I got a letter in the mail today announcing the wonderful news that I was chosen as a “Nielson Family” and that soon I would have the joyful experience of partacking in a one week TV survey. They seem to sound very excited about this. I will be recieving a long distance call very soon to explain the details.
My question to the Teeming Millions is what exactly is involved in being a “Nielson Family”? Do I have to write down everything I watch all week or will there be a box or something that will automaticly sense what I watch? Has anyone ever done this before and is it something I should try to get out of, or is it my obligation as a lifelong TV viewer? I’m actually just hoping to get some info before they call so I can at least sound like I know what I’m talking about.
Just so everyone knows I did copy and paste this to word so I could spell check and fixed all 3 misspelled words (see if you can find them) and then came right back here and hit submit which just proves that THESE KIDS ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!
A friend of mine was selected as a nielson family, and I think they ask you to keep a sort of diary of your TV watching. I’m pretty sure he didn’t get a box or anything.
A funny aspect to this story is the guy who got it. This guy never, I mean never, watches TV. The only reason he has one is to watch DVDs. So when they contacted him again, he had nothing to give them.
We are a recent Nielsen family, for about a month now. It’s pretty painless; they come and install a box, pay you a small amount and go away. (They also brought us a potted plant which we’ve already killed.)
As far as “using your powers for good”, I still feel self-conscious about watching anything, good or otherwise. I know they’re paying attention, even though I also know that they’re looking at us statistically rather than individually. (This was part of their pitch. They don’t disclose individual information to anyone, not even the networks.) Probably as time goes on I’ll stop thinking about it.
We did this ages ago. It may have changed since then, but as I recall we had a box to attach to the TV and a book to write our viewings in for one week.
It wasn’t everything we watched they were intrested in, just certain blocks of time, like 7-10PM. I’m sure there were more, but that’s the only block I remember.
After returning the book and box, they sent us a nice thank you note and $5.00 for our troubles.
My father (and I guess our whole household) was picked as a Nielsen Family once. (I don’t know if it was for a week, or for longer.) He wasn’t interested, so we didn’t do it. I still think he was crazy… (and he does watch a fair amount of tv).
Just remember, Darby, whatever you log … there are only 168 tv-viewing hours in a week.
When this house was chosen from Neilson, we only received a booklet to record all the shows we watched in one week. The booklet is divided up into days, each day is divided up into 24 hours, and each hour divided into 15-minutes parts. You wrote down which show you watched in the appropiate section in the booklet. After the week was up, we mailed the booklet back to them. We didn’t get a box hooked up to the TV.
You should go for it. We got $10 cash for doing it, you might get some money out of it as well.
I was chosen for the Australian TV ratings about ten years ago. These days, they use a box on the TV, but back then, it was a booklet.
Thing was, I lied incredibly about what I watched. If I watched something which I decided I didn’t like, I wouldn’t write it down, hoping I was doing my bit to get the show taken off the air. Also, if I was too busy to watch a favourite show, I’d tell them I had seen it, in order to boost the ratings.
Look at this as your opportunity to skew the ratings somewhat. The entire time you are a Nielson household, only watch channels featuring hardcore lesbian porn.
Most oftenly, first timers will only get the TV diary book to write stuff down in. If you are asked repeatedly because you have a nice demographic profile, then you may get a box. Also, they start you off with a week, make sure you have the motivation to actually fill out the book and send it in, then on second and third requests they increase the time to 2 weeks, then maybe a month or 2 if you get the box.
I used to find myself watching PBS and the Discovery channel a lot during those weeks. When they asked me if they could install some software and monitor my internet usage, I declined and they haven’t contacted me again since.
Well Boo Hiss I suck at the whole Journal thing. Do I have to write down everything we watch all day? Everytime the baby is watching Sesame Street? Do I have to account for every hour the TV is on? Guess I’ll just have to wait for that long distance phone call.
…and yes, gazpacho, I tried to use my “power” only for good–although I’m not a regular viewer, I dug in with Buffy, gave Gilmore Girls a shot (I really liked it), and saw a couple documentaries on PBS. The problem is (1) my wife and I don’t watch much TV, and (2) we don’t have cable, which limits us to a pretty meagre selection.
Still, I was faithful in writing everything down in my journal, so who knows–maybe we’ll get to go again (they seemed particularly interested when they heard I was hispanic) for longer, if xizor is correct.
That was my problem. They called my house twice asking if they could send us a diary for a week. The first time, my wife said no. The second time, I patiently explained to them that with a three-month-old child, we barely had time to watch TV, much less write anything down in a diary (I only have time to post messages here because I deny myself hours of sleep after the wife and child are in bed and snoring because I’m an admitted Internet junkie ).
A week later, the diary showed up in our mailbox. I was so annoyed by this I simply tore the envelope (unopened - it says it’s the diary on the outside) and its contents in two. This action, however, revealed the fact that they’d stuck five one-dollar bills inside. Only one of them was actually torn in half, the other four are intact.
Funny thing is, though, I haven’t yet put any of the bills, torn or otherwise, in my wallet yet. They’re still laying on the side table where I put them (the two halves of the envelope and the rest of its contents went in the trash - I hope there wasn’t a winning lottery ticket in there). It’s either guilt about spending money I didn’t earn, or pride at not accepting a bribe. At worst, it’s paranoia that Nielsen can contact the Treasury Department and find out I spent their five bucks without returning the stupid diary.
The even funnier thing is, a week after ripping up the diary, we received a postcard telling us to expect a diary in the mail in about a week. Will another five bucks be in this one? Or was that particular piece of mail just two weeks late?
Dave W. http://members.aol.com/psorsite/
“My dream is of a day where every SDMB poster will have a quote of mine in their sig.” - Arnold Winkelried
Darby, you may have just spoiled your chances. The people behind Nielsen doesn’t like it when someone reveals they’re a participant, I’m sure you’ll get more info about this if you haven’t already. Trust me, I know; how I know, I can’t say exactly. I will say that Nielsen isn’t just TV ratings anymore.
It’s funny you mention this because the bills they sent us were new, crisp, and all part of the same series (though not exactly sequential, they were all even numbered and two off of the next). Hmmm…
