Nielsen Struggles To Track Modern Viewing Habits

RobotRunAmok writes "The Nielsen Company has been the principal entity tracking TV shows' popularity, and, by extension, their potential profitability. But as our media consumption practices change, some believe that Nielsen's methods have not kept pace. A new consortium including networks owned by NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp, Viacom, CBS, Discovery, and Walt Disney — along with major advertisers — is calling for the creation of a new audience measurement service, and planning to solicit bids from outside firms by the fourth quarter of this year. Nielsen says they're not worried about so many of their customers ganging up on them, having just invested more than a billion dollars in research to stay modern. Except that today Nielsen announced they would pointedly not be adding weights to DVR households, and that adding weights for the presence of a personal computer or Internet access in under-represented households would provide 'no significant change or enhancement' to its national TV ratings sample. The pundits deride Nielsen's 'archaic' methodology and 'disco-era tactics,' but others scoff that such a consortium will only 'put the foxes in charge of the henhouse.' Stay tuned..."

Hulu is more accurate

[cashman73]

I don't subscribe to cable, and don't really watch "over-the-air" TV, mostly because I don't really feel like fiddling with the antennae. I do watch lots of shows on Hulu [hulu.com], which is great from the network standpoint, because all they have to do is check website server logs and javascript reports to find out how many times someone is watching their show. The best part about it, is that they get an exact number of who's accessed the file, so there's no "sampling" of the population going on. Plus, they can sell ads based on an exact number. This is probably exactly why Hulu is so valuable to NBC and Fox (and now ABC).

Re:Who is running Nielsen anyway, Leslie?

[Princeofcups]

Come on, I'm tired of seeing crap network shows that my great-aunt watches in the top ten and the shows *I* like getting shitcanned for "low ratings." I would even be willing to "opt-in" to a DVR viewing log system if it meant that my viewing habits could save a few decent shows.

Nielsen is NOT about how many people watch a show. It's about how many people watch the COMMERCIALS. DVR folks generally skip past those. People who watch broadcast TV cannot. Although they can get up and make a sandwich, or whatever.

Re:My Pet Peeve

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Dish Network of all people makes a dual tuner HD DVR that requires no subscription. you possibly purchase it at sears http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05757709000P?keyword=dtvpal

From the inside...

[goobenet]

I used to work for Nielsen as a field rep. The way they gather the data is solid, but they have some serious issues with quality control. Meaning too much QC. If the power goes out in one section of the home, and the box is reset, the whole days viewing data is thrown out for the WHOLE household. They should just throw out that one viewing site. As for DVRs, the article fails to mention that Nielsen already accounts for DVRs, quite well I might add. It's live+7 days. Meaning that if you recorded tuesdays american idol, and didn't watch it til sunday, it still counts for tuesdays viewing data. How it deals with the nightly numbers was a bit above my pay grade, but i think the DVR equipment tracked the SID codes while it was recording.

Biggest problem Nielsen really has is internet usage. They just (like 3 years ago) started tracking internet sites with their A2M2 program. The sample is very very small, about 1/5th the size of a TV sample. And a lot of the households are former TV sample homes. (they offer them the I2 program as the home comes out of the LPM sample) They also now are able to track distance family members, like kids at college are counted now away from home, but count as part of the household. (figure that one out if the parents live in Minneapolis, and the kid goes to school in LA?)

As for people wondering why Nielsen is a viable company in this digital age? Simple demographics. Nielsen has every household members income, job title, where they work, shopping habits, age, etc. The cable company can find out what a person is watching through an STB, but doesn't have ANY of the demographics of the household. Nielsen using LPM systems can tell you EXACTLY who was watching what at a specific time, including the persons age, wine buying habits, primary shopper in the home or not, and what kind of car(year, make, model) they drive. (yes, these were the questions i had to ask households every 3 months) Obscene target audiences. Even with the old NSI sample, Nielsen had more data than the cable companies. (NSI is total household data, LPM is persons data)

For those really wondering, Nielsen does track homes that pirate satellite/cable. They just don't show that number anywhere. :)

Re:Who is running Nielsen anyway, Leslie?

[Unipuma]

Sadly, this doesn't seem to be an option anymore, since advertisers have decided to 'GET IN YOUR FACE'. I sometimes have the radio turned on in the background, but you always notice when the ads come on, because for some reason, the sound becomes much louder.
Same with TV ads. Sometimes when going to the computer to look something up, I leave the TV on, which isn't bothering me, until the commercials start, and because of the increased volume and flashy lights, I am unable to concentrate on what I was doing, until I switch the thing off. For some reason they seem to think that the more obnoxious they behave, the more you will like their product?
Or perhaps they think that they need to make sure that you can still hear their ad in the kitchen if you get up to get a drink once the commercials start.