They said Katie Couric had 13.5 million viewers for her debut...How do they know how many people are watching?
2006-09-07 03:42:38 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Television
Neilson Ratings! They know everything! It is amaxing! bye now
2006-09-07 03:44:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Neilson Ratings Corp - They call several thousand people and ask who they are watching. Then they determine how many people live in a geographic area around the person called, then they divide the number of people called by the number of people in the area and multiply that number times a representative percentage (say 10%) and that gives them a "calculated" number of people who watch any show at any given time. They DO NOT call that many people - its just a percentage game - at it has NEVER been completely verified by actual calling of the individual people. It would take more than 50,000 callers and each called 20 people in a half hour time slot to verify the results - and they won't do that. It is also true that they could have called the only 1000 people that watched the show (and nobody else saw it) just by chance. Its all in statistical analysis and NOTHING more.
2006-09-07 03:53:39 · answer #2 · answered by Danny C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think Arbitron personally calls people.. I'm guessing independent poll generators, such as Ipsos, calls a few hundred pre-selected households and makes predictions. Neilson does use the meter boxes that are connected to televisions across the country, but these are obviously set up and consented to by the households. It is impossible for Neilson or cable companies or anyone for that matter to track what a single person or television set or household is watching without these special boxes.
Neilson also continues to use hand-written diaries to gather local ratings info. They recently decided against using portable people meters (which track broadcast signals) for the time being. But once again, these are consentual and without a meter box or a DVR they cannot track you.
2006-09-07 04:11:00 · answer #3 · answered by smack_me 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
27,000 Neilson boxes are attached to tv's in homes across America. They send info back which is used to calculate the percentage share a show gets.
Each person watching a show counts as around 60,000 people.
2006-09-07 03:52:55 · answer #4 · answered by Canadian_mom 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They survey a smaller group either with electronic ratings devices or telephone calls and extrapolate to the larger population.
2006-09-07 03:45:32 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
this i dont know and to add to your qn, do you know how would they earn more or less depending on the number of viewers coz numbers of viewer should obviously be the determining factor of a successful programe.........
2006-09-07 03:58:58 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
if it's thru cable or dish then they could count hwo many households are on that channel watching that show.
2006-09-07 03:49:55 · answer #7 · answered by Mariaish 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They counted heads.
2006-09-07 03:43:53 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cable tv..they know who is listening..exactly
2006-09-07 03:45:25 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
demand for the frequency or digital signal.
2006-09-07 03:45:01 · answer #10 · answered by Bistro 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