How is it counted?!
Question: How is it counted??
Im just wondering when on news they would say X amount of people watched specific show. How do they count this or do they just estimate the number.
I would guess that maybe for satellite viewers or cable viewers they can track but what about people that have neither. SInce most people don't own either how do they know.
Answers: How is it counted??
Im just wondering when on news they would say X amount of people watched specific show. How do they count this or do they just estimate the number.
I would guess that maybe for satellite viewers or cable viewers they can track but what about people that have neither. SInce most people don't own either how do they know.
It is the Nielsen ratings. Hundreds of people are picked as "Nielsen families". They have a special box attached to their TVs that monitor all of their viewing habits 24 hours a day/7 days a week.
They are supposed to be a wide selection of people, but considering some of the shows that "make it" and some of the ones that get "cancelled", I don't think they'll be calling me anytime soon!
cb is right about the nielsen households but they are only a very small percentage of the population. Nielsen takes very detailed demographic data about the families they record. They then extrapolate from the data and from the percentage of Nielsen families watching a show to estimate how many people across the country are watching.
Dejan, up until recently, the Nielsen ratings kept track of what a small number of families across the US watched and then extrapolated from those numbers. It became increasingly clear, though, that those numbers didn't take into account people watching shows that they'd time-shifted (ie, were watched later on via a Tivo or other DVR), or were watching later on in the week (ie, an episode of "The Sopranos" that premiered on Sunday night, but they watched the Thursday night run). Recently, Nielsen's been taking steps to account for the different ways in which people watch TV shows these days, which means shows that may have been canceled quickly just a couple of years ago may get a shot now because viewership was being under-reported.
(Mind you I'm saying this without regard to the writers' strike, which throws a monkey wrench into ALL of this, and because of it, NOTHING may get canceled for awhile. (sad smile))