How do you work out who is watching what

Ever wondered how many other people are watching the same programme as you are

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Q.� How do you work out who is watching what

A.� The way most researchers find out who is watching is to measure a sample of TV viewers. In the US for national ratings estimates Nielson Media Research uses a sample of more than 5,000 households covering over 13,000 people who have agreed to participate. In Britain, similar surveys are carried out by the British Audience Research Board (BARB).

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Q.� Who uses the research

A.� It has been huge business since the 1930s and is used primarily by the broadcasting and advertising industries. And, viewing figures are all important these days. Just think of the current war between BBC One and ITV over the News at Ten.

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Q.� Why�are they so important

A.� It's vital for programme schedulers to be able to predict� the likely ratings for a proposed programme at a specific time, so that they can design programme schedules that give the best balance between costs and audience figures. To predict the specific issues of a programme in attracting a large viewing audience, the scheduling expert has to consider a number of complex factors.

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Q.� Such as

�A.� The nature and content of the programme and the broadcast time, the programmes which are being shown at the same time by competing broadcasters and the predicted programmes on a particular channel.

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Q.� Which are the most popular programmes in the UK

A.� In terms of attracting audience figures, the most popular are always soaps. EastEnders regularly attracts over 11 million viewers, Coronation Street, followed by Emmerdale, beat off competition from Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.

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Q.� And in the States

A.� Friends on the NBC channel last week attracted 14.2 million viewers, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, 14.4 million� and Law & Order, 13.1 million.

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By Katharine MacColl