Television

Hundreds of channels, thousands of programs, millions of viewers. Our job is to decipher and deliver television data every day. How does a program achieve # 1 rank in Nielsen TV Ratings, and what does this mean? Our ratings aren’t qualitative evaluations of how much a program is “liked.” Instead, our ratings provide the simplest, most democratic measurement: How many people watched.

When Arthur Nielsen introduced the Audimeter (his first metering device) in 1936, there were only about 200 television sets in use worldwide. When the Nielsen national TV measuring service was established in 1950, the average American household that owned a television had only one set and received three network telecasts.

Today, the typical home has multiple television sets and well over 100 channels from which to choose. Likewise, our measurement technologies must constantly evolve to keep pace with daily innovations in consumer electronics. 

With recent advances in electronics, viewing is no longer limited to the television set and content is available on multiple platforms. Computers and mobile devices have joined the television as places to view programming. Nielsen measures how people use and engage with content across these “three screens.”

Electronic metering technology is the heart of the Nielsen ratings process. We use two types of meters: set meters capture what channel is being tuned, while People Meters go a step further and gather information about who is watching in addition to the channel tuned.

Diaries are also used to collect viewing information from sample homes in many television markets in the United States, and smaller markets are measured by paper diaries only.  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. 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. Over the course of a sweeps period, diaries are mailed to a new panel of homes each week. At the end of the month, all of the viewing data from the individual weeks is aggregated.

This local viewing information provides a basis for program scheduling and advertising decisions for local television stations, cable systems, and advertisers.

In some of the mid-size markets, diaries provide viewer information for up to three additional “sweeps” months (October, January and March).  

People Meter samples

Our national sample, composed of a cross-section of representative homes throughout the United States, is measured by a combination of set meters and People Meters. These meters give us information about not only what is being viewed on the set, but also exactly which members of the household are watching.

The People Meter is a “box” - about the size of a paperback book - that is hooked to each television and is accompanied by a remote control. Each family member in a sample household is assigned a personal viewing button, which is matched to that person’s age and sex. Whenever the TV is turned on, a light flashes on the meter, reminding viewers to press their assigned button and indicate that they are watching television. Additional buttons on the People Meter enable guests who are also watching to participate in the sample by entering their age, sex and viewing status into the system.

In addition to our national measurement, Nielsen currently measures the top 21 local markets using Local People Meter Technology, with plans for a total of 25 markets by 2010.

Set Meter samples

Large to mid-sized local markets below the top 21 (such as Milwaukee, San Antonio and Memphis) are measured by a different type of meter - one that gives information about set-tuning only. In these markets, demographic information is provided by a separate sample of people who fill out seven-day paper diaries (or eight-day diaries in homes with DVRs).

While we are well-known for TV ratings, our clients rely on the depth of our data and related services to perform a host of different analyses on all aspects of viewing behavior. Are children watching cartoons with their parents? Which zip codes are tuning into the football game? Do pet owners prefer sitcoms? These answers, combined with our tuning and audience composition data, help clients place advertising effectively, determine if a program is working well on a particular day, or decide if pairing it with another program would yield better results.

These detailed analyses are drawn from minute-by-minute tuning and viewing data, from both the national and local metered samples. 

When the meter data is transmitted from the home to Nielsen, it is in raw code form. We then run a series of tests to ensure the integrity of this data.  If a problem is discovered, the system will flag the data from that household, analyze the problem, and determine the best course of action for correcting it. Once the data has been validated, our systems combine the transmitted data with program lineup information from television networks, stations, and third-party data providers, telling us what aired on each channel. This essential reference data helps us turn the raw tuning and viewing data into meaningful numbers for reporting.

In addition, we collect and process data from 1.6 million handwritten paper diaries from households across the country during sweep periods.

We deliver data to our clients in a variety of ways. While some of the information is available in hard-copy reports or on CDs, virtually all data is available through a wide array of software and custom applications.

The tuning metrics Nielsen processes through set top boxes enhances our traditional audience reporting with the ability to evaluate digital media activity with greater precision.

With set top boxes, Nielsen manages near census-based, second-by-second data reported in real-time. This tuning activity allows for improved insights on program content on non-reported linear networks. More importantly, Nielsen can now report tuning behavior to specific commercial content, including metrics on commercial pods, pod positions, ad category and brands. We also link set top box tuning to various other datasets, including lifestyle segmentation and specific consumer purchase behavior, enhancing overall advertising accountability and effectiveness.

This methodology sets the stage for Nielsen’s development of measuring advanced advertising’s capabilities of interactive and addressable applications, while leveraging our advanced diagnostics, data integration and fusion processes for maximum media relevance.