Re: I've been chosen by the Nielsen Ratings people, have some questions.
Neilsen has a couple of mechanisms for gathering ratings. The real "Neilesen Families" are the ones who have the electronic boxes. The overnight ratings in major markets are derived from these boxes. Then there are the folks who are mailed a paper diary that they use to record their household viewing for a month. At the end of that time (or maybe at the end of each week, I forget) they mail the completed diaries back to Nielsen. (Arbitron does essentially the same thing for radio ratings.) In between are people who may fill out diaries for up to three months at a time.
John, I have a feeling that you're being considered for a "people meter" or other electronic system if you live in a top 30 market, an extended paper diary if not.
The one month paper diaries are the basis for the 4 "sweeps" periods, the only times during the year that ratings are collected for (and ad rates set for) evry local channel in the country. The overnight electronic ratings basically only cover the national broadcast networks and cable channels, and have no affect on local ad rates. If I understand things correctly, the intermediary paper diaries are used mostly to collect demographic data from a broader sample than the electronic systems without coveriing the whole map the way the sweeps diaries do.
Although you
can refuse to return the diaries or ask to have a people meter removed, that is fairly rare. Most often people cease to be "Nielsen families" because Neilsen drops them.
The idea is to have a representative sample of people.
There are roughly 300 million Americans. If you want to estimate their tastes and viewing habits by hooking up meters to homes where 3,000 of them live, it is critical that those 3,000 have the same proportional ethnicities, income, living arragements, educational level, occupations, hobbies, etc. as the population at large. If all the Nielsen boxes went to 3,000 professors of English Literature living in major urban centers, or 3,000 Hell's Angels, or 3,000 SF fans living in their parents' basements, you'd end up with ratings that didn't begin to reflect the actual viewing habits of the American people. (PBS would be the higest-rated network in the first case, The Sci-Fi Channel in the last. And probably Cinemax in the second.
)
So as the national and local demographics change, so does the mix of people who have Neilsen boxes or who get diaries in the mail. In addition Nielsen likes to keep the sample pool "fresh", so they don't leave the boxes with people for too long. (Also time alone may move you out of a demo that they need to poll. If you were selected because you are a single male between 18 and 24, you're obviously going to move out of that demo in 7 years even if nothing else changes. If you get married, graduate from college, adopt a child, lose your job, or get promoted you're apt to find yourself dropped by Nielsen because you now duplicate a demo they're already polling. So they'll pick another 18 to 24 year old single male and send
him a diary.
BTW, John. One of the biggest requirements for being a Nielsen family is agreeing never to tell anyone that you're a Nielsen family.
Hope no one there lurks at the HTF.
Regards,
Joe
