First, I'd like to extend my appreciation on behalf of the class to the two individuals who have posted to the blog so far. While most of the class is now registered, active participation is what will make this useful for everyone.
On a more substantive note, in class last week we discussed how TV ratings are derived. I indicated that this used a (more or less) representative panel of viewers, whose behaviors are then extrapolated to draw inferences about the population. This was traditionally done with diaries, where panelists would write down what they watched and when -- problematic because people would often get it wrong, overestimating how much of some shows they actually watched and forgetting to log other shows. This changed when Nielsen introduced the PeopleMeter in 1987 (see this article in the New York Times) and panellists were instead asked to log in to an electonic box whenever they watched television. However, even this system had its problems, with people often forgetting to log off, or failing to log in when another family member was already watching the show they wanted to see.
Currently, a new technology called the "Portable PeopleMeter" is being rolled out. The technology listens for TV shows within earshot, and recognizes the sounds (much like the Shazam iPhone app) to track what a panellist is watching. But as this Globe and Mail article notes, this has led to substantial shifts in the ratings being reported for Canadian TV channels. The big loser? The Weather Network. And, of course, a big problem for advertisers and media companies alike remains the fact that younger viewers are downloading shows and sidestepping the ads entirely.
1 comment:
It seems to me like the PeopleMeter was a successful improvement on the previously used diary method, however people are incredibly unreliable and logging in or out is not a particularly accurate method of recording statistics.
And while the "Portable PeopleMeter" seems like an even more accurate indicator of ratings, it seems that given the variety of methods there are to watching programs, we are still far from knowing exactly what people watch, or how often they watch these things.
For instance, I personally stream video off of the internet if there is a show I want to watch, but prefer not to have the restriction of waiting until it plays on TV at a certain time, nor do I wish to pay for something like a PVR. This, coupled with the fact that I prefer to BUY seasons of television shows on DVD when they are released rather than actually watching them on TV shows just how many more options there are than watching TV.
My conclusive opinion is that over time, people are going to find more and more alternatives to TV so coming up with an exact measurement of what people watch and for how long will become increasingly difficult. As technology improves, it is very likely that a solution will be reached, but how quickly that happens in relation to the change in consumer behavior is hard to determine.
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