Confessions of a first-time Nielsen diary keeper

First of all, I was so ignorant I thought it was all done electronically but agreed to keep one. Having done a radio book for Arbitron previously, the procedures were not completely foreign to me.

One flaw I perceive is the inability to credit more than one source within each quarter hour. The stipulation is to document any viewing of five minutes or more in each 15-minute window and there is only one slot provided to write in what you're watching. At least for me, I sometimes watch five minutes of something then five minutes of something else in a quarter hour.

It's been interesting to keep a diary this week with the lead up and aftermath of the mid-term elections. Also interesting is, as a DISH customer, there is no CNN due to the contract dispute. Cannot say I'm a regular CNN viewer but if it had been available, I would have checked it out this week even if for a minuscule number of quarter hours.

My record keeping started last Thursday and ends tomorrow and here are a few of the trends, if anyone cares.........

Mornings: A lot of Imus, some CBS This Morning and a little bit of Morning Joe.
Evenings: NHL games and related programming. Charlie Rose.
This past Sunday morning: CBS Sunday Morning and Face The Nation, though Meet The Press got one quarter hour during CBS Sunday Morning. Following FTN, Howie Kurtz and Mediabuzz got two quarter hours.

I have not given the WWL a whole lotta love. Cowherd's got three quarter hours total on the "U" and The Sports Reporters received one quarter hour Sunday at the expense of CBS Sunday Morning. Didn't watch any ESPN college football on Saturday and I almost always ignore MNF.

I have tried to be precise and fair throughout the process. Thoughts? Anyone else want to weigh in on their Neilsen experience?

Cheers.

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

I kept the 5 bucks and didn't accept the invitation to do it.

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

I liked that I got five crisp singles to do it but I did one and never got another.

I would like to take credit for keeping Community on the air.

You are very much welcome America.

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

It blows my mind that this is still how they track this shit.

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

Haha, yeah. I did one a couple years ago and maybe fudged a bit to help shows I liked in danger of cancellation. As far as they knew I spent most afternoons watching DVR'd episodes of Community and Parks & Rec.

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

Yeah, I'm stunned there aren't tracking "cookies" in your DVR that can tell what programming you are watching, much the same way they track your internet habits to selectively target you with advertising.

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

Liut, am I correct in guessing you are in a smaller TV market? At least out of the top 25?

In the larger markets they've gone electronic. I had a seminar on this a few years ago. Basically, the Neilsen people have a tracker they have to (a) hard-wire into the electrical wiring in your home, and (b) hard-wire into the TV set itself. As the expert put it, "Would you allow someone to do that in your home? Of course not. But the viewers you need to attract are the people who would allow that. We're talking carnival folk."

The electronic results are a lot more thorough than anything we could get from diaries. We get credit for any viewer that watched us a total of 5 minutes during any quarter hour. We get a full demographic breakdown of the viewership, and also know if someone watched later in the day on DVR.

The huge negative -- apart from the sketchiness of the people being studied -- is that it's a ridiculously small sample. Whether I win my time slot or come in third may depend on the viewing decisions of literally two or three people. Neilsen changes the study group regularly and we can tell almost instantly when it happens. A show that has been winning the slot for two months will suddenly have no measurable audience. It's a ridiculous system and TV stations would love to scrap it, but it's still the system advertisers look to.

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

My family and I are participating in the Canadian version starting Thursday morning. Only got a Toonie per book.

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

If ratings are based on such a small sample how do the Nielsen families not sell their vote for big money?

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

I got some thing to monitor my radio listening even though I told them I don't listen to the radio. Never even got a toonie.

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

Liut... as a TV news anchor in whatever market you're in, fill in some evening newscasts whether you watch them or not, preferably with a station that has respectable ownership. Every diary helps.

Nielsen is fading...in a hurry but remains the benchmark for measuring audience outside of most Top 40 markets.

We are actually moving to a system called "Rentrak", which takes the satellite providers into account. Provides a ton more on information, percentage of homes watching/percentage of share. No more diaries.

The money (ad rates) are still determined by Nielsen but I think, by 2017, Rentrak will be the benchmark.

 

Re: Confessions of a first-time Neilson diary keeper

This explains so much about the world, and none of it good.