Nielsen Will Measure TV ratings Among DVR Users

prostoalex writes "TV ratings publisher Nielsen is one company that got affected by the digital video recorder boom. With 7 million households recording TV shows and watching them on their own schedules, the concept of primetime changes, and the audience reporting is becoming skewed. So now Nielsen is launching a special program for DVR households, which would allow advertisers and TV executives to track the popularity of TV programs. Nielsen plans to distribute paper diaries among the households that use digital video recorder. Last time I did a Nielsen TV rating diary, they paid $5 a week."

One thing they carefully will NOT measure...

[0WaitState]

Nielsen cheerfully tells you what shows are watched, but won't tell you whether the audience kept the commercials on, or whether they muted them, skipped forward, or changed channels for 3 minutes.

Actually reporting what commercials are viewed to completion with sound-on would radically change televsion programming and advertising.

Consider it community service

[Alcimedes]

Please, if you have a chance to sign up for these services, do so. And watch decent television. The sooner we can get the Reality TV craze off the air the better.

That explains a lot

[AllenChristopher]

Reality television and the rest of the dreck suddenly makes a lot more sense if we're surveying people who are willing to spend the time writing down everything they watch for $5 a week.

I thought they used special boxes... I guess that only worked when the television landscape was more uniform.

They will totally miss those using Mythtv

[Anonymous Coward]

Both of them
(only kidding!)

time warner?

[evilmousse]

I always wondered what time warners' cable boxes were capable of sending back to TW. Does anyone know if they do any accounting of what's watched?

I don't see why TW would have to limit itself to DVR either, surely all digital boxes are capable.

Go ahead, sell accounting of my viewing habits--it's one of the few circumstances I welcome it. TW Prices here in WI are just beyond rediculous, it would be nice to get back to being just short of it. =P

Re:One thing they carefully will NOT measure...

[Peyna]

Two words: Product Placement.

Re:No paper diary required for DirecTiVo

[Fear the Clam]

Oh suck it, you paranoid douche. If I didn't want them to know what I watched, I'd make the TiVo to stop sending my data. It's not like I'm typing my most perverse masturbation fantasies into the wish list, hoping that something cool will appear.

I *want* them to know what I watched. I want them to know that I never watch Fear Factor, Good Morning America, Regis and whoever-the-fuck, reality shows, or any show with "Law and Order" or "CSI" in the title. I want them to know that when American Idol is on, I'm not watching or recording it. I want them to know that I don't give a rat's ass about Leno *or* Conan. I want them to get into their thick heads that western movies gobble donkey balls and my wife and I would rather rather watch hideous jewelry wobble around on a turntable on the Gemstone Shopping Network while we shout "eeeew!" than watch John Wayne swagger around.

I want them to know that I never watch television news unless something's blowing up the fuck up right now, in which case I'll watch CNN. I want them to know that my wife thinks Iron Chef is better than Emeril, movies with Cary Grant are better than movies with John Wayne, and Wanda Sykes does great standup, but she sucks in any other format.

I want them to scan my wish list and get those movies on the air. Right now. I want them to know that I still have a season pass set for Jonathan Creek, because it was a goddamned good program and I hope they bring it back. The same goes for Family Guy. (Yes, they're bringing it back, but knowing Fox, they'll again put it in the redheaded-stepchild time slot on Sundays, the one that starts when the football game still has two minutes of game time (translation: 1 hour of real time), no one will watch, and they'll kill it again.)

So you can go suck it, TinfoilBoy. I want my opinion heard.

Paper diaries? Reminds me of my boss

[EvanKai]

ME: Boss, I'm slammed and I don't have time for any additional projects.

BOSS: Ok. Why don't you start writing down everything you're doing.

ME: And how is that going to save me any time?

People by DVRs because they want to save time. I doubt many will give that up for $5 after paying $200-500 to get it.

Re:Already signed up.

[MBCook]

They probably want much more specific data that the anonomized and agregated data TiVo collects. My guess is that most of the TiVo data is just "person X has 31 season passes and 12 hours on their thing and watches an average of 4 hours per day". I wouldn't be suprised if info like the Superbowl thing is only because they tracked that specific show. I'm not sure how valuable that kind of info would be on most shows.