Talk:Nielsen ratings

"It has been suggested that N (certification) be merged into this article or section." <-- The N Certification is from Nielsen BDS, which is a division of Nielsen Entertainment - not Nielsen Media research.

It's not clear how to find the ratings on calendarlive.com. The external link should be a lot more focused.

I removed the comment that downloading episodes of television shows from the internet was widespread "especially with sci fi programming" because I couldn't for the life of me figure out where they got that notion from.

Agreed. It's a common gripe on SF chatboards of any SF program that was cancelled. I've seen it offered on a Star Trek: Enterprise BBS a few times, but it has never been supported by a flake of evidence. This also goes to the Nielsen Criticism section. --Nephandus 15:40, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Nielsen Ratings vs Other kinds of ratings

Let's not conflate the Nielsen TV Ratings with ratings that measure other media. If you want to make a general entry on ratings, then that's where radio listership belongs - perhaps with Arbitron. Radio ratings are not called Nielsens and Nielsen does not measure "listenership."--Nephandus 17:06, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Criticism section

how many actual households have these meters? how does this tiny amount guarantee billions of dollars in advertising yearly? how do the advertisers know exactly how many people are watching if these socalled meters are only active in 50,000 homes? these ratings are not accurate, yet they determine the billions made yearly on TV.

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It's no mystery - why don't you simply contact them or check out the www.nielsenmedia.com faq? They use a standard statistical technique called "sampling". A correctly chosen sample of the population should be able to tell you with reasonable certainty about the viewing trends of the overall population. Now, if you don't believe in sampling, the next time you go to the doctor for a blood test, why don't you say, "I don't believe in sampling - drain all of it - Just take all of my blood?--Nephandus 18:41, 24 May 2006 (UTC)"

The problem is as the references point out 1) the sample is NOT ramdom in the statistical sence of the word, 2) at the local and sometimes national level the difference between a rating that keeps a show on the air and getting it cancelled is within the margin of error, 3) TV producers have known of methods to manipulate the ratings: putting a show after a strong program to keep it alive, putting it in a timeslot total illsuited to its expected demographics to kill it off (Star Trek's third season being the poster child of this), continuingly moving a show so it has next to no chance at getting a fan base or anything remembling good ratings (The Flash series), and putting a show with similar demographics against a long standing program.--BruceGrubb 15:41, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

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I again deleted some TiVo criticisms (unless my first deletion didn't take). It's a new viewing technology, and Nielsen currently measures it and includes it in the ratings. Current criticism that Nielsen doesn't measure are baseless.

I've also added some context in the criticism section, and additional information about the "minority bias" flap that happened in 2004. There is an excellent repository of articles at Everyone Counts that covers this whole "controversy" in detail. --Nephandus 15:40, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I restructured the page to combine all criticism topics into a single section, as well as adding some background and new information to that section. BarkingDoc

I deleted some items in there.

In 2004, the Nielsen introduced a new system to measure local ratings in the largest market areas using its People Meters instead of the traditional paper diaries, which was criticized by News Corporation and other cultural advocates as resulting in a bias toward misreporting minority viewing. Many argue that commercial television under-represents minorities, which can lead to a de-facto discrimination in employment against minority actors and writers.

The People Meter system was not in any way new. It is the same system embraced by the same industry for national markets, and it was built to replace the inferior "diary" measurement, which relies on people recording their own viewing. It has been used in Canada by Nielsen Media Research to measure local markets for over a decade - specifically in Toronto & Vancouver before the US local markets were rolled out.

NewsCorp got higher ratings on the less accurate diary system and so wanted to delay the introduction of the newer system, and also needed a scapegoat for its waning audiences. It enlisted the aide of the Glover Park public relations firm to to engineer "crisis" and tie it to racial minorities.

The anti-Nielsen ratings campaign.

Anyone who wants to challenge Nielsen's coverage of ethnic minorities needs to first examine this repository of information about that subject: Everyone Counts

Also, the rise of "time-shifting" through the use of VCRs, Digital Video Recorders (DVR), and downloading episodes from the Internet have also not, critics claim, been sufficiently addressed by the system. Nielsen reached an agreement to provide information on DVR usage to the television industry. TiVo ratings reporting began in January, 2005, with other DVR providers expected to join soon.

Why is Nielsen being criticized here when it is the industry that cannot come to consensus on how the data will be used. That's not Nielsen's fault, and it isn't a criticism of Nielsen, so it needs to go. --Nephandus 18:40, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't see how it could be inaccurate, whenever a show is cancelled, even a good show, you can kinda tell that no one watches it. Proeliator Sancti 03:12, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

"Nielsen announced a sweeping plan to revamp its entire methodology to include all types of media viewing in its sample." cute.

