Doesn't meeting at one place hurt AD's ratings?

[tehMick]

I've noticed a lot of "*city* AD fans meet here" threads and this thought just happened to cross my mind.

[Kiarnit]

In the major media markets, Nielsen has rolled out a system where you can account for multiple viewers in your home, if you are lucky enough to have a Nielsen box. And, of course, if you have no Nielsen box, you're not getting counted. In addition, marketing people are quite interested in which shows inspire the type of loyalty that causes them to become part of people's social lives. (Think Star Trek conventions. Not that AD falls in to a similar category, but viewing parties tell you something about how likely a fan base is to keep following a show and to draw in new fans.)

[tehMick]

So, um, is that a "no?"

[GreenRogue19]

Our whole point with the big party is to have a "rally" or "protest" and contact local media to cover it. We're really looking for maximum exposure here.

Also, my buddy tells me that ratings aren't solely counted by Neilson (however ya spellit), and that anyone with a cable box contributes to ratings. Made sense to me, if they can hook right in from your provider and know what you're watching, why spend all the $ on the Neilson program? Oh how Big Brother keeps watching!!

[Kiarnit]

No, there's no system for your cable company to report back to the networks about what viewers are watching through their cable boxes. I actually wish there were; it would flesh out the picture provided by the Nielsen system in place now.

[dontcallmesurely]

What really bugs me is that they apparently don't include TiVo, either. They actually keep a count of what shows are being recorded on TiVo and other DVRs, and they even periodically release a list of the most frequently "TiVo"ed shows, yet they don't include that as a factor, even if you are watching it live. With TiVo, they really can keep track of what you are watching, yet they still will not count that! This really bugs me, because I have a TiVo box. I've heard that the reason for this is because people can edit out commercials when they record shows on TiVo, but I don't do that. I may forward through them when I watch my recordings, but I do at least record them.

[Kiarnit]

And you can't really edit out commercials with a TiVo. There was another type of DVR (can't think of the name right now) that you could skip commercials with instead of FF through them, but you can't do that on TiVo.

[leonardiddy]

well if you really want to think about it, they are trying to get data from a whole bunch of random people, covering every type of viewer. if you take the count from tivo and dvrs, the data is skewed because everyone who has a tivo or dvr forms their own, special group. for instance, im guessing not a lot of people in the ghetto have tivo, so they wouldnt be represented at all in the numbers. so maybe the tv people COULD count ratings that way, but it wouldnt represent everyone. it would be the tech-savvy-people-with-disposable-incomes ratings.

[Beamer]

it would be the tech-savvy-people-with-disposable-incomes ratings.

Though when you think about, isn't that the audience most TV marketing is geared at?