How are people chosen for neilson ratings? Where do they get a list of tv watchers? Do they get paid? So many questions.
A hush fell over the courtroom, killing six.
I’m on my way out of the office, so I can’t give you much. But try this:
www.nielsenmedia.com
It’s the home page for Neilsen Media Inc., the company that does the sampling. Enjoy.
-andros-
I’ve been selected for Neilsen surveys twice in my life. The first time was technically my family when I was in high school, the other was last year.
What they do is call you. I assume they randomly select from phone listings, but I don’t know. In the first call, they ask if you have a TV and how many you have, then if you’d be willing to participate. If you say yes, they take down your address and some other data on your household.
In a couple weeks, you receive a packet in the mail. It contains instructions, a viewing diary for each TV, and one dollar bill (and I was always told not to send cash in the mail). The dollar is all you get in compensation.
The diary has pre-dated pages for each day in your ratings period. In the front, you write in the names and vital statistics of each person that watches TV in your house. You also list the channels you get (exhausting when you’ve got 140 of them).
You put the diary by the TV with a pen, and write in the channel, time and who’s watching whenever the TV’s on.
When it’s finished, you seal it and send it back. It’s postage-paid, of course.
“If you prick me, do I not–leak?” —Lt. Commander Data
After posting, I looked at the link andros put in. Looks like I was in the lower tech surveys. The People Meter has never been among the stack of set-top stuff at my house.
I remember that Nielsen had worked out a version that could recognize faces sitting in front of the set. This avoided the statistical error introduced by household members not pushing their button when the watched. But it creeped people out to have their TV watch them back.
“If you prick me, do I not–leak?” —Lt. Commander Data
How are people chosen for neilson ratings? Where do they get a list of tv watchers? Do they get paid? So many questions.
Chosen at random, don’t feel special cause you ain’t
Where do they get a list of tv watchers?
Slap yerself up’side of the head and say Duh.
Who don’t watch? Who’s never seen?
And, you have an address.
Do the survey participants get paid?
Of course.
Last I saw, the going rate was $2, sent either in the form of two new crisp US one dollar bills, or, one new crisp $2 bill.
Two whole US American dollars, by Damn!, and freshly minted besides!
Who could resist temptation such as this!
They paid cash, in advance!
Now all you gotta do,
Is mark in the book, we sent you, when and what you watched, and at what time.
And then send it back.
I don’t know about you, but I think logging my own hyperspeed remote click thru’s of the various channels available, including the off switch, would get to be a drag real quick.
And for two whole weeks too.
I want paid more than that.
but, if, you’re willing to work that cheap, or if you just want to see if you can actually influence tv programming,
help yourself,
Our family did it once for a week. We had six people living there at the time. My sister (who was 15 at the time) filled out the books for my parents, grandma, and uncle, and kept their dollars in exchange. The two of us (me and sis) wrote down just the shows we liked in all four books (four TVs = four books). See how fair and accurate that is? If you do it for a week, using the books, then they may decide to let you do it for a month next time (if they decide that you are “a typical American family”). Apparently, we didn’t make the cut 
We’re a Neilsen family, but not the TV kind, the grocery kind (I didn’t know they did that either until I got the offer in the mail.)
They sent me a scanner system and I have to scan all my purchases as they come into the house, everything from groceries to gifts. (I’m even supposed to do magazine subscriptions and fast food, but they don’t make it easy enough to bother.)
Every so often they send out a survey and I scan the answers to that. The info is transmitted over the phone once a week.
I don’t earn cash but each transmission is worth points, each survey taken is worth points, make all your transmissions for the month and you get bonus points, which are redeemable in a big catalog full of crap like boom boxes, vacuums, beach chairs, etc. Also, transmit a certain number of times and you’re entered in a drawing for a car, and meet another transmission quota and you’re entered in a drawing for a vacation.
Hopefully their sampling of America is numerous or soon all you’ll be able to buy is outlet store pantyhose, Payless Shoes and generic food. (Sorry in advance!) 
