The Nielsen Ratings System is 100% inaccurate bullshit.

[T234]

They give you this "TV Viewing Diary" and for every 15 minutes of television you watch you are supposed to fill in 6 fucking tiny-ass fields. Anybody who watches anything worth a shit is probably too stoned or lazy to fill that shit out. The entire system needs to die. I seriously can't believe the amount of advertising money that hinges on such a failure.

[Cheebs]

Eh. What else can you do? You can't go by cable boxes or whatever. Too many people don't have them. It's really  the only option there is.

[T234]

Eh. What else can you do? You can't go by cable boxes or whatever. Too many people don't have them. It's really  the only option there is.

Uh, what? Cable boxes are  much more accurate (even considering the sample size) than this book which the only thing I'm gonna write in it Rescue Me and Conan, even though I'm going to watch alot more than that.   

[Cheebs]

Eh. What else can you do? You can't go by cable boxes or whatever. Too many people don't have them. It's really  the only option there is.

Uh, what? Cable boxes are  much more accurate (even considering the sample size) than this book which the only thing I'm gonna write in it Rescue Me and Conan, even though I'm going to watch alot more than that.   

No it isn't. A large percentage of the tv watching population doesn't have cable boxes or satellite or what have you. They are too poor. A large chunk of the population only gets the 4 main channels or whatever with PBS and the like.

How do you account for them?

[T234]

I KNOW NOBODY, ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY NOBODY WHO ACTUALLY WATCHES TV WHO DOESN'T HAVE A CABLE OR SATELLITE BOX AND I LIVE IN FUCKING KENTUCKY

[Cheebs]

Wow, you really don't like the Nielsen system. lol

[Human Snorenado]

Write in Chuck on Mondays at 8 so it gets picked up again next season.

[T234]

CHEEBS IF YOU REPORTED ME, I'LL BURN YOUR GODDAMN HAIR OFF AND MASTURBATE ONTO WHERE IT USED TO BE

[T234]

i'M SERIOUSLY FREAKING OUT BECAUSE THEY CALLED ME FIVE MINUTES AGO AND MY PHONE WENT DEAD.

[Bloodwake]

T234, even when I'm home in London I don't own a cable box. At Berea I only get what I get OTA. Mainly because cable seems to be a waste of my money when I have the internet.

[demi]

Cable box? I dont have one in my room. Just a single coaxial from the wall to my TV.

[T234]

HOW MUCH TV DO YOU ACTUALLY WATCH? BRB DIGGING UP GUNS

SAVE ME FROM YOUR RELATIVES SIR

[Bocsius]

Aren't many if not most Nielsen homes metered? Meaning they have an actual box collating and reporting viewing data?

[chronovore]

If  Nielsen ratings are used to determine advertising costs, why give a flying poop about anyone who is too poor to afford even basic cable?

There should be a whole level of ratings based on anonymized reporting of user-initiated Tivo recordings, so they know what people with some money are waiting to watch -- even if they're skipping the advertisements. Maybe ESPECIALLY if they're skipping them, encouraging alternate advertising methods like product placement.

I remember reading a couple years ago about a company in Santa Monica which was recording P2P metrics and selling the reports to Hollywood studios. The number of seeders, time-to-distribution, length of time a torrent stayed active, etc. all that is useful in determining popularity.

[Bloodwake]

Aren't many if not most Nielsen homes metered? Meaning they have an actual box collating and reporting viewing data?

They send out the surveys for sweeps week so they can get a wider ratings number to pull from. When I was a little kid my family was actually a Nielsen survey participant when I was in elementary school. I'm glad I could give Pete and Pete the numbers they deserve.