Nielsen ratings are audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States. Nielsen Media Research was founded by Arthur Nielsen, who was a market analyst whose career had begun in the 1920s with brand advertising analysis and expanded into radio market analysis during the 1930s, culminating in Nielsen ratings of radio programming, which was meant to provide statistics as to the markets of radio shows. In 1950, Nielsen moved to television, developing a ratings system using the methods he and his company had developed for radio. That method has since become the primary source of audience measurement information in the television industry around the world.

Measuring ratings

Nielsen television ratings are gathered in one of two ways: # Viewer "diaries", in which a target audience self-records its viewing or listening habits. By targeting various demographics, the assembled statistical models provide a rendering of the audiences of any given show, network, and programming hour. # A more technologically sophisticated system uses Set Meters, which are small devices connected to televisions in selected homes. These devices gather the viewing habits of the home and transmit the information nightly to Nielsen through a "Home Unit" connected to a phone line. The technology-based home unit system is meant to allow market researchers to study television viewing habits on a minute to minute basis, seeing the exact moment viewers change channels or turn off their TV. In addition to set meters, individual viewer reporting devices, such as people meters, have allowed the company to separate household viewing information into various demographic groups, but so far Nielsen has refused to change its distribution of data of ethnic groups into subgroups, which could give more targeted information to networks and advertisers.

Changing systems of viewing have impacted Nielsen's methods of market research. In 2005, Nielsen began measuring the usage of digital video recordings such as TiVo. Initial results indicate that time-shifted viewing will have a significant impact on television ratings. The networks are not yet figuring these new results into their ad rates due to the resistance of advertisers.

Ratings/share and total viewers

The most commonly cited Nielsen results are reported in two measurements: ratings points and share, usually reported as: "ratings points/share". As of September 1, 2010, there are an estimated 115.9 million television households in the United States. A single national ratings point represents one percent of the total number, or 1,159,000 households for the 2010–11 season. Nielsen re-estimates the number of TV-equipped households each August for the upcoming television season.

Share is the percentage of television sets in use tuned to the program. For example, Nielsen may report a show as receiving a 9.2/15 during its broadcast, meaning that on average 9.2 percent of all television-equipped households were tuned in to that program at any given moment, while 15 percent of households watching TV were tuned into that program during this time slot. The difference between rating and share is that a rating reflects the percentage of the total population of televisions tuned to a particular program while share reflects the percentage of televisions actually in use.

Because ratings are based on samples, it is possible for shows to get 0.0 share, despite having an audience; the CNBC talk show ''McEnroe'' was one notable example. Another example is The CW Television Network show, ''CW Now'', which received two 0.0 ratings in the same season.

Demographics

Nielsen Media Research also provides statistics on specific demographics as advertising rates are influenced by such factors as age, gender, race, economic class, and area. Younger viewers are considered more attractive for many products, whereas in some cases older and wealthier audiences are desired, or female audiences are desired over males.

In general, the number of viewers within the 18–49 age range is more important than the total number of viewers. According to ''Advertising Age'', during the 2007–08 season, ''Grey's Anatomy'' was able to charge $419,000 per commercial, compared to only $248,000 for a commercial during ''CSI'', despite CSI having almost five million more viewers on average. Due to its strength in young demos, ''Friends'' was able to charge almost three times as much for a commercial as ''Murder, She Wrote'', even though the two series had similar total viewer numbers during the seasons they were on the air together. ''Glee'' and ''The Office'' drew fewer total viewers than ''NCIS'' during the 2009–10 season, but earned an average of $272,694 and $213,617 respectively, compared to $150,708 for NCIS.

Commercial ratings

Nielsen also provides viewership data calculated as the average viewership for only the commercial time within the program. This "Commercial Ratings" first became available on May 31, 2007. Additionally, Nielsen provides different "streams" of this data in order to take into consideration delayed viewing (DVR) data, at any interval up to seven days. C3 was the metric launched in 2007. C3 refers to the ratings for average commercial minutes in live programming plus three days of digital video recorder playback.

=== Sweeps === Electronic metering technology is the heart of the Nielsen ratings process. Two types of meters are used: set meters capture what channel is being tuned, while People Meters go a step further and gather information about who is watching in addition to the channel tuned.

Diaries are also used to collect viewing information from sample homes in many television markets in the United States, and smaller markets are measured by paper diaries only. Each year Nielsen processes approximately 2 million paper diaries from households across the country for the months of November, February, May, and July—also known as the "sweeps" rating periods. Seven-day diaries (or eight-day diaries in homes with DVRs) are mailed to homes to keep a tally of what is watched on each television set and by whom. Over the course of a sweeps period, diaries are mailed to a new panel of homes each week. At the end of the month, all of the viewing data from the individual weeks is aggregated.

