Neilson Ratings

[marksiwel]

How does one become part of the Neilson program? I watch alot of good shows that get cancelled due to "Low Ratings" or are in risk of being cancelled. Does anyone know how to become a neilson viewer?

[Jason_Brown]

They randomly select households. You can't volunteer.

See Nielson Media.com. (http://www.nielsenmedia.com/)

[Dave]

Yep, i was a Nelson Viewer in college. And I was also picked to do Arbitron Ratings for the Radio during that same period. Thinking back on it now, they may have gotten my name from the College of Communications at the University of Alabama. If i remember correctly i got paid like $1 for the Radio one.

[jjcourtright]

I've been chosen twice to do Arbitron. The first time I did it, and got $4.00! I spaced out doing it the second time.

[Razorback]

Heh... I just did Arbitron. I got $4 for putting nothing down. I didn't listen to the radio at all.

[jjcourtright]

Maybe if everybody did that commercial radio would just give up and start over.

[Threadkiller]

The sad thing about the Nielsens is that they are hopelessly flawed.

One example is the late night ratings wars. They finally found out that people will fall asleep with their tvs on so the show that was getting ratings wasn't really being watched. That's why a show's lead in can be so important.

I hope within the next 5 years or so some savvy entrepeneur can come up with something that pleases advertisers more and breaks up the Nielsens monopoly. Tivo and other technologies will make the Nielsen's more and more obsolete anyway.

[Jason_Brown]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
They finally found out that people will fall asleep with their tvs on so the show that was getting ratings wasn't really being watched.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds fishy. I thought electronic "people-meters" were relatively new, and were only being tested in New York. My understanding was that that the vast majority still use hand-written journals (which have their own problems, but not the "falling asleep" problem, you mention).

Anyone?

[FanGirl]

Anyone rememeber a movie called "The Ratings Game"? It was one of Danny Devito's first movies in the early 80s. The premise was that he wanted his tv show to get good ratings, but they schedule it against Game 7 of the World Series. So he illegally gets a list of 100 Nielson families and sends them on a cruise. Then has his friends break into their homes and turn on his show. Hilarity thus ensues.

[RobinHoodDaffy]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Hilarity thus ensues

[/ QUOTE ]

Hilarity thus ensues!?!?! Hilarity!?!?!!!

Do we rememeber the same film. Yeah it was kinda funny, but "Hilarity", hmmmmm.
Now the Snorks rip-off I thought was damned funny, as the Snorks were Smurf rip-offs anyway. Also it was nice to see Danny and Rhea get to work together. I just don't remember it being side spliting.

[FanGirl]

I haven't seen it since it came out. I remember it being funny.

[Threadkiller]

I assume what I heard referred to the "Set-Tuning Meter" which is "placed onto the back of each television set in the home and monitors the tuning status of each TV set in the household" and is used widely in 49 major markets.

I will admit that I heard it from an unreliable source. You are also right that diaries are still the most used and apparently are the fundamental reason we have a "sweeps week" at all because of when the diary data is collected.

[Jason_Brown]

Interesting. I didn't think the electronic meters were that widespread, yet. Of course, this article (http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63080,00.html) is nearly a year old, so they may have made progress since it was written.

[Threadkiller]

I think the author of that article left stuff out in order to make the article more concise. Or they just did sloppy research. The information about the other electronic meter came from the Nielsen's website.

[Jason_Brown]

A poorly-researched web article? Shocking! /forums/images/icons/wink.gif