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Location: Nuts to Nielson?
Discussion: Find the Nielson Households
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Four_Aces |
Find the Nielson Households
Apr 18 2008, 9:19 PM EDT
It would be better to locate who they claim is the 'average' for the rest of North America. No one knows who they are or even if they exist. If we could all talk to our friends and co-workers and get them asking then shortly we would know if they do exist in the numbers that Neilson says they do. Since the reported number fluctuates with such a large variance it could very well be a hoax. I am sure that it was real in the past, but now? I would rather put pressure on the government officials that allow this monopoly to exist. Collusion between Hollywood and Neilson is a crime if there are better services available. Nuts to Washington? 3 out of 3 found this valuable. Do you?
Keyword tags:
Government
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prairiems |
1. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 18 2008, 9:40 PM EDT
For some reason we were a Nielson household this year. I don't know why they picked us. Filling out the forms is very time consuming and annoying but we did it. We have 2 t.v.'s and when Jericho was on both were tuned to it. Believe me, we did not forget to mark down that we watched Jericho! Not one reality show was listed for us, just Jericho and cartoons, Law and Order, and some movies.
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dicedavon |
2. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 19 2008, 12:46 AM EDT
Nielson called my house two nights ago wanting to do a survey.
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prairiems |
3. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 19 2008, 10:59 AM EDT
Our household was randomly called and we were asked if we would participate. My daughter agreed because they were paying $30 and she needed the money. I was glad to do it to get a plug in for Jericho. She said they didn't ask any questions except how many people were in the household and how many t.v.'s. So it's probably just random.
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kedzucat |
4. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 19 2008, 11:05 AM EDT
"Our household was randomly called and we were asked if we would participate. My daughter agreed because they were paying $30 and she needed the money. I was glad to do it to get a plug in for Jericho. She said they didn't ask any questions except how many people were in the household and how many t.v.'s. So it's probably just random."Do you have cable or dish? They would not be counted in the ratings if that were the case. Hmmmmmmmm 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |
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prairiems |
5. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 19 2008, 11:54 AM EDT
We have Comcast cable.
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Four_Aces |
6. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 23 2008, 7:51 PM EDT
"She said they didn't ask any questions except how many people were in the household and how many t.v.'s. So it's probably just random."Well there you have it. To be a proper survey that is extrapolated to the general population they need to ask about your socioeconomic status (SES), otherwise known as household income. Without that they cannot categorize the answers. They are supposed to be choosing a relatively average sample from their surveys based on this so that they do not end up with only one portion of a society. For example, if you only sample at a Mall you get one cross section, and if you do a second at a University you get another. The standard way to use these two samples is to categorize by SES since it is a great predictor, otherwise it take about 15 questions to categorize properly. If anyone else gets called and you can record it, please do so. If this is their standard system then it is totally invalid, and could easily bring an end to the Neilson's Ratings, at least in its current form. I can think of a few newspapers that would love to get their hands on that story. 3 out of 3 found this valuable. Do you? |
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prairiems |
7. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 24 2008, 7:47 AM EDT
Just grilled my daughter again about the phone call from Nielson. She said they asked nothing about household income or education, but did ask if Spanish was the primary language spoken, which it is not, but in this area of Florida it is about 50% Spanish-speaking, possibly more.
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Shellius |
8. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 27 2008, 9:40 PM EDT
Does Nielson only call landlines? Lots of people don't even have them anymore. My house only has 3 cell phones. That has to make their conclusions even more inaccurate.