This local viewing information provides a basis for program scheduling and advertising decisions for local television stations, cable systems, and advertisers.

In some of the mid-size markets, diaries provide viewer information for up to three additional “sweeps” months (October, January, and March).

:{| class="wikitable" |+ Nielsen Sweeps Periods |- ! Season ! November ! February ! May ! July |- | 2008–2009 | 30 October – 26 November 2008 | 5 March – 1 April 2009 | 23 April – 20 May 2009 | 2–29 July 2009 |- | 2009–2010 | 29 October – 25 November 2009 | 4 February – 3 March 2010 | 29 April – 26 May 2010 | 1–28 July 2010 |- | 2010–2011 | 28 October – 24 November 2010 | 3 February – 2 March 2011 | 28 April – 25 May 2011 | 30 June – 27 July 2011 |}

''Note:'' The February 2009 sweeps period was moved to March so that the ratings would not be affected by any problems created by the February 17th switchover of the USA's analog broadcast television signals to digital. When, in early February, the digital transition date was moved to June 12, the "February" sweeps period for 2009 remained in March.

Criticism of ratings systems

There is some public critique regarding accuracy and potential bias within Nielsen's rating system. In June 2006, however, Nielsen announced a plan to revamp its entire methodology to include all types of media viewing in its sample.

Since viewers are aware of being part of the Nielsen sample, it can lead to response bias in recording and viewing habits. Audience counts gathered by the self-reporting diary methodology are sometimes higher than those gathered by the electronic meters which eliminate any response bias. This trend seems to be more common for news programming and popular prime time programming. Also, daytime viewing and late night viewing tend to be under-reported by the diary.

Another criticism of the measuring system itself is that it fails the most important criterion of a sample: it is not random in the statistical sense of the word. A small fraction of the population is selected and only those that actually accept are used as the sample size. In many local areas of the 1990s, the difference between a rating that kept a show on the air and one that would cancel it was so small as to be statistically insignificant, and yet the show that just happened to get the higher rating would survive. And yet in 2009 of the 114,500,000 U.S. television households only 25,000 total American households (0.02183% of the total) participated in the Nielsen daily metered system. In addition, the Nielsen ratings one TV per household three perhaps four network model encouraged a strong push for demographic measurements. This caused problems with multiple TV households or households where viewers would enter the simpler codes (usually their child's) raising serious questions to the quality of the demographic data. The situation further deteriorated as the popularity of cable TV expanded the number of viewable networks to the point that the margin of error has increased due to the sampling sizes being too small. Compounding matters is the fact that of the sample data that is collected, advertisers will not pay for time shifted (recorded for replay at a different time) programs, rendering the 'raw' numbers useless.

A related criticism of the Nielsen ratings system is its lack of a system for measuring television audiences in environments outside the home, such as college dormitories, transport terminals, bars, jails, and other public places where television is frequently viewed, often by large numbers of people in a common setting. In 2005, Nielsen announced plans to incorporate viewing by away-from-home college students into its sample. Internet TV viewing is another rapidly growing market for which Nielsen Ratings fail to account for viewer impact. Apple iTunes, atomfilms, Hulu, YouTube, and some of the networks' own websites (e.g., ABC.com, CBS.com) provide full-length web-based programming, either subscription-based or ad-supported. Though web sites can already track popularity of a site and the referring page, they can't track viewer demographics. To both track this and expand their market research offerings, Nielsen purchased NetRatings in 2007.

After Nielsen took over the contract for producing data on Irish advertising in 2009, agencies said that they were "disastrous" and claimed that the information produced by them is too inaccurate to be trusted by them or their clients.

In 2004, News Corporation retained the services of public relations firm Glover Park to launch a campaign aimed at delaying Nielsen's plan to replace its aging household electronic data collection methodology in larger local markets with its newer electronic People Meter system. The advocates in the public relations campaign charged that data derived from the newer People Meter system represented a bias toward underreporting minority viewing, which could lead to a de-facto discrimination in employment against minority actors and writers. However, Nielsen countered the campaign by revealing its sample composition counts. According to Nielsen Media Research's sample composition counts, , nationwide, African American Households using People Meters represented 6.7% of the Nielsen sample, compared to 6.0% in the general population. Latino Households represent 5.7% of the Nielsen sample, compared to 5.0% in the general population. By October 2006, News Corp. and Nielsen settled, with Nielsen agreeing to spend an additional $50 million to ensure that minority viewing was not being underreported by the new electronic people meter system.

