What You Should Know About Nielsen Ratings

It Could Be Costing You Your Favorite Shows

You’re probably familiar with the idea of television “ratings”. Ratings are a measurement of how many people are watching or listening to a particular program. They also specify what particular demographic are tuning in. Primarily, it is the Nielsen Rating system that networks and advertisers use to determine what’s hot and what’s not. But do you know specifically how the Nielsen’s work? Once you hear this, you’ll realize what a flawed system it is and it may upset you to know some of your favorite shows have been cancelled because of this defective marketing tool.

The Nielsen Ratings are calculated two ways. One is by the use of “Nielsen Boxes” that track the viewing habits of “Nielsen Families”. These families are households that have a special machine hooked up to the backs of their televisions, tracking which programs are being watched. It can also tell at which point a specific program was turned off or changed to another channel. For example, a network can discover that halfway through one hour-long drama, many Americans are switching over to a sitcom for the last thirty minutes. This may prompt the network to change the scheduling of the drama.

The other way Nielsen Ratings are tallied is by the use of surveys. People are asked to keep a daily diary of the shows they are watching. This is the most extensive method used for Nielsen’s research, as it is much less expensive than installing computers on the backs of televisions. Ever heard of “sweeps week”? You know, that time of year that all the really exciting episodes of your shows come on and they bust out the big name guest stars? Those are the weeks when the Nielsen diaries are being processed. The Nielsen people start with the diaries on the East Coast and “sweep” up the diaries across the nation.