Nielsen Household

[stmartinfan]

Has anyone ever signed up to be a Nielsen household—one of the homes that tracks their TV viewing for ratings purposes? We had a door hanger left at our house with a contact number. They offer “prizes” but don't think there is other compensation. I used to work for a big company that used Nielsen data all the time, so familiar with how they work. I think in the old days you had to keep a paper log of what you watched, but I assume it‘s all electronic now.

 

[Patri]

Nielsen got my paper log back in the 80s.

 

[TheHolleys87]

Yes, DH and I were a Nielsen family several years ago. As you assumed, it’s all electronic - we each had a device that captured an electronic signal from the TV or radio, so we didn’t have to do anything except keep the device near us and charged. There were cash payments based on length of time worn, I think, but I can’t remember exactly. We weren’t required to report the payments on our income taxes - can’t remember why, maybe it was because the amount we each earned was small. I can’t remember how long we were with them, a year or more, but we earned a few hundred dollars over that period.

 

[TolmiePeak]

Don't the streaming services have detailed data on everything you watch? Since Cable TV and satellite and moving toward extinction how can Nelson survive?

 

[Patri]

Don't the streaming services have detailed data on everything you watch? Since Cable TV and satellite and moving toward extinction how can Nelson survive?

Maybe that only shows what is watched, not the demographics.

 

[TolmiePeak]

Maybe that only shows what is watched, not the demographics.

I would assume they have detailed data on who lives at the house.

 

[jp10558]

A lot of people dislike the streaming services because they don't have independent ratings reports. This is mostly related to fandoms who don't like some entries in the franchise and feel like the streamers inflate the watch figures over reality to keep shows going that don't actually get watched a lot. For the companies themselves where they just charge a subscription fee, I don't think external ratings matter much. They don't care that much on a show by show basis what you do or don't watch, just that you pay the sub. Like gym memberships, they're probably happy for you to never watch anything as long as you don't cancel the sub.

For the streamers that are trying to add advertisement supported tiers I could see the advertisers wanting third party ratings to confirm if someone is actually watching the show vs the streamer claiming they are. This is different from web ads in that there's no third party embedded scripts on a stream, and there's no "clickthrough" where they see an actual connection from a viewer. I could imagine them paying more for ads verified seen by Nielsen vs those that the streamer just said "trust me" on. This assumes of course that the ads aren't completely "random programmatic" but are at least tied to an ad buy for a specific show.

I could also see if the show isn't being made completely in house - i.e. the streamer is like a syndication buyer or distributor - the production company behind the show may well want independent ratings as well for negotiation on the sale price or to shop it around each season or whatever.

Now, is all of this enough to keep Nielsen in business? IDK, I figure it certainly used to be the broadcasters themselves who wanted to know what shows did well and that was the only way to really know, where with streaming those "broadcasters" know internally already. Though it's also true that for Netflix etc, they may just know that a TV in the household was viewing a stream, not whether anyone was at home besides the animals, or if anyone was awake, or who was watching, and perhaps there's a little value there in Nielsen if you trust the viewers self reports at all.

 

[RX8]

Like @TheHolleys87, we were randomly selected to monitor radio when we lived in California about 10 years ago. Even my young boys were given a little device to carry at all times. Nielsen was simply interested to know what stations we listened to, or what stations we were exposed to. They even provided fancy little covers and carrying devices (could be attached via belt or clip). We were each paid $15 a month. It was a nice way to add a little spending money. My boys had a blast with it and also liked earning money. Unfortunately, we ended up moving away from California and we were unable to continue it in the new state. Not sure if they are still doing this type of monitoring today. .

 

[clifffaith]

Don't the streaming services have detailed data on everything you watch? Since Cable TV and satellite and moving toward extinction how can Nelson survive?

I don’t think I’ve heard the phrase “Nielsen ratings” in a couple decades. Sounds like one of those “if you know this, you are a Boomer” sort of things!

 

[Cornell]

Well this subject line grabbed my attention as my dad worked his entire career for Nielsen Media Research -- the TV ratings company. He was led the sampling division which is essentially the whole process. If the sample isn't created correctly, the ratings are crap. I was very influenced by my father which led me to get a master's degree in statistics and work my entire career in market research.

I worked for them in the summers during college.

I could discuss this topic for hours but don't want to bore you all.

A few fun things though:

1/ Art Nielsen, who was the founder of the company, was a genius. And a VERY GOOD MAN on top of it.

2/ My dad had to travel to NYC a lot when I was a kid to meet w/the network executives. He would also complain that the networks would whine, complain, and scrutinize the ratings when their ratings went down ("Something is wrong!") . But when their ratings went up, he never heard a peep. I, too, work in market research and this same thing holds true with my own clients. None of my clients question the results of a study that says their product is fabulous.

3/ Do you all remember "sweeps week"? This is when the local affiliates would host super attention-grabbing programming. Like special reports on your local news. They did this to jack their local ratings. One clever local news affiliate decided to have a special report on "what it means to be a Nielsen family". Well, if you WERE a Nielsen family, this made you want to tune in b/c it was about YOU. Generated completely artificial high ratings. So Nielsen essentially voided that affiliate's ratings for that time period and the affiliate sued Nielsen. My dad had to testify in court explaining the statistical methodologies behind sampling. I don't remember the outcome.

Back in the old days there were both paper diaries and set-top electronic devices.

How to Measure Ghosts: Arthur C. Nielsen and the Invention of Big Data

This is a story about ghosts. About how the technological networks of the twentieth century made us more distant, and yet more connected…

medium.com

 

[Cornell]

I don’t think I’ve heard the phrase “Nielsen ratings” in a couple decades. Sounds like one of those “if you know this, you are a Boomer” sort of things!

