are you a nielson tv viewer who get paid to watch tv?

[1preppyjock]

from what i have gathered, they actually send you a box which you put somewhere close by the tv, and it monitors which tv programs you watch. and they pay you for doing that.

but it is only by invitation, i wonder if anyone of you is a member of that program? how much do u get paid?

 

[FPNY]

nope, but i would do it, i'm hard up for cash.

 

[Orlandude]

A few years ago, I used to be on the paper diary program where they sent you a diary and you had to manually document everything you watch during a certain period of time called "the rating period". Now they moved more to the electronic meters that automatically record what you are watching and when. I don't know what they are paying now. With the paper diaries, it wasn't much. 20 bucks. There was a diary for each of the 4 weeks of rating period so that was a total of 80 bucks. When you completed that, you were done and they would select other households for the next rating period. Generally, Nielsen randomly selects a cross-section of households in a given market that are ranked by income, persons in the household and other things. It is very secret who they select. Back when I did it, you could not volunteer to do it. You had to be computer selected. I don't know the rules they use anymore.

There are 3 major rating periods in television that last 4 weeks. They are February, May and November. There used to be a July rating period but I think they discontinued it because so many people are away in the summer and summer TV is mostly a lot of re-runs.

 

[G-Lexington]

I've done it for TV and radio, but not for some time.

Lex

 

[Yooper]

I did the Diary thing once, many centuries ago.

I think the TV was still black and white.

 

[Rex]

Is this what all TV ratings are determined by?

So if you're not a Nielson viewer what you watch has no relevance on what shows are considered popular or high rated?

doesn't make much sense to me... but I've always wondered about that.

 

[hotatlboi]

Is this what all TV ratings are determined by?

So if you're not a Nielson viewer what you watch has no relevance on what shows are considered popular or high rated?

doesn't make much sense to me... but I've always wondered about that.

Well they do have surveys and stuff also but this method is based on statistical sampling, the same as a random telephone poll.

Because the people who get these are asked at random, once you have a few thousand random people you are getting data from, the results are statistically significant and can be representative of the population in general.

 

[1preppyjock]

so once again, are there any of you who actually is an active member of their tv panel?