# DV-R Ratings

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dv-r-ratings/421764>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 6, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dv-r-ratings/421764 "2007-10-06T17:05:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SharkB8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dv-r-ratings/421764/1 "2007-10-06T17:05:45Z")

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Is there a way to record ratings by the shows people are DV-Ring, not just watching at air time?

I DV-Red “Are You Smarter Than Fifth Grader” (cuz I’ma huge dork) last night to watch today. I was wondering why you’d air one of your networks better-rated shows on a Friday night, when presumably people are out and about. If people, say, Tivo “Lost” or something because they have to get to bed early to be able work early, and hapen to be a residence with a ratings recorder, can it note that you have Tivoed something? Or do they only plant recorders on homes that do not have DV-R capabilities. Either way, ratings results are skewed.

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**Author:** ![PuddingCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@PuddingCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PuddingCat)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dv-r-ratings/421764/2 "2007-10-06T19:41:31Z")

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On a technical level, I would expect this data to be gathered. Here in the UK, after normal TV through aerial systems the most popular systems are Sky and Cable. Cable is inherently bi-directional and the set-top-boxes are certainly intelligent enough to store this info. Sky is a mainly uni-directional (satellite) system but the STBs do dial-up the mother-ship. Both of these technologies have enough market penetration to represent a good proportion of UK TV watching subjects.

A quick google for “tv ratings pvr” shows that Neilsen appeared to start doing this in 2005 - [Nielsen To Include PVR Viewing In Ratings – Digital-Lifestyles](http://digital-lifestyles.info/2005/11/21/nielsen-to-include-pvr-viewing-in-ratings/)

Finally, I can’t see why broadcasters, media producers and advertisers would ignore this huge amount of data. It’s gotta be easier than relying on people filling in questionnaires?

tim

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**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dv-r-ratings/421764/3 "2007-10-07T00:48:45Z")

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When I most recently participated in the ratings survey (last year or so), the booklet had a checkbox or something so that you could mark that you had recorded the show and watched it at another time.

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**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dv-r-ratings/421764/4 "2007-10-07T01:41:09Z")

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[QUOTE=trmatthe]

Finally, I can’t see why broadcasters, media producers and advertisers would ignore this huge amount of data. It’s gotta be easier than relying on people filling in questionnaires?  
[/QUOTE]

I had heard that they were scared of getting more detailed data because they feared that it would reveal that [fewer people are watching](http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/9933.cfm) the shows than their current models predict and [fewer people are watching the ads.](http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/06/01/study_dvrs_no_big_threat_to_advertising/)