When I record a show on my DVR, does that contribute to their ratings? Just curious.
Not the Neilson ratings, which are still done by having people fill out a booklet. TiVo (the company) keeps aggregate data of how many people are watching a given show, but last I heard this data isn’t integrated in any way with Neilson.
Of course the marketing monkeys keep track. There’s something like a “live plus seven” metric that measures people delay-viewing it the same week, etc. The monkeys can also try to claim that if their show is being tivo’d a lot, then all the hip people watch it.
As you can see, the TiVo crowd can make a huge contribution, but the concept, for some reason, is still not the mainstream measure and more like an afterthought. That reason is probably that people who delay-view shows skip the ads.
Cite? Don’t they use more sophisticated techniques by now?
Woops, I was only partly right.
I remember people who are nielson viewers reporting that they still recorded their entries in a diary recently. I guess that method is still out there.
Nielsen has some people fill out diaries – though I believe that’s just the short-timers. (For example, I was a Nielsen house for a couple weeks, a year or two ago.) Then, if you are picked to be a long-timer, you get electronic monitoring of what you watch. However, I’m not sure if electronic monitoring works on recorded shows (TiVo or VCR), so even those with monitoring may have to fill out diaries to cover those.
I filled out a Neilsen diary recently, it had a section for recording DVR usage.
Thanks for all the informative answers! Quite a bit of it goes over my head, though 
While you guys are here, is there any concern among advertisers and the whole television market that DVR-technology will become so prevalent that commercials will be skipped over by unacceptably large numbers of people?
I should be getting my Nielsen diary in the mail any day now. I’m supposed to fill it out for a week and then mail it back. In the phone interview they asked specifically about whether or not I had a DVR. I don’t know if that will make a difference. I’ll let you know when I get the diary.
Yes, there is concern that DVRs mean people skip commercials. Also people like me often switch to another channel when a commercial is on - that is another problem. I also skip though ads when I watch a DVR recording.
Yes.
Which is why you are/will see more creative/irritating ways of doing commercials…like the stuff that crawls along the bottom of the screen…commericals within the show itself (like product placement) but will get more frequent and obvious and all the ideas they haven’t come up with yet :).
My wife did some research on this topic not too long ago and found that TiVo is indeed included in ratings – what really counts is if people watch the recording within 24 hours of the original airing.
My dad was contacted by Neilson in 1993 and asked to participate with a set-top box. He told them that he would love to, but he didn’t have a television.
They were flabbergasted.
He bought a TV two weeks later. I am still confused by that.
I’m reasonably sure it is a violation of your agreement with Nielsen to broadcast this information until some time after you’ve completed the diary.
BTW, Nielsen samples TiVo users. TiVo (and presumably other DVR providers) cannot use your viewing information without your consent (although as mentioned, it tracks things in the aggregate). But some number of TiVo users are asked to opt-in. As also mentioned upthread, those users mostly count only if they watch within a limited time.
–Cliffy
They didn’t say anything in the phone interview about not broadcasting this information. All they said was to fill out the diary. As far as I know, any agreement is minimal at best, especially given that they didn’t give any small print talk on the phone either.
Should I be expecting a subpoena from you Cliffy?
I have met a couple of people with no TV and more with no cable or satellite service. Not sure why but everyone I have met with no TV has been very liberal. I am sure there are conservatives as well who don’t own a TV, I haven’t met any yet.
OK, I could be wrong. I’ve participated in the Arbitron radio ratings program in the past, and there was always a disclaimer in the paperwork saying to keep it quiet until some time had elapsed. (Six months maybe? I don’t remember.)
–Cliffy
Many members of my family belong to a Christian Holiness sect that doesn’t allow TV viewing. Generally conservative. So my experience is the opposite.
Isn’t that why ads at the bottom of the screen during a TV show have gotten so much more common in recent years?
I heard that TiVo can also track which commercials you fast-forward through and which ones you actually watch. Can they? If they do, is this information shared with the people who make the commercials?