1. Jennifer Wright
Ratings Assignment
August 1, 2012
Nielsen uses a combination of meters and diaries to collect data of what we watch on TV.
The real valuable data is from the People Meters. Each People Meter sits atop, under, beside or
behind the family set, and records whatever happens: what is watched and for how long, what is
recorded, and even what's fast-forwarded. The box even knows which family member is
watching, by means of a small remote control. Each family member, even the children, has his or
her own little "I'm watching" button (Herrman, 2011).
This is interesting how they use that method to come up with the data. It tells what people
are watching these days and on what channels and shows they watch. An advantage is that, it
tells actual data of what we are watching, how long, who is watching what, etc.
A disadvantage is that is it only a small percentage of People Meters from which the data
comes from. These people, of which there are about 50,000 (in 20,000 households), are
approached by Nielsen to participate, and paid a token amount for their time and effort
(Herrman, 2011). So, not all of is technically true data but just a small percentage of it. There are
a lot more viewers out there that are not counted.
They need to improve this by get more data than what they have now and it’s only being
provided data inside of the United States.
References
Herrman, J. (2011, January 31). Why nielsen ratings are inaccurate, and why the'yll stay that
way. Retrieved from http://splitsider.com/2011/01/why-nielsen-ratings-are-inaccurate-
and-why-theyll-stay-that-way/