ObieX

When people speak of having, say 5 million listeners of their radio show, how do they know? I know tv has those ratings boxes, but what does radio use? Do they have a segment of people that have similar devices to the ratings boxes tv uses? And then assume that for x amount of boxes that are listening to station **** y people are actually listening?

If this is the case would the method be flawed since due to the fact of them having such a device (if it were voluntary) they would be more inclined to listen to radio more?

If it isnt how it is measured how is it measured?

Also if anyone could explain how it actually works for tv feel free to explain that too.

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franzelneekburm

Don't know how they do it for radio broadcasts, but for TV ratings (and I'd assume radio would have to work in a similar fashion) Nielsen contacts randomly selected families offering to install their hardware; on a day-to-day basis whenever a family member starts watching TV they press their own button on a remote control of sorts, so not only are the programs being watched logged but the specific person (for demographic distributions and such).

You are right in thinking that the whole thing is wildly inaccurate. They try to offset bias by randomly selecting the participants, but there's still significant bias agreeing to be monitored. You might have noticed that the word "family" gets repeated a lot, Nielsen intentially works specifically with family households, I am not sure what the reason for this is, but it seems like they are leaving out large swatches of the coveted "18-25 with disposable income" demographic.

Gallup and (blanking out on the name of the other big polling organization) have a similar problem, they randomly generate phone exchanges for their interviews, which leaves out temporary ones, like for example, university students.

bigd999

I think they do it by phone, randomly calling people. At least I had someone call me once and asked if the could poll me. I was shocked they werent trying to sell something so I let them keep talking (normaly I just hang up if I think its a sales call)

1010011010

Nielsen will issue "TV Diaries" to both "households" and "families."

If you're polled as a houshold, a TV Diary is issued for each TV you have, and then you're supposed to record everything that gets watched on the TV in the little booklet.

If you're polled as a family, a TV Diary is issued for each individual in your family, and then you're each supposed to record everything you watch on any TV in the little booklet.

We got polled as a household. The diary was for one week. They called us at the end to remind us to mail it back.

I would presume they do the same sort of thing with other media.

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ledsam

In Canada, a not-for-profit company called BBM sends out paper "radio diaries" three times a year for every person in a household. Each person has to record every time they listen to the radio during one week. The results are compiled and distributed etc.

There's also a new device that is being used to measure radio listeners. Radio stations have embedded a "code" within their radio signal (specific to their station) so it can be tracked by small receivers which people can carry around in their pocket or purse. I just learned about this in school last semester but I've lost my notes and I can't remember what the name of the product was, or who it was made by. Sorry.

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radioguy

a diary is also used to measure ratings in the radio industry. the ratings are listed based on quarter hours (every 15 minutes- :00-:15, :15-:30, :30-:45, and :45-:00) and time spent listening (tsl). you may hear your favorite station saying their call letters or station title at every break or at least every 15 minutes so that the diary keepers will remember what station they are listening to. quarter hours are desired more in most markets because that means that they are listening more often. for example:

if someone's tsl is 1 hour a day, it is assumed that the person never changed the station. they only listen from 7 am - 8 am everyday. if that same person listens for 4 quarter hours, then they could be listening at many more time slots throughout the day. if they listen from 7:10-7:25, that 15 minutes turns into 2 quarter hours instead of a straight 15 minutes. they turn the radio back on at 12:05 and listen until 12:20, another 15 mins., the station gets credit for 2 more quarter hours...and so on. it gets a little confusing when all the times and numbers are broken down, but this is just a quick hit on the subject.