Telecommunication Notes

Telecommunication Notes

December 1, 2015

History of Ratings Research Methods: Types and Flaws for Each

CAB (Advertisers)

CAB would poll the 30 largest cities and using the telephone book, randomly selected numbers and asked what did you listen to last night?

FLAWS with this method:

• Left out every other city and rural areas (sample frame)
• Some people would not remember what they listened to

Hooperatings

Hooperatings included the broadcasters and the advertisers.

Telephone Coincidental: Listeners would be asked what they were listening to at the moment. They had a sample every 15 minutes.

FLAWS with this method:

• People would lie about what they were listening to

Nielsen took over Hooperatings after WWII. The said asking the question is the biggest problem.  Their philosophy was to get an accurate count without talking to people.

Audiometer

Neilsen came up with an audiometer. It was a box connected to the radio then adapted to the TV. The box had a motor that moved a piece of film. When it was turned on the film would be scratched. It someone changed the channel or dial it would also scratch the film.  The scratches had to be decoded. It runs for an entire week.  Households that were selected had to agree to have the box to indicate when I was turned on, what frequency, the duration and when it was turned off.

FLAWS

• It was mechanical
• Film lasted a week, household were responsible for loading their own film

SIA (Storage Instantaneous Audimeter)

Would record when the TV was turned on and off.  Put into households in the 1960s. Got rid of the mechanical flaw. Neilson would download the information from the “black box” over night. No longer had to wait for film. Created “overnight ratings”

Advertisers got reports usually around noon the next day.

FLAWS

• It needed a dedicated phone line.
• Still do not know when someone is physically in front of the TV

Peoplemeter

Looks like a cable box. You had to point the remote at the box. Everybody in the household was given a number. In addition to changing the channel you also had to input a personal code of the person watching TV. Designed to fix the flaw of who is watching. On the box was a red light that would flash every fifteen minutes. Someone had to pick up the remote to signal that someone was still watching. After mid 1980s broadcasters started complaining. The longer the device, they less watching of TV.