Why should we sign up to be a "Nielsen Family"?

November 5, 2014 5:00 PM

Someone stopped by and wants us to sign up to be a Nielsen family. She said they would install a device that connects to the audio output of the TV. In exchange there is a $50 gift card, some potential for more. Anyone ever do this? Seems like a hassle with little upside. Anything I'm missing?
posted by cosmac to Media & Arts (31 answers total)

Other than knowing that your TV choices will effect production decisions, right? Best line they gave us was when we moved and had to drop out: "Damn! We're getting killed in your demographic!"
posted by jwells at 5:09 PM on November 5, 2014 [7 favorites]

Why does this seem like a hassle? Provided they are really from Nielson, I'd do this in a heartbeat.
posted by Beti at 5:17 PM on November 5, 2014 [5 favorites]

The shows you watch will be less likely to be cancelled due to bad ratings because by the very act of watching them you will be raising their ratings.

I'm so envious!
posted by Jacqueline at 5:27 PM on November 5, 2014 [22 favorites]

YOU get to decide what stays on the air! Most of us would kill for that ability! I'd do it immediately if offered. The rest of us, who gives a shit if you watch, it counts for nothing. But YOU....

TAKE IT!!!!!!!!!!
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:29 PM on November 5, 2014 [13 favorites]

My friends were a "Nielsen family" a few years ago. They got a number of great benefits over the years. If I remember right, we had to set buttons for who watched what show. Luckily, we were all 21-25 year old females at the time, but any time they had a big group over, we had to program a few things on the Nielsen box before watching a movie or tv to let Nielsen know the ages/genders of all the people watching. My friends got major discounts on cable though, and I believe they got a number of free add-ons (Roku, a DVD player, etc). Seemed like a pretty good gig to me!
posted by JannaK at 5:35 PM on November 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

It's not really a hassle and your viewing habits will have a direct effect on which programs are considered popular and stay on the air.

A hassle is the way Nielsen used to it in the old days: They'd send you like $1 so you'd fill out a little handwritten diary, which was a total pain. If they offered me a little device to record my viewing history for me AND gave me $50, I'd jump at the chance.
posted by AppleTurnover at 5:35 PM on November 5, 2014 [6 favorites]

You are what determines whether given programming lives or dies. You and a surprisingly small number of other families.

Don't squander this power.
posted by whydub at 5:36 PM on November 5, 2014 [12 favorites]

Best answer: We used to be a Nielsen family about maybe 10 years ago. It wasn't a hassle. We just had an additional remote that we would have to press to let it know who was watching. They would send us gift baskets on occasion and would give gift certificates for completing additional surveys. The one downside is that you may find yourself watching shows you like to keep them on the air.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:39 PM on November 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

You get to be a very minor TV programming executive? You can help remove Steve Wilkos? I would give any organ that I have two of if I could have even the slightest influence in getting Man v Food cancelled.

The downside for me would be that I would watch shows with some sort of id peeking from behind the couch. I would try to appear more intelligent [my Tivo is smarter than me] and would have to forego the trash TV that I sometimes love - It would be like watching TV with kids or my mom.

Take one for the team yo and watch the fuck out of Frontline.
posted by vapidave at 5:39 PM on November 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

It really depends. If your taste in TV is shithouse, you should not do it. If you would like to see more things on TV like the things you like to watch, you should do it.

If you watch terrible TV shows that you hate, though, maybe don't do it.
posted by misfish at 5:40 PM on November 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

If you like TV at all you should definitely do this. It's a total no-brainer.

Or, even, if you don't watch a whole lot of TV/care about TV but constantly lament other people's awful taste in TV, also you should definitely do this. Just because not to do so would be to perpetuate exactly the kind of shit TV you bitch about.
posted by Sara C. at 5:40 PM on November 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

We were a Nielsen family years ago. I don't recall getting the gift baskets and discounts others have talked about, or any other benefits. I do remember missing a planned trip with friends because the installation guy showed up about six hours late. I guess it depends how much you care about having a tiny influence on TV ratings.
posted by chickenmagazine at 5:46 PM on November 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

My mother was a Nielsen "family" a little ways back. She had a set-top box and periodically had to confirm she was actually there by pressing a button when prompted. Otherwise, that was it. They never sent her much money, but she wasn't really doing anything more than she normally did--just watching TV and pressing a button on the remote every once in a while.

If you watch TV or care about "having your voice count," it's a pretty low impact way of getting your jollies and making some small honorarium.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 6:41 PM on November 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Funny, just this afternoon I was talking with someone about how Nieslen data is now hidden in the audio.

Note that the audio method means that you need to have the volume turned up for the viewing to "count". A muted program doesn't count, even if you really are watching it.
posted by intermod at 6:42 PM on November 5, 2014 [3 favorites]

Just for reference, Nielsen still does the "send you money and a paper survey about your viewing habits" thing also. I got one within the last year that was basically 2 pages of questions like "What channels do you frequently watch?" or "How many hours per day do you watch TV?" along with a five dollar bill. If you fill it out and return it Nielsen sends an extra five.
posted by downtohisturtles at 6:47 PM on November 5, 2014

You know how people say you should vote in elections because it's so important to vote (P. Diddy said I'd die if I didn't, or something)? Well, what if instead of one vote, you got 60,000 votes? And also $50? And instead of voting for politicians who may or may not do what you want, you were voting for which TV shows you wanted to stay on the air? Though, I guess if you don't really watch TV this might not be such an interesting deal for you.
posted by mhum at 7:13 PM on November 5, 2014 [3 favorites]

They will send someone out who is way better than anyone you can call to fix any trouble you have with watching TV.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 7:28 PM on November 5, 2014 [3 favorites]

In the 80s, my family did something like this (another rating company) and we kids used to report shows that were just totally crazy. Stuff you would never want to watch. And then we would report that our entire family watched Growing Pains or whatever with our four friends, just so it would stay on the air. There were also surveys about City decisions and my parents were so furious that we had gone in and registered multiple votes for charging for trash pick-up. (I was pro-green movement and it never occurred to me that the number of occupants was not measured and so my large family got stiffed, while our gluttonous neighbour couples were putting out just as much trash for the same price.) After a long while, when we reported some sort of crazy shopping escapade, the jig was up and the company called and my siblings and I were exposed as having been skewing data for a year. I am not sure there was any follow up, though, so I bet you had us to thank for any bizarre shows.