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kedzucat |
9. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 27 2008, 11:52 PM EDT
"There is alot of information at this link about how nielson works. Rather interesting...check it out."http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question433.htm&url=http://www.nielsenmedia.com/ 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |
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Four_Aces |
10. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 28 2008, 10:20 AM EDT
From the afore mentioned site"Nielsen TV families are a cross-section of households from all over the United States. We carefully draw our samples in a way that offers every American household with a television an equal chance of being selected." "We include people of all ages, income groups, geographic areas, ethnicities and educational levels — all in proportion to their presence in the population at large." "For Total Telephone Frame sampling, Nielsen's statistical research department uses random digit-dialing to generate a call list that includes both published and unpublished telephone numbers in a Designated Market Area (DMA). Rather than using recordings, our Call Center staffs in Florida and Kentucky personally make multiple attempts to reach households, ensuring that they have a chance to be included in the sample." Unfortunately without asking the questions that categorize [b]paririems's [/b] sample, we can see that their rating system is not what they claim it to be. They also admit to using a computer based system to dial unlisted numbers, through a process known as War Dialing. I am not sure if each State has its own law concerning this, but as far as I know it is just as illegal in the US as it is here in Canada. That does not effect the results of the studies, but does call into question the means, and ultimately the validity and reliability of these results. 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |
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Four_Aces |
11. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 28 2008, 10:41 AM EDT
"Electronic metering technology is the heart of the Nielsen Media Research ratings process. We use two types of meters: Set meters capture what channel is being viewed, while People Meters add information about who is watching."Now this was my initial metal picture of the Neilson's sampling system. One would hope that the proper categorizing data is collected before these meters are distributed to their sample households. More disturbingly the following statement shows the non-objective nature of another part of the Neilson's system. "Each year we process approximately 2 million paper diaries from households across the country for the months of November, February, May and July — also known as the “sweeps” rating periods." <edited> "In some of the larger markets, diaries provide viewer information for up to three additional “sweeps” months (October, January and March)." "This local viewing information provides a basis for program scheduling". The first thing you will notice is that these are typically only used for 4 months, with a nebulous possibility of an additional three months for an undefined "larger market". The second is that there is no indication of how these households are chosen, and whether they are a proper sample of the population. Finally, "Smaller markets (such as Honolulu, Hawaii; Tallahassee-Thomasville, Fla., and Fargo-Valley City, N.D.) are measured by paper diaries only. These seven-day diaries (or eight-day diaries in homes with DVRs) are mailed to homes to keep a tally of what is watched on each television set and by whom." So DVRs count and PVR do not! Either Neilson or CBS stated that PVRs are not counted. Why not, when it's handwritten??? Given their recent admission that their statistics was faulty for the 2007-2008 season, I would love to get a real look at their methods. So far it looks a little iffy. 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |
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Four_Aces |
12. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 28 2008, 11:01 AM EDT
"Just grilled my daughter again about the phone call from Nielson. She said they asked nothing about household income or education, but did ask if Spanish was the primary language spoken, which it is not, but in this area of Florida it is about 50% Spanish-speaking, possibly more."Thank you prairiems for sharing this with us. It is very important to get reports like this if we ever hope to get an objective, working ratings system. On their site they claim to collect "the composition of the audience (demographic data)" but this is only in relation to their metered data. It is likely that they are using a completely random selection as padding for their more proper survey systems, to increase the numbers of households that they can claim useful data for. Their metered sample size must be insufficient to generalize to the population, so they are just 'faking it'. As to the Spanish, that information is probably being sold to the advertisers primarily, but once again without the SES data it is meaningless yet they are obviously still using it. Shellius, according to their site they select a geographic calling area and then call everyone via computer generated phone numbers. It is highly unlikely that they include the prefixes for cell phones since there would be millions of additional numbers, with many crossing the sample's geographic boundary. Your point is another example of how their phone survey system is actually diluting their (possibly) valid statistical metered system, and rendering meaningless ratings. If one were cynical, one might think that this is done on purpose. Anyone want to see the new crop of 'reality' shows? I thought not. 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |
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kedzucat |
13. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 28 2008, 11:15 AM EDT
I agree with your posts and after reading on the site I posted, I was less than enthusiastic about the validity. They are probably just giving the numbers that whoever is paying them for their services wants to hear. Really pathetic and sad for shows like Jericho to get taken down by this.
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TheReporter |
14. RE: Find the Nielson Households
Apr 28 2008, 6:22 PM EDT
Nielsen probably just hires crews of telemarketers who get paid for each call they make and get a bonus for actually signing anyone up to participate. Ya just can't get good help these days.
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