Nielsen began compiling ratings for television nationally beginning in 1950. Before that year, television ratings were compiled by a number of other sources, including C. E. Hooper and ''Variety''. Hooper was bought out by Nielsen in February 1950.

Most watched TV shows

This table lists all the TV shows with the highest average Nielsen rating for each television season:

		! TV Show	! Network
1950 in television	''[[Texaco Star Theater''
1951 in television	''[[Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts''
1952 in television
[[1953 in television
[[1954 in television
[[1955 in television	''[[The $64,000 Question''
1956 in television	''I Love Lucy''
[[1957 in television
[[1958 in television
[[1959 in television
[[1960 in television
[[1961 in television	''[[Wagon Train''
1962 in television
[[1963 in television
[[1964 in television
[[1965 in television
[[1966 in television
[[1967 in television	''[[The Andy Griffith Show''
1968 in television
[[1969 in television
[[1970 in television	''[[Marcus Welby, M.D.''	style="background:#ff9;"
1971 in television
[[1972 in television
[[1973 in television
[[1974 in television
[[1975 in television
[[1976 in television	''[[Happy Days''
1977 in television
[[1978 in television
[[1979 in television	''[[60 Minutes''
[[1980 in television	rowspan="2" style="vertical-align:top;"
[[1981 in television
[[1982 in television	''60 Minutes''
[[1983 in television	''Dallas''
[[1984 in television
[[1985 in television
[[1986 in television
[[1987 in television
[[1988 in television
rowspan="3"> 1989–1990
1990 in television	''[[Cheers''
1991 in television
[[1992 in television
[[1993 in television
[[1994 in television	''[[Seinfeld''
[[1996 in television
[[1997 in television	''Seinfeld''
[[1998 in television	''ER''
[[1999 in television
[[2000 in television	''[[Survivor: The Australian Outback">1995 in television	rowspan="2" style="vertical-align:top;"
[[1996 in television
[[1997 in television	''Seinfeld''
[[1998 in television	''ER''
[[1999 in television
[[2000 in television	''[[Survivor: The Australian Outback''
2001 in television	''[[Friends''
2002 in television	''[[CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''
[[2004 in television
[[2005 in television
[[2006 in television
[[2007 in television
[[2008 in television
[[2009 in television
[[2010 in television

;Most Consecutive Seasons

''American Idol'' (FOX) - 8

''All in the Family'' (CBS) - 5

''The Cosby Show'' (NBC) - 5

''Gunsmoke'' (CBS) - 4

''Bonanza'' (NBC) - 3

''I Love Lucy'' (CBS) - 3

''60 Minutes'' (CBS) - 3

''The Beverly Hillbillies'' (CBS) - 2

''Dallas'' (CBS) - 2

''ER'' (NBC) - 2

''Laverne & Shirley'' (ABC) - 2

''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (NBC) - 2

See also

[[Appreciation Index">2003 in television

rowspan="8" style="background:#ccf; vertical-align:top;" [[2004 in television [[2005 in television [[2006 in television [[2007 in television [[2008 in television [[2009 in television [[2010 in television

;Most Consecutive Seasons

''American Idol'' (FOX) - 8

''All in the Family'' (CBS) - 5

''The Cosby Show'' (NBC) - 5

''Gunsmoke'' (CBS) - 4

''Bonanza'' (NBC) - 3

''I Love Lucy'' (CBS) - 3

''60 Minutes'' (CBS) - 3

''The Beverly Hillbillies'' (CBS) - 2

''Dallas'' (CBS) - 2

''ER'' (NBC) - 2

''Laverne & Shirley'' (ABC) - 2

''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (NBC) - 2

See also

[[Appreciation Index

Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) (UK)

C. E. Hooper

Crossley ratings

List of most watched television broadcasts

List of television stations in North America by media market

List of US daytime soap opera ratings

References

Further reading

Anthony Bianco and Ronald Grover. "How Nielsen Stood Up to Murdoch" ''BusinessWeek.'' September 20, 2004.

External links

Nielsen Media Research website

* Nielsen Media: FAQs – About the "Sweeps"

Slate: How Does "Sweeps" Week Work? (February 16, 2004)

Nielsen Global Technology and Information Center website

Information on Nielsen's Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement Initiative.

