Hey, I'm a Nielsen Family!  

I was one a couple years ago, when HD was just becoming a reality and was very frustrated that I couldn't actually claim to have watched any in my diary. Hopefully though it will now get onto their radar screens, and from there onto the radar screens of folks who put out the content.

My sister in law is a nielsen family. They are getting their Mits integrated tuner HDTV tommorrow and will be starting their diary also. Nielsen can no longer say that only 1 or 2 people even have HDTV. It is time they update the ratings system.

i think it could be a double edged sword.. it would put into hard numbers how few of us there are. maybe in a couple of years it would be a good idea.

Aren't Neilsen familes supposed to keep that fact somewhat "private" or "secret"? I thought they had some contract with you that said you aren't supposed to talk about it.... Am I wrong?

We may be few in number, but we watch ~5 times as much CBS as families without HDTV's, so I think we'll make a small but noticable impact on the ratings. As far as I know, Nielsen didn't count HD viewing as of a few weeks ago, when I sent them a letter to complain. Is Nielsen actually counting the HD viewing towards the ratings now?

When I was reporting, all of my viewing was on digital local channels. They had to take all of my info or leave it. I did not watch any analog television while reporting.

Interesting point about how much CBS you watch. I find that I'm watching stuff for the way it looks as opposed to because I really love the show. Anyone else? I really look forward to the day when every show is HD, that way I can go back to watching what I love as opposed to what looks best. That said, I have found some good shows that I wouldn't otherwise have gotten into...
TM

Also watch Farscape in January. :)

www.savefarscape.com

John

I just got a post card in the mail yesterday from Nielsen saying they would be calling me within the next week about a survey. When I read it I wasn't sure if it meant they wanted me to be a "Nielsen Family" or they just wanted me to do a standard type of survey? I immediately thought about whether they had begun tracking the HD content yet though. We want them to count us so that the local broadcasters will know how fast we are growing and feel more than a passing need to put out decent DTV signals.

ron

nielsen does at least two types. 1) the full meal deal -- they come and put electronics in your cable box / tv and actually keep track of what you watch. 2) they send out diaries to a much wider set of people and typically it's only for one week

I got a call from Neilsen about a survey a couple of months ago. Normally I tell survey people to pound salt but since it was Neilsen I did it. It took about 45 minutes and they asked me about some of the most wide ranging general marketing stuff you could imagine. (when I say insurance, who do you think of first, how about beer, how about soft drinks, what kind of activities do you enjoy, etc, etc, etc. ) Alas, no offer to hook me up as a neilsen family though.

Yes, but...

"Nielsen Media Research is in the process of testing a new metering system capable of identifying analog and digital transmission. This system relies on audio and video coding technologies. We are conducting a test of this new meter in the Northeast, and we plan to roll out this technology as the digital environment unfolds."

Lee, that's pretty interesting. If they want me to just do a survey I guess I'll have to tell them up front that I'll be more than happy to tell them about my TV viewing habits and situation, but I am not answering any questions that are not directly related to my TV watching. Actually now that I'm thinking about it, if Neilsen is now conducting other consumer marketing research I think it kind of messes with their credibility somewhat. :( I'll have to ask them if they call.

ron

The questions got even weirder. They asked stuff like "would you be in favor of playing the MLB All Star game into extra innings until there was a winner? " then "would you be in favor of the practice of having reserve pitchers that would only be brought into the game if the game was tied after 9 innings?" and 2 or 3 others that pertained to the MLB All-Star. They asked all kinds of sports related questions like "which do you feel cares more about the fans, MLB or NFL owners?, MLB or NASCAR owners, NBA or NFL owners, NHL or MLB owners then all the same questions about the players, on and on about all kinds of sports. They asked a bunch of questions about what I watched on TV, mostly pertaining to sports, whether I watched more or less MLB, NBA, NFL than last year etc, etc. This was quite a poll that went on literally for 45 minutes or an hour. I felt physically drained when it was done. ;)


I never thought about the credibility issue but if you look at their web site they are clearly branching out into all kinds of market research.

Do you think these jeans I'm wearing are a little too tight? Have you ever placed a ferret in your nose?

Definitely YES, and most definitely NO!


Lee, clearly it would only make sense for Neilsen to use their expertise for other marketing research, but to do it under the "Neilsen" name seems a little disingenous to me. Instead of feeling a little drained at the end I think I would have felt a little used :(. Unless of course, they wanted to send me a crisp new $20 or two in the mail ;).

ron

While I have my reservations about the supposed accuracy of the Neilsen ratings, it would be nice to have some data about HD viewing habits that was more accurate than anecdotes and two year old sales estimates. Everytime I hear that 300,000 number thrown around I feel like pulling my hair out - you know, everytime someone wants to show how little acceptance HDTV has or when they want to say that the transition is in trouble they always trot out "only 300,000 HDTV compatible sets have been sold". I've been hearing that number for close to three years now. I don't know what the real number is, but I just know that 300,000 number is innacurate and very misleading.

