Why on earth does anyone decide to be a Nielsen household?
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- February
- 28
I confess: I always kinda wished I’d been a member of a Nielsen family.
Think of the power, the control! What you watch represents tens of thousands of other households in the United States. A decision not to watch a show could help push it over the cliff; a decision to watch a show might help it stay alive.
Then I read this post on The Junk Drawer blog and all I could think was, “Whew! Dodged that bullet.”
The short of it is, this family was invited by the Nielsen Company to take part and even get $450 to do so. Like me, the mom thought it sounded great and the thought of the control her family would have was a little bit of a rush.
Then she did some research and what she found out gave me chills OK, not really chills, but a headache.
First off, instead of calling to schedule an appointment to talk to this family about joining the Nielsen program, someone showed up on her front step, bearing chocolates and asking to be let in.
A simple “no” did not deter the Nielsen lady (like Avon calling, but more annoying and even less likely to take a “no” for an answer, is what it sounds like).
First off, it can take four or more hours for the technicians to do their stuff, and they “even solder something to every TV set in your house.” Um, I don’t think so, lady.
Then, I go on to read, every time you walk into or out of a room with a television on, you have to log in or log out —punch in your name and age. And “if you don’t confirm you’re still watching TV after 42 minute, a box starts flashing red lights until you press something on the remote.”
Oh my, that would be TOO annoying. But don’t worry, others told the Nielsen folks that they got used to it after 10 days. Yeah, you read that right. TEN DAYS.
Never mind the attaching stuff to your equipment, never mind the time out of your life with basically no compensation. But the amount of time to take part in this extremely flawed ratings system is tremendous. I’ve always wondered who, exactly, is a Nielsen family and why their interests seem so different from mine.
I still don’t know the answer to the first question, but I think the answer to the second is that they’re far more patient than I and far more willing to deal with a huge disruption in their lives.
Sigh. Ah, well, there’s always Arbitron.
Associated Press photo, not of Nielsen equipment, but just a plain ol’ TV with a cable box, by Matt Rourke.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 1:27 pm by Amy Vernon.
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With all the advances in technology, one would think that there’d already be a foolproof way to determine who’s watching what.
I’m guessing Leslie Nielsen’s ratings would be more accurate.
LOL, I used to WORK for Arbitron years ago. I don’t think I’d want to be a Nielsen family either, what a headache! And not everyone gets hooked up to the box either, I understand a lot of families still have to manually fill out the diaries? Yikes!
Greetings. I’m Kathy of The Junk Drawer blog who had the displeasure of dealing with Nielsen. I plan to write a follow-up post by the weekend about what happened since the woman came to my house. Let’s just say I’m considering filing a restraining order. I’m not convinced Nielsen is out of my life.
I used to be in a Nielson family, and logging stuff WAS a pain.
Kathy from The Junk Drawer here again. If you’re interested in where the story picks up, please see: http://www.junkdrawerblog.com/2008/03/next-step-restraining-order.html