Do you have a Nielsen box?

[crashb648]

Right, well here's a simple topic, do you have a Nielsen box? I have heard many complaints that the viewers for each episode are not very accurate as not many people have the box.

So this poll will judge how many have actually got one...

[My_Friend_KITT]

If I could, I would buy 12....*giggle*

[Bandit1]

what is that nielsen thing for?

only for the ratings of shows?

how does it work?

[Kitzira]

A nielsen box is a box that records what you watch, when you watch, and who's in your family watching. I would imagine that perhaps they have a login for each family member.. so that if the kids sit down to watch cartoon network, the appropriate check boxes will be checked. The data is uploaded every night via the internet or even basic dialup.

In the past, families had Nielsen diaries. They wrote what they watched and mailed it in weekly.

Nielsen randomly picks families to participate in this, however I've never known a friend or family member joining in.

[Bandit1]

LOL

what a sh**
how many in US have such a box? i guess not all,ao the ratings are totally incorect.

is that right?

we dont have such a thing here in germany.no need for this

[Sky_Blue_Civic]

In my opinion, the Neilson Ratings is a steaming pile of *censored*!Why?It's so outdated!This is the twenty-first century!It's time we find a new way to count viewers,and find out exactly how many!

But...to be on topic,I wish I owned one,or at least knew someone who did own one.If I did,I'd definitely try to help keep KR alive by watching it whenever I can(which I already do,even if I don't own one)!

[MR2NR]

My wife's family had one when she was 15. She said it was very hard to use and they quit after a year. They only had 3 channels as all they had was an antenna and they lived in the stix. I would think they would only let people with cable or dish be members as the other channels wouldn't get any ratings .

[Knight007]

Is this how they do the ratings stuff???

[justinbrueningnet]

My cousin and her family had one back when they lived in British Columbia and it dorve them nuts. My aunt was constantly turning on CSI at midnight logged in as her 3 year old grandson. So even in that aspect they dont even get the accurate ratings sometimes.

[xmguy]

If you have DirecTV it can report viewing habits to DirecTV and I guess NBC??

[Sue]

If you have DirecTV it can report viewing habits to DirecTV and I guess NBC??

Last I heard cable and satellite companies were not handing over their information because they felt it was their duty to protect the privacy of their customers. Though I think the legality of handing it over or not was still being hashed out, so their might be some new info on that I'm not aware of.

[Knight007]

this is some strange system.

[cdoyle]

Sat/Cable companies should make it a volunteer program. If a subscriber wishes to have what they watch transmitted to Nielsen, then they should have that option. They could have a menu screen right on the box that says 'transmit shows watch to Nielsen yes/no. easy as that.

The way it is now, is so outdated and so inaccurate it doesn't even make sense to have it anymore. You have a very small portion of the population deciding what gets to stay on TV.

[Sty Knight]

Like I put in the "Where's Turbo Boost?" thread, it's such a crappy system, for all we know 15 Million+ people could be tuning into Knight Rider weekly yet only a fraction of them have a Nielsen box. Not everyone worked 9-5 anymore. People do work nights like myself. So timeshift is the only way for some people and Nielsen's system doesn't include timeshift stats. Even some DVR stats don't count.

This might not be the proper way to do things, but Knight Rider is apparently a highly sought after torrent on the torrent websites. Unfortunately, I do work all nights and sometimes a torrent is the only way for me to see the show. I'm in Canada and I can't even stream on the NBC site cause you need to live in the USA. People in other countries are even more out of luck.

Either way, like the above poster said, it's such an outdated way of doing things. Kinda like using a typewriter this day in age. It's sad really. And yeah, if they trust this system, then a very small portion of the watching audience is deciding what all of us watch.

[tamatt27]

I don't, however I was sent a questionaire about my tv preferences. I put Knight Rider, of course.

[Sky_Blue_Civic]

The Neilson Ratings is an outdated thing that practically lets other people vote on what we get to watch.No wonder we get so many cop dramas and reality shows...the Neilson crowd seems to like that stuff.

[t.b.77b]

Yes this system is very outdated and shouldn't IMO be used at all as we can tell by the votes at the top nobody who has cast a vote on here has a neilson box.

[Kitzira]

The Nielsen system has a small number of people to sample from.

This forum has a small number of people to sample from.

Saying that because this forum's small number doesn't intersect the Nielsen small number, and so Nielsen shouldn't be used doesn't quite make sense.

[Sue]

The Nielsen system has a small number of people to sample from.

This forum has a small number of people to sample from.

Saying that because this forum's small number doesn't intersect the Nielsen small number, and so Nielsen shouldn't be used doesn't quite make sense.

I get the point they were making though. If KRO is a sample of all KR fans and that sample doesn't have even one Nielsen box. Our sample data then might suggest their sample data is lacking.

[weeezl]

I get the point they were making though. If KRO is a sample of all KR fans and that sample doesn't have even one Nielsen box. Our sample data then might suggest their sample data is lacking.

We are a sample of the people who don't use Nielsen box's and yes their sample data is behind the times, maybe they should try sampling a new ratings system, perhaps a more up to date one?

On a side note, I lost my music production partition on my hard drive where all my audio samples are kept, I haven't lost them entirely though, woooh what a relief. Actually Im thinking about going to PC world to sample a couple of the external drives they have on sale, cant decide on a WD Mybook or Maxtor Onetouch. I need to make some proper backups.

[Kitzira]

The biggest question is..

What is the best way to sample tv viewing data that people wouldn't have a problem with?

So many ppl are throwing around invasion of privacy issues that it's kinda hard to ask -everyone- to submit to the ratings.

[KnightCrusader99]

My best friend has one at the moment. I told him I would hurt him if he doesn't watch KR.

Seriously, he likes the show way more now than it was before it was retooled... but I am still the KR freak in our 'cliche'.