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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 8/24/2015 5:52 AM, Michael
Wisniewski wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAMmWpRuM=bSnpLLN49seo_Z7+sqcF_NreoPjd8RzyF8An0HkWQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Aug 22, 2015 at 2:48 PM, A.
F. Cano <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:afc@shibaya.lonestar.org" target="_blank">afc@shibaya.lonestar.org</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
In light of the recent letter writing thread and how
little (if any)<br>
effect it might have, I'm prompted to ask...<br>
<br>
Nielsen called me recently about a radio survey. I told
them I don't<br>
do surveys and hung up but they're persistent. They sent
me a letter<br>
with a $1 bill. The next time, a very nice and very
professional lady<br>
convinced me to go through a supposedly short radio survey
on the phone.<br>
It turned out to be much longer and intrusive than
portrayed at first,<br>
even though she was really trying to move very quickly
through the<br>
questions. In the end I agreed to go over the material
they were going<br>
to send me.<br>
<br>
So now the material is here. They seem to go out of their
way to reassure<br>
me that any questions I have will be answered etc, etc...
but of course the<br>
businesses that pay for these surveys are the real
customers and their<br>
interest is to get as much data as possible. They claim
the surveys are<br>
anonymous, but they have my name, address and phone number
to start with.<br>
The 2 very detailed and long booklets have a bar code that
is no doubt<br>
linked to my already existing profile.<br>
<br>
I've considered not sending the books back but this will
no doubt result in<br>
more calls to convince me otherwise.<br>
<br>
I've considered sending the books back with the bar-code
removed, but given<br>
how all data is linked, I have little doubt that with the
data they have,<br>
the data in the books and all the access they likely have,
they could figure<br>
out where the book really came from and all information
will be linked to me<br>
anyway. I was a little surprised some time back when I
dealt with my car<br>
insurance company (X) and after a few keystrokes I was
told "you also have<br>
company Y" (for another vehicle). I had never told them
that beforehand,<br>
of course.<br>
<br>
The only reason I even considered doing this is that I was
going to let them<br>
have it about the cable companies that I despise. I only
receive OTA TV.<br>
<br>
So, does anyone have any outside, objective information on
what these surveys<br>
can gather beyond the obvious (supposedly anonymous)
questions they ask? As<br>
the respondents are obviously a sample of the general
population, would it<br>
be beneficial (and would it make a difference?) to have an
anti-cable company<br>
view represented?<br>
<br>
It might even be counter-productive to expose the multiple
ways myth allows to<br>
get rid of commercials and accelerate viewing. Some years
ago I responded to<br>
a phone survey about npr/public radio and I let them how
aggravated I felt<br>
about the unending fund-raising. I mentioned that luckily
there was this other<br>
npr station without the fund-raising... Ever since, all
the npr stations do the<br>
fund-raising at the same time, so there's no way to escape
it short of taking<br>
a vacation from public radio for 10 days.<br>
<br>
So, is this survey really inconsequential? They are most
likely already well<br>
aware of what DVRs can do and of how many people are
ditching cable companies.<br>
In fact one of them is already advertising to cord
cutters. Or is it likely<br>
to have some beneficial effect?<br>
<br>
Opinions? Nielsen claims to value my opinions. Let the
list opinions fly...<br>
<br>
Thanks for reading this far...<br>
<br>
Augustine<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This is actually a pretty interesting question
surrounding the nielsen ratings and ratings in general.
How do survey companies know which shows are being
watched, so they can determine if the show should be
renewed or not? From what I know, they will do a survey
or ask to install some sort of electronic device to
monitor viewing habits. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>In this day and age, I'm assuming that somehow STB's
can record and relay the information back to the mother
ship, but does this also work with cable cards? </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>There's been a few shows that have been cancelled due
to ratings that I really liked. It would be nice to
somehow add something that says "I watch this" so it
doesn't get cancelled. I'm not sure my ratings get
counted because I've never done a survey and had dtv
before and now myth with a cable card.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Mike </div>
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</blockquote>
I have participated is several Nielsen ratings surveys over the
years. The most recent survey had provisions for time shifting DVR
usage, where you recorded the date and time that the program
originally aired. In my case, the shows I was watching had
originally aired 8-12 months earlier, so I reckon any decisions made
about those programs based on ratings had long since been made and
my survey entries were likely of little value.<br>
<br>
Jay<br>
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