Radio Ratings
Radio ratings began in 1930 to measure audience sizes.
- Average quarter hour
- Cume
- Ratings
- Share
Arbitron is a device used to measure radio listening.
TV Ratings
By the late 1950s, the A.C Nielson Company dominated the TV ratings business.
Ratings provide sponsors with information about the audience they’re reaching with their advertising
The rating is a percentage of the total number of households with TV sets
Concentrated ratings periods for local stations take place during ‘sweeps’ months-February, may and November
Today’s Nielsens deliver specific information on demographics for advertisers to target consumers
Data analysis : Ratings and Shares
Home using TV (HUT) – represents the number or percentage of household that have the TV set ON
during a specific time. TV reports include 4 estimates :
- Rating
- Share
- Cumulative audience ( cume or reach) - an estimate or measure of how many different people listen at least once during the given daypart
- Average quarter hour person- estimates the no. of persons who are listening to the station within a 15 minute period
The uses of ratings
To evaluate how they are doing in terms of their total audience
To determine what type of people are watching
Guideline for advertisers – to know the audience size and audience type
Persuade potential advertisers that their station’s particular audience are likely to buy advertiser’ s product
Research tools in Electronic Media
Audimeter
An audimeter is an electronic device used by the A.C. Nielsen Company to determine television ratings. It is wired to
the television receiver to record automatically when the television set is turned on and off and to which stations it is turned.
These meters are connected to a central "black box," which is actually a very small computer and modem. Information from the meters
is collected by the black box, which then lead to the central computers.
People meter
The People Meter is a box, about the size of a paperback book, which is placed on or near each TV set.
The box has buttons and lights which are assigned to each person who lives in the household (with additional buttons for guests).
There is also a remote control to operate the people meter from anywhere in the room.
When a viewer begins watching TV, they push their button, changing their indicator light from red to green.
When they finish watching, they push their button again and the indicator changes back to red. periodically, the
lights flash to remind people to check to make sure that the information in the people meter is accurate.
Information from the people meters is combined with set tuning information and relayed to Nielsen Media Research.
Portable people meter
It is a unique audience measurement system that tracks what consumers listen to on the radio, and what consumers watch
on broadcast television, cable and satellite TV. The Portable People Meter is a mobile-phone-sized device that consumers wear
throughout the day. It works by detecting identification codes that can be embedded in the audio portion of any transmission.
Closely tied to the system's encoding/decoding technology is a patented respondent monitoring and feedback
system designed to enhance survey participants' involvement with the study, lessening their burden and increasing
their compliance with the Portable People Meter procedures.
Passive people meter
Developed by ratings companies to eliminate the need for viewing interaction.
Meter is programmed with the facial features of each members of the family members watching TV
Such device would eliminate inaccuracies in ratings caused by human error. (exp : forget to punch in)
Diaries
To measure the audiences for local television, Nielsen Media Research gathers viewing information using
TV diaries, booklets in which samples of viewers record their television viewing during a measurement week.
The diary requests that viewers write down not only who watched, but what program and what channel they watched
Once the diaries are filled out, viewers mail them back to us and we transfer the information into computers in order to calculate ratings.