[mythtv-users] Nielsen wants to know...

[Jay Foster]

On 8/24/2015 5:52 AM, Michael Wisniewski wrote:
>
> On Sat, Aug 22, 2015 at 2:48 PM, A. F. Cano <afc at shibaya.lonestar.org 
> <mailto:afc at shibaya.lonestar.org>> wrote:
>
>
>     In light of the recent letter writing thread and how little (if any)
>     effect it might have, I'm prompted to ask...
>
>     Nielsen called me recently about a radio survey.  I told them I don't
>     do surveys and hung up but they're persistent.  They sent me a letter
>     with a $1 bill.  The next time, a very nice and very professional lady
>     convinced me to go through a supposedly short radio survey on the
>     phone.
>     It turned out to be much longer and intrusive than portrayed at first,
>     even though she was really trying to move very quickly through the
>     questions.  In the end I agreed to go over the material they were
>     going
>     to send me.
>
>     So now the material is here.  They seem to go out of their way to
>     reassure
>     me that any questions I have will be answered etc, etc... but of
>     course the
>     businesses that pay for these surveys are the real customers and their
>     interest is to get as much data as possible.  They claim the
>     surveys are
>     anonymous, but they have my name, address and phone number to
>     start with.
>     The 2 very detailed and long booklets have a bar code that is no doubt
>     linked to my already existing profile.
>
>     I've considered not sending the books back but this will no doubt
>     result in
>     more calls to convince me otherwise.
>
>     I've considered sending the books back with the bar-code removed,
>     but given
>     how all data is linked, I have little doubt that with the data
>     they have,
>     the data in the books and all the access they likely have, they
>     could figure
>     out where the book really came from and all information will be
>     linked to me
>     anyway.  I was a little surprised some time back when I dealt with
>     my car
>     insurance company (X) and after a few keystrokes I was told "you
>     also have
>     company Y" (for another vehicle).  I had never told them that
>     beforehand,
>     of course.
>
>     The only reason I even considered doing this is that I was going
>     to let them
>     have it about the cable companies that I despise.  I only receive
>     OTA TV.
>
>     So, does anyone have any outside, objective information on what
>     these surveys
>     can gather beyond the obvious (supposedly anonymous) questions
>     they ask?  As
>     the respondents are obviously a sample of the general population,
>     would it
>     be beneficial (and would it make a difference?) to have an
>     anti-cable company
>     view represented?
>
>     It might even be counter-productive to expose the multiple ways
>     myth allows to
>     get rid of commercials and accelerate viewing.  Some years ago I
>     responded to
>     a phone survey about npr/public radio and I let them how
>     aggravated I felt
>     about the unending fund-raising.  I mentioned that luckily there
>     was this other
>     npr station without the fund-raising...  Ever since, all the npr
>     stations do the
>     fund-raising at the same time, so there's no way to escape it
>     short of taking
>     a vacation from public radio for 10 days.
>
>     So, is this survey really inconsequential? They are most likely
>     already well
>     aware of what DVRs can do and of how many people are ditching
>     cable companies.
>     In fact one of them is already advertising to cord cutters.  Or is
>     it likely
>     to have some beneficial effect?
>
>     Opinions?  Nielsen claims to value my opinions.  Let the list
>     opinions fly...
>
>     Thanks for reading this far...
>
>     Augustine
>
>
> 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.
>
> 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?
>
> 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.
>
> Mike
>
>
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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.

Jay
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