Nielsen Ratings: Yes? No?

[Brandon Pierce]

I'm doing a report on Nielson ratings for my journalism class and want to collect opinions. I know not a lot of people care much for them because they work in an odd way. Anyway, thoughts?

[Discloner]

Long story short, I think they're an awful system for determining what sinks and floats in the world of Television. Having only a select few households reporting data, then generalizing the total amount of viewers in a given period of time, total up to be nothing more than assumptions. And you know what they say about assumptions...

[Duke]

Nielson Ratings (and demos) are a complete and utter waste of time and should be done away with forever.

[Matt Hazuda]

They're a horribly outdated system that needs a serious overhaul if they want to remain truly valid in today's age.

[Scirel]

Yes.. they do suck. Since we agree on that, let's try and think of a system that cna replace them.. without going Ministry of Love on our asses.

[Tay the Cat]

If only every house was a Nielsen household...

[Discloner]

If only every house was a Nielsen household...What with DVR and Tivo's becoming more and more the norm...it really shouldn't (and probably isn't) be too hard of a thing to do. It likely just boils down to money and resources. You've also got a whole privacy thing going on, but to alieviate that cable providers just need to present the option as to whether the individual minds their viewership being recorded.

[Enrique]

Nielsen already announced they will be counting DVR stats, although I don't know how they intend to filter results. If I remember right the plan is to add some signal to TV transmissions that "bounce back" whenever a DVR plays the recorded show.

Why this is faulty is because I don't think there's any way of getting accurate numbers from DVRs since the same recording could be viewed multiple times by multiple people. Even if they only count the first playback of a show, what if the viewer only watched 2-3 minutes?

[livingfruitvirus]

It's a very outdated and manipulative system, but at the same time, no one's come up with something better that doesn't involve violating privacy laws.

[ManicWebb]

I'd be slightly more satisfied if Nielsen increased its number of households beyond the current, what, 2,000? There's something eerie about the fact that 2,000 people represent 200,000,000 viewers. Nielsen needs to broaden and diversify.

[Gokou Ruri]

I think they're perfectly fine. The only problem is the networks or advertisers who refuse to look at different age groups.

[Gatomon41]

An utterly corrupt, outdated system that has cost the world alot of good shows.

[tb4000]

All they're doing is making a guess-timate of how many millions they have viewing,which could or could not be accurate. Most of middle America consists of older people, so I don't think 70 million of them are watching Will and Grace.

[Brandon Pierce]

Thanks, everyone! BTW, my report is for the school banner, and they include "interviews", is it okay if I quote some of your comments in my article? Also, should I credit those that I include like say, "This person who posts at Toon Zone Forums, under the name ___ believes...", or would anybody here not be okay with that? Thanks, still.

[Duke]

Don't forget all of Jeff's ratings (http://www.thexbridge.com/nielsens.html) about the ratings system. True, the article is relatively old, but he still feels pretty much the same way (just go through some of his recent posts).

[Brandon Pierce]

I did a genral thread awhile back. Now I want to do a poll. Might be easier for my article at school

[Space Cadet]

Well they suck, but unless they find another way to get the ratings without invasion of privacy, this will have to do. I just wish they would increase the number of people they sample.

[Jeff Harris]

Don't forget all of Jeff's ratings (http://www.thexbridge.com/nielsens.html) about the ratings system. True, the article is relatively old, but he still feels pretty much the same way (just go through some of his recent posts).Wow, I sure do write a lot, don't I? Well, Duke's right.

I still feel the same way about the Nielsen ratings system because, well, they're still a joke. I looked at Family Guy this week, and they basically had a scene about the FCC. Granted, the FCC doesn't run A.C. Nielsen, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's how their mentality is.

Two million people does not represent 20 billion people. One household does not represent 150,000 households. One household represents ONE HOUSEHOLD.

The ratings system is classist and racist because, more often than not, houses that are metered are often households that make more than $75,000 per year in suburban areas. Plus, you can't truly trust an organization that feels they can separate ratings by age and sex (also, why would they be rating 2 - 6 year olds anyway? It's not like they have a real choice of what they watch, that's their parents' doing).

Everybody has different viewing habits, that's true. However, some shows are blown up more than others.

Here's something you can do:

Take about 15 - 20 people in your classroom/office/neighborhood. Get them to get at least two other people to participate. Set up four separate time periods and get them to watch something in each of those. I'll even give you times:

Thursday: 8 PM EST/PST
Sunday: 9 PM EST/PST
Friday: 10 PM EST/PST
Monday: 8:30 PM EST/PST

Gather up information at the end of the week. Count each viewer. You can see what a legitimate testing group is actually watching, and I think you'll be surprised.

[Anyone00]

The ratings system is classist and racist because, more often than not, houses that are metered are often households that make more than $75,000 per year in suburban areas. Plus, you can't truly trust an organization that feels they can separate ratings by age and sex (also, why would they be rating 2 - 6 year olds anyway? It's not like they have a real choice of what they watch, that's their parents' doing).

They're also ageist, if your over 45 it's "screw you" when it comes to prime-time.

They're classist (and can be considered racist by extension due to social realities) because sponsors mainly cair about people who have a larger disposable income to spend on their product.