How do they know how many people watch television programs? When they say that so many million people watch Waking The Dead, for example, how do they know that? Does it include those who record the program and watch it later?
2007-01-10 23:15:38 · 6 answers · asked by pianowez 3 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Television
A select amount of people across the country and across the age and social spectrum get boxes that look like freeview boxes and a remote so that everytime they turn the tv on they have to press the corresponding number on the remote for who they are in the house this data is then downloaded every night and collated and produced into average figures
2007-01-10 23:25:35 · answer #1 · answered by zerocool 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Basically what the others have said is correct, but all we know for sure is that the TV was turned on in a room in the house. It could be that everyone had gone out and left the TV on, so no one was watching it. It could be that people were watching another station. The method isn`t fool proof.
2007-01-11 01:31:09 · answer #2 · answered by Social Science Lady 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Zerocool has it spot on, saw this on telly once, its averaged out over these people and extrapolated as a percentage of the population, hence if half the people are watching Eastenders (ugh) then it gets figures of around 35 million.
Not exactly the most reliable method but its been used for years.
2007-01-10 23:30:45 · answer #3 · answered by thecoldvoiceofreason 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they could be using the Neilson family for getting averages, that's the company who enlists in homes and gives them a hook up on tvs, cable boxes, vcrs, dvds etc to record what they're watching - and in general what the average person is watching. But ....
I believe all those cable boxes have the ability to report a certain amount of "tuned into" even though they don't tell you about it.
Think about the whole George Orwell 1984 ... is big brother really watching now !!!!
2007-01-10 23:22:53 · answer #4 · answered by Chele 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
when we watch a program a signal goes out to a black box which counts how many is watching hopes that helps or you could try ask.com
2007-01-11 03:23:09 · answer #5 · answered by munchie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they have a range of people from different backgrounds
then ask them if they watch certain programmes, they use this group as a representation of the whole country. and estimate the viewing figures, most large channels have regular people they ask weekly or fortnightly
2007-01-10 23:23:25 · answer #6 · answered by steven m 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