How are the numbers of a TV show's viewers determined?

Question

We read and hear things like ' The season final saw 35.16 million viewers tuning in.' How does the TV station determine this. Is it accurate?

Answer 1

It is based on Nielsen ratings, a system used by Nielsen Media Research to estimate the number of people watching any given show at any given time. The numbers are based on information collected from a small group of people, and then statistically applied to the area as a whole.

The numbers are based on 2 methods. The first, for larger markets, is a box connected to the TV that records who in the household is watching and what channel the TV is tuned to. This method allows for the fast "overnight" numbers that you hear quoted the day after a show runs.

The second, is the diary system. During the "sweeps" period, a dairy is sent out to a certain number of people to fill in over 4 weeks of every program they watch. This information is then used to estimate how many people watch each program. The diaries are sent out and collected 4 times each year in every market in the U.S.

Typically when you hear the media quote a number such as the 35.16 million number the day after the show, they are using the "overnight" data provided by Nielsen. Basically, they take the percentage of people with boxes who watched the show and multiply that times the population of the U.S.

For more information, go to www.nielsenmedia.com and click on "Inside TV Ratings."

Answer 2

It's based on the Nielson ratings. I don't know exactly how they determine the ratings, but there are about 1000 (maybe it's more, but I don't know for sure) families around the country that have set top boxes that record statistics about everything they watch. And then virtually everything about the business of television is based on the statistics generated by that small number of viewers - everything from advertising rates to what shows live or die.

I will add that it's possible this info is out of date because I would half expect the saturation of cable tv boxes would allow for the collection of much more accurate data based on real numbers rather than statistically derived numbers, but I don't know.

For what it's worth, there is a similar system for radio call Arbitron. In the case of Arbitron, they actually mail out journals to a number of people (I assume randomly selected) and over a week's time you fill in what stations you're listening to at what time of the day. I actually did this about 5 years ago.

Answer 3

A select few have a magic box attached to their telly and then the numbers are multiplied up. There are people who do market research and go around asking people e.g. in the likes of pubs and shopping centres.

Answer 4

I was thinking the same this morning on driving into work. Very interested in seeing the answers.

Answer 5

By the amount of pple phoning/writing/emailing, in for competitions of the show/soap.

But they could have a very complex signal detector that picks up who's tuned in to that station at that time when the show is on.
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Answer 6

They have a small number of people whose viewing is monitored - they scale the numbers up for the whole viewing public and that's where they get them.

In other words they make them up.

Answer 7

i think it's not accurate.. they are just sending out some surveyors at the time of the said show and the surveyors wud ask each household if they are watching that current show.. they wud just survey a minimum amount of households that could represent a community and then through that as a basis, they would estimate the no.of viewers,,

Answer 8

i don't know but i've always wondered intresting question