We struck down evil with the mighty sword of “teamwork” and the hammer of “not bickering.”
ok. I was a neilson guy (no family) for upwards of 2 years. This all transipred around the 1993-1995 time frame. From what I have always heard, there is a one-week notebook involved. My experience was quite different.
On a sunday afternoon, a young woman knocked on my door. She explained that she represented the Neilson’s, and I (or maybe it was my address) had been chosen to participate. It involved no notebooks or diaries. It was a box connected to my television and vcr. this box also contained a modem of some sort, which would dial in every night.
I don’t remember the exact figures, but the payment involved was about 100 dollars for participating, plus a nominal ($10?) amount each month. I agreed to this, and a short while later a neilson technicion arrived at my apartment.
To my horror, he proceeded to dismantle my television (well, he took the back of it off). I had just bought a new television, and a new vcr. I told him that I had changed my mind, and I had no interest in him taking my video equipment apart. At this point he either left, or called the neilson office. I spoke to someone, and they offered me a couple hundred dollars more. I accepted 
So, he hooked up some sort of sensor in my tv and vcr (connected by wire to the box). A short time later a check arrived from the neilson folks, and I’d get the 10/mo payment every few months or so.
I kind of liked that idea that I actually had some sort of influence in programming decisions. At that time, the money meant something to me too.
And that damn box would call in every night around 1-2 a.m., and being the geek i was, I was invariably online at the time. I’d get a shitload of line noise, and have to log out to let neilson do their thing.
Anyway, about 2 years later, they called me and told me there was some sort of problem, and had to come out to check the equipment. When the neilson techie got there, he said something to the effect of “hey, wait a minute, you’re not supposed to be participating anymore”, and unhooked everything. Last I ever heard of them.
I don’t remember them asking me demographic information, but they might have. They seemed more interested in my zip code, and the fact that I lived in an apartment.
I will take credit for the continued proliferation of columbo reruns, and the cancellation of “full house”, however.
In any event, does anyone have any idea why i got a “neilson modem” for two years, while most others seem to get the diary?
I know that the diary is just for a week. They said that if we were chosen as a Nielson family (see my above post), they would hook up a little box to each TV in the house. The box would stay for a month. I don’t know how you got it for two years. My mom thanks you for the continuation of Columbo episodes. I think we all thank you for the death of “Full House.” It couldn’t have come too soon.
Charles Neilson Reilly conducts them
Seriously in the past there were three types of Neilson ratings. First there was the Phone interview, second the diary, third the box.
First was the phone for conducting randomly selected families making up the same statistics as the USA. This was handy for over night ratings.
Second you have all heard of the sweeps. That is when the TV advertisers set their rates. This was conducted with the diaries over a much larger scale.
Lastly you have the box. This was put into a house to measure rating weekly throughout the year. As one poster noted you had the box from a month to several years.
The phone died out mainly as it was too inaccurate. The box, as someone else noted, has had it problems, like turning on the TV and the dog was watching it. Plus it couldn’t count what you were watching AND what your VCR was recording at the same time.
These problems have been corrected or are being worked on.
Lastly, in Broadcast & Publishing magazine it was reported since Nielson does so good on weekly ratings there isn’t a need to record quarterly. That and the fact that every quarter the ratings are inflated by special programming anyway.Nielson will most likely end the sweeps concept.
Finally there is pressure from Fox and NBC (and Disney/ABC- depending on if it conveniently falls into that category) to not care about ratings anymore. In fact last year CBS had higher ratings but was behing NBC and Fox in the demographics advertisers like so NBC simply said it won the race as that is all that counts anyway. Fox agreed.
The thing with the book and the thing with the equipment attached to your TV are ratings done by two different companies. Nielson uses the TV equipment and Arbitron, Nielson’s competitor, uses the books that you fill out. I think Nielson is supposed to be more accurate, but Arbitron is use by some TV stations to keep Nielson honest.
About the Nielson grocery survey, voguevixen, my Aunt got one of those scanners from Nielson. She’s sort of a gourmet, and it seems like for every second thing she buys she has to open the book they give you for extra items and scan in “Imported Cheese, other.”
Actually, Arbitron tracks radio listening. We did that one once, too. And Nielson DOES use booklets, as well as the little box.