Rabbit Ears and nielsen

POSTED BY: GrimChaos
UPDATED: Friday, April 30, 2004 10:15
VIEWED: 1515
PAGE 1 of 1

GRIMCHAOS

Friday, April 30, 2004 5:35 AM

might be a stupid question but....
Do people with rabbit ear antennas count in nielsen ratings? I know that nielsen rating are just a sample of the population but do the antennas count or is it just cable and/or satellite?

thanks

EMBERS

Friday, April 30, 2004 6:24 AM

the Nielson ratings are based on specific 'Nielson families' which they pick and equip w/monitors on their TVs and journals/logs for their viewing habits. So a lot of Nielson families probably have 'rabbit ears', and many are on cable and some are on satellite.

My boss at my old job actually became a Nielson family, he received a random survey in the mail (I don't know how they got his name) and he filled it out completely and wrote an essay to them about the lack of representation of gay men, and they ended up asking him to allow them to put the equipment on his TV (I used to instruct him to turn the TV on to certain shows I liked. LOL).

There are other ratings systems besides Nielson and I'm not sure how they work, the technology is actually in place through the cable companies for much broader surveys than the Nielsons could ever provide.

Basically the whole ratings system is pretty bogus, because in addition to whether the 'sample' households are watching, there is also the question of the 'perfered viewers'. The theory being that the younger viewers '18 to 30' or something like that, are more likely to buy products advertised on TV than older viewers who are less easily swayed.... It is all really not scientific.

SLOWSMURF

Friday, April 30, 2004 8:26 AM

My problem with it is things that aren't "families" wouldn't usually be included. What about dorm rooms etc?

CALHOUN

Friday, April 30, 2004 10:15 AM

Who is this Neilson fella anyhows? He needs a big slap up the side of the head!