Sunday, May 24, 2009
Nielsen Ratings Include Pets
Follow my blog Monday through Friday. I'm taking the weekends off. One interesting thing, though: I went out last night and came back to find my dog Nina watching TV. Because she doesn't know how to work the remote, she was watching "Southland" on NBC, instead of her favorite "House Hunters" on the Home and Garden network. The Nielsen ratings are coming under criticism lately because the new technology is making its system of calculating the number of people watching certain shows obsolete. DVR's and online Internet viewing are skewing the numbers - some estimates indicate that the Nielsen ratings are off by as much as 11%. One group that is getting counted: pets.
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That's the problem with the new technology -- it's way too complicated. If they made TV remotes "pet friendly", then Nielsen would get a more accurate reading of the viewing habits of dogs, cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs.
ReplyDeleteWith the new technology, it's obvious we need a new system to track whose watching what. But that won't be that easy to achieve, so I guess the Nielsen ratings are all we have now. That's unfortunate for some of the shows that have been cancelled, like Life On Mars and Pushing Daisies, because I think more people were watching than were counted. The networks aren't waiting very long before canceling shows, so it's a shame they're basing their decisions on a faulty system.
ReplyDeleteGood post. Thats really surprising that pets also like tv shows. HA ha HA.....
ReplyDeleteWatch TV Shows Online