sorry dont mean to be 'disrespective' ;-) ,
but see above

Disrespective

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#342651 17-Jun-2010 13:11

I didn't want to sound like that was what happened with everyone, it's just what happens with them. I spoke in depth with them about it just last week so i'm pretty sure i'm accurate on the facts they gave me. And i see no reason why they would embellish the truth. Plus some of those comments were assumptions and i'm pleased someone has an actual answer.

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