I imagine you could just turn on your tv and let it think you are watching all sorts of bizarre stuff, but they must have more cheat management now.

I would go for it for the chance to influence tv. And I am not saying you should cheat. I'm just saying what my sibs and I did 30 years ago.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 7:45 PM on November 5, 2014

Whoa there people!

cosmac, to answer your question properly you must first tell us what sorts of TV shows you like.
posted by yohko at 8:04 PM on November 5, 2014 [11 favorites]

A hassle is the way Nielsen used to it in the old days: They'd send you like $1 so you'd fill out a little handwritten diary, which was a total pain. If they offered me a little device to record my viewing history for me AND gave me $50, I'd jump at the chance.

This is the way we're doing it *right now*.
posted by leahwrenn at 9:11 PM on November 5, 2014

Nielsen is the gold standard here. If it's not a shady impostor, not only do you gain instant bragging right among your friends, but when you feel like it, you can try to intentionally subvert the system (like looking for Golden Girls reruns during the Super Bowl or the State of the Union)
posted by colin_l at 9:17 PM on November 5, 2014

Someone called our house to try to get us to be a Nielsen family several years ago. We are cord-cutters who have been no-cable since 1998 and even now only watch a few shows we buy from iTunes in addition to some Netflix (mostly DVDs). Trying to get Nielsen to leave us alone was an absolute ordeal of phone calls/voicemails and snail mail that lasted about a month because they would not take no for an answer.

Your reason to do it may be that it's easier to do it than to try to get rid of them. Only someone as mule-headed as I am would find it worthwhile to turn them down.
posted by immlass at 9:39 PM on November 5, 2014

I can testify that Nielsen Inc. has no concept of cord-cutters. So if you are one, you may find it hard to explain to them what you're doing. I told them I didn't have TV Cable, Satellite, U-Verse, or an antenna, and then I entered all the shows I was streaming. They called me a week later, completely baffled as to how I was able to watch Halt & Catch Fire. If this doesn't describe you, you should be fine.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:07 PM on November 5, 2014

If you don't want to do it, tell them someone in your home works for a local TV station. Automatically disqualifies you.

But if you decide to, try to get Firefly back on the air.
posted by hot_monster at 11:04 PM on November 5, 2014 [5 favorites]

My family did the Australian version of this when I was a kid in the 80s. Yes, back then it was a paper diary you had to fill out every time anyone watched anything on TV, which was a huge pain in the backside. We only did it for a month I think, and if I recall correctly, we got a gift basket at the end of the month.

Having said that (and not to be one of those "I don't watch TV" hipsters), but ... I don't watch TV anymore. And if I had the opportunity to send even a small message to the TV networks that I'm completely over their commercial-laden garbage reality shows and whatever other crap they choose to serve us between the commercial breaks, and that they need to re-think their business model, I'd gladly take up the opportunity.
posted by Diag at 4:51 AM on November 6, 2014

I was asked to do this once. I answered, "Oh, good. I'll be able to destroy television for all time." The offer was rescinded.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:08 AM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh my, I wish this would happen to us. I feel so powerless with regards to the tiny little sleeper hits we watch like Hannibal.
posted by getawaysticks at 5:47 AM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My family did this for a few months, and then quit. Here is why.

- They also wanted us to install Nielsen software on every computer in the house; we weren't fans of this.

- The actual cash/rewards were sporadic and less than we'd thought they'd be.

- It was hard to get in touch with our Nielsen rep with our concerns; once he'd signed us up, he kinda disappeared.

All in all: not a horrific, scarring experience, but nor was it really rewarding in any way. More of a minor pain in the ass.
posted by julthumbscrew at 6:32 AM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Also, I'm pretty sure we had to sign a bunch of paperwork telling them we wouldn't divulge the Nielsen Corporation's secrets, so, uhhhhhh, I never said the things I just said, okay?
posted by julthumbscrew at 6:34 AM on November 6, 2014

Best answer: I just finished being a household.

Overall I got paid about $300 over the course of 2 years. You install a tracker thing on each tv and software on your computer. I never had a problem with either. they track what you watch using audio signatures. A tech comes by every 6 months to check teh equipment and ask a few survey questions like " in the last 6 months have you purchased the following: soft drinks, wine, etc" Each visit was 20 minutes or so and my tech was very nice. They always schedule a time, showed up on time, and they work with your schedule (i.e. can come at night if you work).

While you are a household, they will pay for 50% of any new tv you get. So you can sign up, buy a new flatscreen and have them hook it up and refund you 50%.

I definitely feel like it was a positive experience for me. during my 2 year contract I watch all manor of things on the tv and computer with tracking devices and never got any new junkmail or telemarketer calls anything connected or not connected to stuff i was watching. Teh only downside was dealing with an extra remote that works the tracker on the tv (where you push a button to indicate what household member(s) are currently watching the tv). A very minor downside for being able to passively suggest that I would like more music videos and cheesy 80s movies on tv as they induce me to buy wine coolers.
posted by WeekendJen at 6:53 AM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]

A hassle??? This is basically my lifelong dream...
posted by magnetsphere at 11:07 AM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]