Ratings

[flano]

How do they figure out tv viewer ratings?

[twiglet4frog]

a watchdog has something like 1000 households participating with special boxes fitted to there tellies to know what they are watching, they then work out what this is like as a percentage of the whole nation. Thats how it used to be done but with satelitte and cable they also have access to there data as well, NTL for example download eveynight at a certain time all the things u watched that day from your settop box. they can then know who watched what, ratings etc and tailor what channels to have and not have around who watches and when.

It used to be at 11pm every night this was downloaded and resulted in the screen flickering to black for a second three times every 20 seconds.

[Sammy Snake]

I've heard the same thing as Twiglet4frog mentions. 

What I would like to know is -  if you record something, does this count?  If you watch Eastenders but tape Corrie or vice versa then it doesn't mean you like one more than the other, you just can't physically watch more than one thing at a time (not with full concentration anyway!). 

In that case, are Eastenders AND Corrie counted?  Or just Eastenders?

[brachiopod]

It used to be done the old fashioned way - with pencil and paper. They would send out schedule/questionaire sheets that one member of a household would be responsible for filling-in, marking what that one person had watched.

These would be sent out to a wide representative sample, representing all demographics (age group, family/singles, income groups etc) and then multiplied up by the relevant factor to give the 'viewing figures' for the population as a whole.

I remember my mum was asked to fill one in back in the early 80's - it was much easier then as there were only three channels and most households only had one television set.

Nowadays, as twiglet4frog says, participating households are all wired up to a 'black box' that records exactly what is watched by every television, satellite, digital-box, VCR and PVR in the house. Each member of the household is supposed to record their presence by clicking a button whenever they enter or leave the room where the television is. The results are then sent down the phone line to the company HQ. Some 4� to 5 thousand homes are monitored in this way.

I have two friends who work for a company that does this, and supplies BARB (The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board) with their Audience Measurement data. They have some amusing anecdotes too. Like the teenage son who insists he �doesn�t need� the satellite box in his bedroom wired up, as he 'doesn�t use it�. They found out when the results were compiled that on average, a few hours of porn were being watched through that particular receiver each night !!

[brachiopod]

Oh, and sammy, I understand that for a video recorded programme to be counted as 'viewed' (such as an episode of Corrie), it has to be watched within a certain period from the day of recording (something like three or five days - can't remember which)