It's because the company has been sold and acquired a zillion times so the name "Nielsen" really isn't a thing any more.

 

[Cornell]

I would assume they have detailed data on who lives at the house.

They absolutely do.

 

[jp10558]

Like @TheHolleys87, we were randomly selected to monitor radio when we lived in California about 10 years ago. Even my young boys were given a little device to carry at all times. Nielsen was simply interested to know what stations we listened to, or what stations we were exposed to. They even provided fancy little covers and carrying devices (could be attached via belt or clip). We were each paid $15 a month. It was a nice way to add a little spending money. My boys had a blast with it and also liked earning money. Unfortunately, we ended up moving away from California and we were unable to continue it in the new state. Not sure if they are still doing this type of monitoring today. .

I just got one last year for radio, and it was a simple paper booklet (very low tech apparently) for each household member for a week. We each got 10 dollars and I got 2 dollars for agreeing to do it at all. I was very surprised actually about the whole experience. Of course it was also very easy for most of us cause we don't ever listen to the radio! Probably not what they wanted to hear.

 

[jp10558]

I don’t think I’ve heard the phrase “Nielsen ratings” in a couple decades. Sounds like one of those “if you know this, you are a Boomer” sort of things!

Nahh, Millennials also heard of Nielsen ratings, or at least ratings from growing up in the 90 to aughts. Streaming didn't become a big thing till the 2010s IMO. Now Gen Z,A,B probably haven't heard of it, but unless we've decided "Boomer" just means over 35 or something... it's much younger people than Boomers that know about ratings.

 

[silentg]

Way back in 1979 I was asked to do a Nielson rating. It was just before I went into labor with my first child. Never did complete my log for them. Just not good timing on Nielson’s Part.

 

[Roger830]

Here's a Niesen link that I discovered a few months ago.
It doesn't have info on individual shows, only services.

I was surprised to see that YouTube had 10.8 % of viewers, Netflix was second with 7.7%, then Prime at 3.7%. Cable was 25%.

The Gauge

Navigate the TV landscape with precision. Examine audience viewing behaviors across key TV delivery platforms in a monthly macroanalysis.

www.nielsen.com

 

[Cornell]

Here's a Niesen link that I discovered a few months ago.
It doesn't have info on individual shows, only services.

I was surprised to see that YouTube had 10.8 % of viewers, Netflix was second with 7.7%, then Prime at 3.7%. Cable was 25%.

The Gauge

Navigate the TV landscape with precision. Examine audience viewing behaviors across key TV delivery platforms in a monthly macroanalysis.

www.nielsen.com

Streaming market very fragmented. Total streaming above 40 percent. Way higher than total cable.

Also, subscribers can easily turn individual streaming channels on and off. Cable, you are committed with a contract..

 

[dioxide45]

They sent us $2 in the mail to do some survey. Two crips $1 bills. You could even see them in there through a window in the envelope. It came when we were on a trip and I didn't open it until the deadline to reply was over. If we did the survey they would send us more cash, or perhaps a gift card. I've done a survey in the past where I was able to obtain an e-gift card instantly after doing the survey. I think I got a Starbucks card.

 

[Cornell]

They sent us $2 in the mail to do some survey. Two crips $1 bills. You could even see them in there through a window in the envelope. It came when we were on a trip and I didn't open it until the deadline to reply was over. If we did the survey they would send us more cash, or perhaps a gift card. I've done a survey in the past where I was able to obtain an e-gift card instantly after doing the survey. I think I got a Starbucks card.

Thank you for supporting my employment

 

[clifffaith]

They sent us $2 in the mail to do some survey. Two crips $1 bills. You could even see them in there through a window in the envelope. It came when we were on a trip and I didn't open it until the deadline to reply was over. If we did the survey they would send us more cash, or perhaps a gift card. I've done a survey in the past where I was able to obtain an e-gift card instantly after doing the survey. I think I got a Starbucks card.

Now that sparked a vague memory. We also got money in the mail once with a survey. But I feel like it was close to 30 years ago (trying to picture in which house of eight I opened the mail).

 

[Cornell]

Now that sparked a vague memory. We also got money in the mail once with a survey. But I feel like it was close to 30 years ago (trying to picture in which house of eight I opened the mail).

They (Nielsen) used to send out $2 bills

 

[jeffox]

They (Nielsen) used to send out $2 bills

That may be where the ones I have came from. I couldn't remember why I have them, until you mentioned this. When I was younger, I used to get the surveys more frequently and they had bills and sometime they were twos. I haven't seen one of those in more than a decade, but I did get a few crisp singles for a radio survey a couple years ago. The most I ever got was $10 for a week long log of what I was watching.

 

[Brett]

Here's a Niesen link that I discovered a few months ago.
It doesn't have info on individual shows, only services.

I was surprised to see that YouTube had 10.8 % of viewers, Netflix was second with 7.7%, then Prime at 3.7%. Cable was 25%.

The Gauge

Navigate the TV landscape with precision. Examine audience viewing behaviors across key TV delivery platforms in a monthly macroanalysis.

www.nielsen.com

No surprise that streaming services have increased at the expense of cable and broadcast TV
And those people that use "sharing" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent and a VPN would not even register on the Nielsen ratings - Sacré Bleu !

 

[JohnPaul]

Not a TV household but we have scanned all of our purchases for Nielsen for over 20 years. You get some bennies (I got an electric lawnmower amongst other things) but it's not a way to get rich.