Category:Advertising terminology Category:Marketing terminology Category:Television terminology Category:Mass media rivalries Category:Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies

de:Nielsen Ratings es:Cuota de pantalla fr:Échelle de Nielsen it:Share (mass media) he:מדד נילסן pt:Nielsen Ratings tr:Nielsen reytingleri

Name	Dan Harmon
Birth date	1973
Birth place	Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
Known for	''Community'' Channel 101''Monster House''''Heat Vision and Jack''Acceptable.TV
Occupation	Writer and performer
Nationality	}}

Dan Harmon (born 1973) is a writer and performer. He is the creator and an executive producer for the NBC television comedy series ''Community'', and, along with Rob Schrab, a founder of the alternative television network/website Channel 101.

He co-created the television pilot ''Heat Vision and Jack'' starring Owen Wilson and Jack Black, and several Channel 101 shows, some featuring Jack Black, Drew Carey, and Sarah Silverman. He co-created Comedy Central's ''The Sarah Silverman Program'' and served as head writer for several episodes. He was the creator, executive producer and a featured performer in Acceptable.TV, a Channel 101-based sketch show airing for 8 episodes in March 2007 on VH1. He and Schrab co-wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award nominated film ''Monster House'' (not related to the Discovery Channel television show by the same name).

He is also credited for writing part of Rob Schrab's comic book series Scud: The Disposable Assassin, as well another Fireman Press comic series titled La Cosa Nostroid.

Harmon is a noted follower of Joseph Campbell. On the Channel 101 website, several essays regarding Harmon's interpretation of the Monomyth can be found.

Harmon was a member of ComedySportz Milwaukee where he also co-founded (alongside Rob Schrab) the sketch troupe The Dead Alewives. They produced an album in 1996 entitled ''Take Down The Grand Master''.

In July 2009, Harmon was nominated in two Emmy categories for his part in writing the Oscar telecast: Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special and Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, the latter of which he was awarded for "Hugh Jackman Opening Number" at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards.

References

External links

Dan Harmon's Myspace page

Official website of Acceptable TV

Dan Harmon Talent Page at Channel101.com

Category:American comedians Category:American screenwriters

Category:American television writers Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

name	Jodee Rich
birth date	February 01, 1960
birth place	New York
occupation	Founder and CEO, PeopleBrowsr
website	www.linkedin/in/jodeerich }}

John David "Jodee" Rich (born 1960) is an Australian businessman, who founded Imagineering Ltd, a microcomputer software and hardware distributor, One.Tel Ltd, an Australian based telecommunications company, and PeopleBrowsr, a data mining, analytics and brand engagement service provider.

Rich is an active speaker at events around the world including industry conferences, summits and corporate events.

Early Years and Family Background

During their travels from Germany to London and finally New York in the '30s and '40s, the Richheimer family anglicised their name to "Rich". In 1963, Jodee Rich's father, Steven, came to Australia to manage the local arm of the family business, Hunter Douglas.

Rich wrote his first program in 1972, on punch cards at the age of 12. He was educated at the elite Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill, Sydney, with classmate Rodney Adler. During his Cranbrook days, Rich started his first entrepreneurial venture, a business renting fish tanks. The case, ASIC v Rich, was won by Rich on 18 November 2009, with Justice Robert Austin of the NSW Supreme Court stating in his judgment that ASIC had "failed to prove any aspect of its pleaded case". Justice Austin also said in his judgment Jodee "demonstrated that he was a very well prepared witness, knowledgeable about the subject matter of his evidence, who responded to questions thoughtfully and clearly, sometimes even perceptively. This was notwithstanding the arduous circumstances of his cross examination, extending over 25 days".

PeopleBrowsr

In 2007, Rich founded PeopleBrowsr, a service provider of social media data, campaigns and analytics. PeopleBrowsr has a 20 Terrabyte 3 year DataMine of public online conversations and provides Data, Campaigns and Advanced Analytics to such companies as Sony, Kodak, Toyota and Universal Music.

In May 2010, Rich held a PeopleBrowsr briefing, during which time he discussed the importance of Social Media as an area which is creating a global collective consciousness, shifting the power base from Big Business, Religion and Government to the Global Consumer. Rich also discussed the “left-field” research projects in which PeopleBrowsr spends its profits. These include the development of artificial intelligence and new social networking platforms.

See also

ASIC v Rich

External links

www.linkedin/in/jodeerich - Linkedin

http://www.peoplebrowsr.com/ - PeopleBrowsr

References

;Notes

Category:Australian businesspeople Category:Living people Category:People from Sydney Category:1960 births