The bad side, like TonyB said, will be in finding out how few people actually watch the digital channels at this point. But the good side will be that the networks and advertisers will see that:

1. There is a core HD audience that exists and it's viewing habits can be measured

2. The HD viewing audience has highly attractive demographic qualities - 24 to 54 year old affluent males who have no problem spending money on expensive big ticket items.

3. The HD viewer watches more television than the avg. TV viewer

4. The HD viewer is more likely to watch shows in HD than those that aren't HD

There will be plenty of sponsors and plenty more HD stuff once the Networks see that kind of data.

Dave

Actually, I think they'd be bummed if they knew about most people who have HDTVs. I, for one, use a PVR to record any show in 4x3 that I want to watch. I never watch commercials. Even when I'm watching "regular" TV, I'll switch between two shows solely so that I don't have to watch commercials. If there's something on HD and 4x3, of course I'll watch it in HD. I also watch less TV than regular people (probably an hour or day or so), and I never watch "popular" shows, like CSI or any show, really, that's popular. I'd rather turn on Discovery or Discovery HD and learn about bats in Austin or dinosaur bones than watch a sitcom. Neilson would quickly go out of business based on my viewing habits. I also watch many more movies than the average person -- movies are the reason I bought my system.

Bob

Well anybody that says theres only been 300,000 HDTV compatible sets sold it dead wrong. The number is now over 3 million!

But, that in and of itself doesnt mean much. The number could be 50 million but if none of them had HD STB's (DBS/OTA or cable) connected you'd have zero viewers regardless.

Heres something from a CEA press release dated 9/05/02:

"The DTV transition, in terms of product sales, is progressing at an astounding pace," said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. "Compared to the same period last year, we have sold nearly double the DTV products in 2002. With more than 400 products on the market, consumers are embracing marketplace choice and the phenomenal benefits of high definition television. Consumer electronics manufacturers hope to soon see that consumer enthusiasm extended to the digital cable industry as well."

CEA also released stand-alone set-top box figures for the first seven months of the year, which totaled 44,291 units and $20,152,689. The average set-top box price was $455. Comparatively, set-top box unit sales during the same period in 2001 totaled 79,101 units.

"What we see in the set-top box market is sustained sales evidence that Americans are waiting for more compelling high-definition content," said Shapiro. "Additionally, consumers want to view that content in the same manner in which they are accustomed to viewing analog programming. For the majority of American consumers, that means through cable. We urgently need digital cable and DTV equipment compatibility to see this transition skyrocket."
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As you can see by the middle paragraph, STB sales are actually down compared to last year. Now the good news is it's undoubtedly because cable tv has started rolling out HD in select markets. Also it's perhaps because STB's from some manufacturers have been in "short supply" for whatever reasons.

So even if we wanted to be real generous despite the low numbers for 2002, and allow for say 9000 STB's (and I think we're being generous enough there to allow for sets with built in tuners as well since not a large number of those have been sold over the years) per month on average to have been sold since say mid '99, you can see how the number of non-cable STB's (tuners if you will) in the field hovers around 400K. Course a number of people that have bought one STB, have bought more than one, but we wont worry about that.

So anyway, how many do you want to add to the 400K that as of today have a working cable tv HD box in their home? Tens of thousands, 100K.. 250K, another 400K? I dont know.

I have to laugh when a representative of the CEA blames the slow sales of STB's on a lack of programming choices. The real reason is that the average price of an STB is $455.00. That is clearly a rip-off. I can buy a DVD player for $70.00, so you can't convince me that the similar technology of an STB needs to cost over 6 times as much.

amen to that

More than a year ago I was selected to become a Neilson Family. Not the survey but a full-fledged rater (electronic monitoring on all my TV equipment) but when they found out I had an HD reciever they said they couldn't do it. I got another call last week and I returned it and asked them if they could handle any HD recievers and they said they couldn't. Supposedly they are working on TIVO systems before they look at HD. The lady said she would keep me on the lists so when they can do HD they might get back to me. I let her know how dissappointed I was that they are so far behind on the transition.

Also don't forget that all the people that bought HDTV's in 2000 and the beginning of 2001 had to wait till March of 2001 for the release of most of the less expensive HD STB's. So I am sure that skews the 2001 numbers higher.

I agree there has been a drought for these STB's this year. My installer tells me he can barely find em. And with all the monkeying over DVI and Firewire no wonder nobody is buying them. I still think when the new generation of STB's with DVI and/or firewire hit the streets you will see a major influx in sales.

The other problem is cost. I saw a Samsung HD CRT in Sears for $1299 and the SONY decoder box is $900....come on CEA don't totally blame the broadcasters!!!

Your info is inaccurate. Nielsen already had monitored more than 40 HDTVs. I know this as a fact...

More likely, the person at Neilson was innacurate. It seems to be a law of nature that when it comes to HD, most company's left hands don't know what their right hands are doing, assuming that they are even doing anything.