[mythtv-users] plugin idea: MythNielsen

[Brian Wood]

On May 8, 2006, at 6:54 AM, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:

> On Mon, May 08, 2006 at 12:03:36AM -0400, Richard Bronosky wrote:
>> So, it occurred to me how valuable media viewing information is.
>> DataDirect offers their services to us (in the US) in return for a
>> simple little survey every few months.
>>
>> What if we gathered our viewing data and compilied it for them.
>> They'd surely get value out of that.  We'd surely get value out of
>> letting our geeky preferences being known.  It would also be
>> interesting to be able to see those statistics for a social/community
>> thing.  Finally this data could be used to generate the "you might be
>> interested in" feature that comes up occationally.
>
> It might be possible to extract this out of Brad Templeton's add-on
> called, I believe, MythWish.  And I'm pretty sure Neilsen would  
> call it
> 'anecdotal', since they have no way to lock it down against fiddling.
>
> Still might be useful, though.  TiVo's Season Pass data gets  
> attention.

I wonder just how interested the industry might be in the viewing  
habits of a bunch of "Linux Pirates" (to quote Jack Valenti).

Obviously we are not as a group representative of the viewing public  
at large. Not wanting to sound elitest, but we are probably not quite  
what most advertisers are after. We are probably not likely to be  
persuaded to part with our cash by 30 seconds of patter featuring  
scantily-clad ladies, or be willing to "ask our doctor" about  
modifying some portion of our anatomy.

"60-Minutes" was a great example. It delivers good numbers, but most  
viewers are mature enough to not be persuaded to purchase a car based  
on 30 seconds of women staring at it, or being convinced that they  
need a Home Theater to listen to King Kong Bellow at 95 decibels.

Not to mention the fact that, as a group, we are probably the least  
likely to pay attention to, or even see in the first place, *any*  
commercials.

Maybe what we watch could be used to create an "avoid" list for  
advertisers :-)