How do television shows know someone is watching there channel?
There will be new shows or new seasons that come on and they will always say something like, "13 million people were watching last night, or 10 million people clicked in yesterday or something like that". How do they know what I am watching?
Well …. actually nobody knows if you in particular are watching CSI. But, statically, they can guess that you are . . .
Actually, shows get credit based on surveys. The survey data is collected in a number of ways.
1) People Meters and Household Meters - this is equipment that the ratings survey company installs on your TV at your house (with your permission, of course) that reads codes hidden in the picture and audio that records what is on the TV and when.
2) Ratings diaries - these are books that viewers fill out about their viewing habits.
3) Telephone surveys.
In all cases, the viewers know that they are part of a survey group, agree to participate, and are usually paid some small amount for supplying viewing data. That data from the *small* survey group (a.k.a. sample) is then run through some mathematical magic to calculate the "rating" for each show.
These things are not always 100% accurate, but it’s the best the industry has. I can remember one station where I worked where one rating book said we were #1 sign on to sign off 7 days a week. We didn’t believe it, the other stations didn’t believe it, but we made a lot of sales that calendar quarter! Other periods, the book sucks for no good reason and we have to live with that too, so it all balances out . . .
So you see, when they say "50 million people are watching the game right now" they really don’t know for sure, but they can make an educated guess!
I think it’s the signal that the ariel gives out, I think…..Like the Sky+ is sent out to a satellite and the information is collected and sent out
References :
They use a sample. Some people are given a recorder system which is attached to their set which sends them the info back. So the figures are only an average
References :
Its called the "Nielsen Ratings"
Basically there are families across the US in different age brackets and demographics that have a device hooked to there TVs that logs every show they watch. It used to be logged manually. It is based on averages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_ratings
References :
Well …. actually nobody knows if you in particular are watching CSI. But, statically, they can guess that you are . . .
Actually, shows get credit based on surveys. The survey data is collected in a number of ways.
1) People Meters and Household Meters - this is equipment that the ratings survey company installs on your TV at your house (with your permission, of course) that reads codes hidden in the picture and audio that records what is on the TV and when.
2) Ratings diaries - these are books that viewers fill out about their viewing habits.
3) Telephone surveys.
In all cases, the viewers know that they are part of a survey group, agree to participate, and are usually paid some small amount for supplying viewing data. That data from the *small* survey group (a.k.a. sample) is then run through some mathematical magic to calculate the "rating" for each show.
These things are not always 100% accurate, but it’s the best the industry has. I can remember one station where I worked where one rating book said we were #1 sign on to sign off 7 days a week. We didn’t believe it, the other stations didn’t believe it, but we made a lot of sales that calendar quarter! Other periods, the book sucks for no good reason and we have to live with that too, so it all balances out . . .
So you see, when they say "50 million people are watching the game right now" they really don’t know for sure, but they can make an educated guess!
References :
Broadcast Engineer for 30+ years.
>How do they know what I am watching?
They don’t.
The numbers come from statistical sampling. In the US this is commonly "Nielsen ratings" done by a company called "Nielsen Media Research".
What they do is track what a small number of households watch. This is done by a mixture of paper diaries, electronic gadgets attached to TVs, and devices like Tivos that pay attention to what is being watched.
How much advertisers pay depends on things like how many people watch shows and what their age distributions are. This makes TV advertisers and TV networks very interested in these numbers.
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience_measurement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Ratings
Eben Pagan Guru MAsterclass…
How do television shows know someone is watching there channel?…