I would also allege as a criticism is that their overall sample size is too small. It is something just short of 10,000 "families" from what I read on their faq. Bdelisle 06:41, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Especially as per "Can You Believe TV Ratings?." NOVA / Horizon. PBS. 1992-02-18 those families are not a true random sample in the first place. Also producers know they can manipulate the ratings of these households to keep shows they like and kill shows they don't (NBC's Star Trek or CBS' Flash)--BruceGrubb 04:23, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Current ratings

Will this section ever be updated again? I notice that the the user who added it hasn't been here in about a month. I think it would be fine (if not downright useful) to keep this data or watch trends, etc. At least the Top 20 shows anyways. RADICALBENDER★ 20:13, September 5, 2005 (UTC)

• IMO, this whole section should be deleted if nobody is going to maintain it. I'm not saying the data has no value, but to have "latest ratings" from January in September is pretty ridiculous. If anyone disagrees or is going to maintain this, add it back and pick up from where the previous user left off.--Isotope23 15:36, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

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Wow, it's been a while. I have professional experience working with Nielsen, and will put it on my watchlist to correct the innaccuracies from time to time. I've done an initial sweep of it. --Nephandus 05:13, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Nephandus, can you sy "conflict of interest?"--68.85.27.47 02:49, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

This is an edit page about Nielsen Media Research. I have knowledge about Nielsen Media Research gleaned from my professional experience working within the media industry. This has been a dead entry for a long time. I've merely corrected false information in accordance with wiki guidelines. It certainly doesn't read like an ad for Nielsen. If something is written on this page that is incorrect, then you should either correct it, or discuss it (as I have done). If you object to the idea of an informed person writing or editing on a subject that is relevant to his sphere of interests, and who can support his edits, then just what IS acceptable? --Nephandus 15:45, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

At the bottom it reads "Complete weekly broadcast ratings can be found at Los Angeles Times' calendarlive.com." However, there's no real information there. Is it possible to actually find complete weekly broadcast ratings on the internet for free? If so, post it. I'm not just looking for the top 20 shows, I'm looking for it all.

Yes, there is a source on the internet for free broadcast and cable programming ratings - www.zap2it.com. The site also lists previous days prime ratings for the broadcast nets. Nephandus - I work with Nielsen data daily, so far what you have here is pretty good and I didn't find anything that would need to be corrected. There is one section that could be added and that is about competition or lack there of. There is couple start ups and co-ops that might worth mentioning. I have some info that I could add. Let me know if it should be.

Nielsen's in fiction

I remember some show from the 80's (A-Team, Simon and Simon, or heaven knows what) where the plot was a TV monitoring device was hooked up to a set. The device had a little number on it which showed the station it was reporting back, and the whole gist of the episode was someone faking the ratings as they watched one channel and the device reported another (oh yeah...we're talking real action/drama here :)

More of a brain fart than anything.

Update: It was Whiz Kids episode 11 - Watch Out! - that had this happen. I'm 3 episodes away from getting to it. Sabalon 18:56, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Demographics

I've answered a question on the Miscellaneous Reference Desk regarding the codes used for demographics (e.g. P2+, A18-49, etc.), but I really know nothing about what the codes stand for so was kind of guessing! These codes are bandied about so often but it's very difficult to find an explanation of what they stand for ("Adults aged between 18 and 49). Could someone more knowledgable than me about demographics and TV ratings please include an explanation in the article? Thanks, --Canley 02:35, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

I am considering an edit, but a general guide: P=Persons, A=Adults, M=Men (or males) W=Women (sometimes F=Female). Also T=Teens and C=Children. Nielsen measures the viewing of persons aged 2 years plus (P2+). In common usage, P2-11 are considered children, P12-17 are considered teens, and P18+ are adults. So, to your point, A18-49 or P18-49 are persons aged between 18 and 49, inclusive. Gbe nyc 20:25, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Main demos are: HH - Household or everyone in the house P - People - also known as (A)dults M - Males F - Female - (W)omen is also used but it is not the standard WW - Working Women LOH -Lady of the house M and F audience should add up to P audience

????????????

1.0 rating equals how much-

0.1 rating equals how much-

T00C00L 04:29, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

1.0 =1,102,000 so .1 = 110,200

Are we talking national which is based on US Universe or Network rating which is based on Network Universe. Current US Universe is 111,400,000, this number changes every September.

Factual accuracy ("determine" vs "estimate")

There are a bunch of places in this article where the words "determine" and "measure" are used, where "estimate" would be more accurate. Wonderstruck 20:48, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

People meter?

Should people meter be capitalized or not? At some places in the article, it is; at others, it isn't. If it is capitalized, is it a registered trademark?

ABC Rankings

Does anyone know why are ABC ratings according to Nielsen so different than any other shown on the web? You can find them here - http://www.abcmedianet.com/pressrel/dispDNR.html?id=010307_05.

I don't see a difference at all, following links are for week ending 1/14/07. ABC shows the list in viewrs order not rating, so that would make a difference: http://www.abcmedianet.com/pressrel/dispDNR.html?id=011707_08 http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,272%7C%7C%7Cweekly2,00.html

Look now (week ending January 28th):

http://www.abcmedianet.com/pressrel/dispDNR.html?id=013007_05

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,272%7C%7C%7Cweekly,00.html

Huge difference! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 212.200.135.63 (talk) 11:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC).

Commercial Ratings

Does anyone know whether Nielsen still measures the show's ratings - I mean the tv series itself around the commercial break - for another service? Does it really only measure the 7/14 minutes of commercial breaks per 30/60 minute segment?--84.58.156.208 21:29, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Set Meters

More info on these would be nice. Which 'selected homes' are used? How are they chosen? Is it voluntary? I mean, we're all being watching anyway, but it would be nice to know how it works for sure ;) 24.60.66.216 06:35, 25 October 2007 (UTC)