Are you a Nielson Family? Have you ever met one?

POSTED BY: dyairvatree
UPDATED: Monday, March 29, 2004 23:27
VIEWED: 10333
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DYAIRVATREE

Monday, March 15, 2004 3:18 AM

I myself do not have a Neilson box. I have to my knowlege never met anyone who did. Do you know anyone with a Neilson box cause I don't. In fact I have never known anyone who knew anyone who knew someone who had one.

Does anyone know who these people are? Or why they were choosen? Do they even exist?

JERRY111

Monday, March 15, 2004 3:58 AM

I don't know anyone who has one. It seems like a very small percentage. This is why I think nielsens does not work at all.

TOMANTA

Monday, March 15, 2004 4:01 AM

There's only a few thousand. I am not a statistician, but I think there are major problems with the current system. For a normal poll, 1500 people give a margain of error of +-3%, but most of the time polls only have a handful of answer choices. There's hundreds of choices of things to watch on tv; the system just doesn't hold up to those kinds of numbers. Neilsons worked back when you had 3 things to choose from, but nowadays...

THUNDAR

Monday, March 15, 2004 4:09 AM

I knew someone who's Mom had a neilson box. They lived in a trailer and she has, really, no kidding, slept with her cousin.

WYDRAZ

Monday, March 15, 2004 4:39 AM

That explains a lot.

OKKAY

Monday, March 15, 2004 6:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Thundar:
I knew someone who's Mom had a neilson box. They lived in a trailer and she has, really, no kidding, slept with her cousin.

That's pretty much the image that comes to my head when I picture Neilsen families. Also I'll bet those TVs can only get 3 channels.

I don't understand the Neilsen ratings very well, correct me if I'm wrong about this, but it makes me mad that if you swapped out one Neilsen family for one that watched Buffy/Angel/Firefly you'd probably bump up the ratings by a couple million viewers.

TOOMANYMEMORIES

Monday, March 15, 2004 6:27 AM

My brother and his wife were a Nielson family, and no they didn't live in a trailer. They also had cable, not just three channels. Someone just called them up out of the blue and asked them if they'd be interested in getting one. Said they had the average number of family members they wanted, husband and wife with three kids. They even paid them for getting it. I don't think they have it anymore, though.

WULFHAWK

Monday, March 15, 2004 6:27 AM

Apparently, Nielson's numbers are not derived from only remote data collection devices. As a mailman, I have delivered Nielson survey mailings, and even briefly recieved them myself. We weren't sure why we got them, and decided not to participate.

Take my love
Take my land

SEVENPERCENT

Monday, March 15, 2004 6:51 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by toomanymemories:
Said they had the average number of family members they wanted, husband and wife with three kids. .

And how many shows are really going to fit in THIS demographic? -(no offense to your family, or anyone's, just making a point)- I watch very different shows at very different times than my buddies that have kids, and when my nieces and nephews are over there are channels I watch that they dont even get to turn to - Now how does a family with a wife and three kids get to make choices for single males, or even younger married ones like myself? Even FF is targeted to a more mature audience (at least teenagers), people probably arent going to watch it with younger kids, which seems to me to destroy it based on what a 'standard nielsen family' seems to be -

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He looked bigger when I couldn't see him.

RKLENSETH

Monday, March 15, 2004 6:51 AM

I knew a Nielsons but I don't think they had a box.

Oh, and play Cantr II at www.cantr.net.

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