I tend to watch TV, having the TV on in the background while I do something else.
So I flip through channels until I find something that is entertaining and will handle me ignoring large chunks of it. That can lead to me having some pretty silly stuff on the TV. Stuff that I wouldn’t have on, if I actually sat down and paid attentions. For example, this weekend, I left “LA Ink” on (a reality show about a tattoo parlor in LA) as some guy requested a tattoo of a T-Rex holding an ice cream cone, to be put on his butt.
Later, I came to the conclusion that if I knew that someone was keeping track of what I was watching on TV, I’d probably be more selective in what I actually watched. How about you? Would you change your habits?
Yes, probably. I’d be much more self conscious of the fact that I was representing thousands of others through my viewing habits, and try to only watch good quality stuff, even if it was a distorted reflection of my real viewing habits.
There was an episode of “Roseanne” about this – they got a Nielsen box, and Roseanne would only let them watch PBS afterwards, IIRC.
No, but I barely watch anything on TV anyway. In fact, come the digital switch in February my TV will only serve me for playing video games and watching DVDs, which is 95% of what I use it for already.
We once were, back in the diary days, and it did affect what I watched in a way.
If I missed a favorite show, due to some out of the ordinary thing, I put it down as “watched” anyway to encourage it to stay on the air.
Remember the two quarters they used to send you to compensate you for your time? Big spenders they were.
I wonder if all the TiVo info & cable-box info (since I’m sure it’s bidirectional for the latter now) have pretty much superceded the old Nielsen process.
We are–or at least we were with the old TiVo, not sure if that changed when we got a newer one–and all it affects is what we put on when we’re not watching anything. We tend to flip it to the soccer channel before turning off the TV.
We’ve also blocked channels that offend us (Disney, Home Shopping, Faith & Values, that sort of thing) in the hopes that somewhere it’s getting logged.
How do “they” keep track of what you’re watching exactly? Isn’t it up to you to report what you actually watched? I don’t know anything about this obviously, but you’re getting a complete spectrum of signals delivered to your house. How does Nielsen determine which one you’re currently deciphering?
I believe they’ve got (at least) two methods: A diary where you record what you watch and a box that automatically logs the information. I only have experience with the diary – where I had to record what I watched when I watched it for one week.
And to answer the original question, yes, it changed what I watched. Not out of embarrassment but rather because it was too much of a hassle to record “background noise” shows. So I only turned the TV on to watch stuff that I was actually going to watch.
I haven’t been a Nielsen family, but I have done Arbitron’s log diaries for radio ratings. Radio is especially hard to log because you tend to jump between stations looking for a good song, so I tended to simplify things by just listing what station I mainly listened to in a time period. Plus I would tend to listen more consistently to a program, say four times a week rather than two, if I really liked that program. I never listed anything I never listened to. It didn’t matter–nearly everything I marked down got taken off the air within a few months.
A few years, Nielson wanted to make me a Nielson Family; not the one-time offer of $2 and a diary, but $10 a month and a box. I didn’t do it; I just didn’t want the hassle, and I did fear it would change my viewing habits.
I’m sure that, when I were more occupied by the computer than the TV, I’d turn the TV to the shows I thought deserved high ratings, even if I weren’t watching.
I’d actually watch my favorite shows, especially ones on the bubble, rather than TiVoing. Then maybe Pushing Daisies would still be with us and Knight Rider wouldn’t.
I doubt it. Because of my work schedule I don’t get a chance to watch primetime when it is on. Mostly I DVR. Nielsen would see mostly the kids programs my daughters watch.
