Random Observations

Something I've never understood is how Nielsen determines how people are watching specific TV broadcasts, some of them probably thousands of miles away.

Anybody know how this is done?

Quote from The Tennesseean

The Neilson Co. sends the families that agree to do the rating service a box that's connected to the "main source" at their HQ. It sents data back as to what is being watched at any given time.

It records whether or not you watch an entire show, and for how many episodes. Also, it records commercials, and other data pertaining to their requirements...

This is why they're known as "Neilson Families"

Thanks for the info, Tennessee. Since my TV watching is negligible, I don't keep up with stuff like that.

Quote from The Tennesseean

The Neilson Co. sends the families that agree to do the rating service a box that's connected to the "main source" at their HQ. It sents data back as to what is being watched at any given time.

It records whether or not you watch an entire show, and for how many episodes. Also, it records commercials, and other data pertaining to their requirements...

This is why they're known as "Neilson Families"

Upon reflection, Tennessee, I must confess that I find it very hard to believe that the Nielsen company has distributed 111 million of those boxes, which is how many people they said watched the Super Bowl.

Let us assume that the 111 million consists of 3 persons per household - you're still looking at 37 million boxes. The expense of distributing 37 million boxes, just to gather information on what people are watching on TV, would probably be so stupendous that few companies could afford it.

I'm beginning to think the Nielsen Families legend is a great big hoax. Not on your part but on the Nielsen company's part.

Quote from Jay J. Foraker

That is a puzzle to me too! Especially since people are inclined to watch a show that they tape at a later time. Seems fishy to me!
BTW - I didn't care for either of the personality-involved commercials. My favorite was the Doritos' resurrection commercial.

I watched the game only in bits and pieces and didn't pay that much attention to the commercials. Commercials are the main reason I no longer watch much TV, especially football games - there's just too darned many of 'em.

Did a little reading here.

The more I learn about this so-called rating system, the more skeptical I become about its' accuracy. For example, the wikipedia link above says, in the segment titled "criticism of rating system", that 99.97817 percent of American households don't participate at all. Therefore, Nielsen has to be doing one heckuva lot of extrapolating to come up with their "ratings" figures.

The whole thing is beginning to look like a great big skin game designed to entice advertisers to pay Nielsen what are probably big bucks.

Thought-provoking article.

There's not a doubt in my military mind that Iraq and Afghanistan have wrought great changes in the American psyche. I have tremendous pride and admiration for the soldiers (both American and allied) who've fought these two wars but nothing but deep contempt for the stinkin' politicians who've guided the two efforts. As usual, they've screwed it up with their nation-building programs and self-promoting antics.

Forty years after Vietnam (I served two tours in that fiasco), I still harbor a soul-searing bitterness that has transformed me from a person who used to be extremely patriotic to someone who hates Washington, DC, its' politicians and everything they stand for. I even feel bitter toward the American people, who allowed the politicians to get away with it.

More than 58,000 Americans and countless thousands of others died in Vietnam, all for nothing. Not only that but the U.S. government got the people of South Vietnam way out on a limb and then sawed it off. I will never forgive Washington for that.

Quote from The Tennesseean

Perhaps I should have been more clear...

The box used is a tiny device that is only sent to a PERCENTAGE of the total number of estimated TV viewing households for the upcoming season.

This results in (at best) a random sampling of TV viewing for the data...

Hope this helps.

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IMO, "at best" is the operative phrase.

Quote from Jay J. Foraker

One of the major debacles of the Vietnam war was the way our troops were treated. Those liberal idiots of the day completely reviled, demonized and excoriated Vietnam veterans to the point they literally had to resort to hiding or at least not admit that they had fought in that war.

You're right, Jay, and that's another major reason I've been bitter ever since then. What never seemed to dawn on the people who were reviling us is that we were only doing what the freakin' politicians had sent us to do. They should have been giving the politicians hell instead of the troops.

One thing that really makes me feel good and sorta lessens my bitterness nowadays is that most Americans seem as if they're really proud of the job our boys and girls are doing. During the past ten years, I've been in air terminals and on flights where the civilians did nothing but extol troops who were returning and/or going to Iraq and Afghanistan. Made me get really misty-eyed at times.

If this is true, why aren't we seeing it at the pump?

How does your state rank?

Mine ranks 48th among the 50 states - pretty good, huh?

Far as I'm concerned, he is the best man in the whole royal family. Definitely better than his father and grandfather. Wish Her Majesty would designate him heir to the throne.

Let us hope it lasts awhile. Old Tom has always been my favorite Founder.

He might as well have gotten capital punishment because most scumbags like this don't survive their fellow inmates' hatred of such crimes for very long.