TV Ratings – Why oh Why won’t someone do something better than Nielson?

You know, it’s amazing. The things that get cancelled on TV. Great great shows, like Firefly, Family Guy (the first time around), and now something great, like Studio 60 will probably be cancelled to be replaced by some other stupid reality show, or another mobster show, or another guilty pleasure show.

Why do things get cancelled? Well…they don’t make the ratings pop. Funny thing is though, I believe there’s a big enough audience out there for shows like this…I just don’t think the ratings are collected in such a way to measure that. The precedent for this is Family Guy. The show was cancelled because it wasn’t a big enough boon for Fox. That’s fine. Except that the audience was there…it started getting big ratings on Cartoon Network, and in syndication. It scored huge when it started selling seasons on DVD. That’s what brought it back to TV.

Heck, Firefly was so popular on DVD, that Universal funded a full-fledged feature film, which I’m also willing to bet bombed at the box office (even though I went and saw it), but has more than held it’s own on DVD.

These shows are still being cancelled though…mostly because of the ratings…otherwise known as the Nielson Ratings.

Based on HowStuffWorks, here’s what Nielson currently does:

They call up 5000 households representing a suitable representative sample of the entire 99 Millions households that have TVs (that’s .005% for those of you keeping track) and ask each of these households if they can be sampled either by keeping a TV watching diary, or by having a device attached to their TV or cable box to keep track of what they watch. Then, once the data is gathered, it’s extrapolated to represent the entire TV watching population. Keep in mind, this sample has to be good enough to cover the entire gambit of demographic groups, meaning every type of minority, and every age group.

This may have worked in the past…but come on. Where’s the love for sports bars watching sporting events like the NCAA Tournament, college dorm rooms, gyms with TV’s in them, and people who digitally record their shows to watch later. To their own credit, Nielson has started tracking Tivo usage…but the show only gets credit if it’s watched within the same 24 hour period it’s recorded in. Unfortunately, this period starts and ends at 3am each morning. So…the girlfriend and I always record shows like Medium and Studio 60 because we want to be asleep by the time they’re over. If we were being “sampled” (sounds kinda like being probed), we would have to watch the show before 3am (when we’re still sleeping) to qualify to give the show our rating point. I’m sorry…that’s just ridiculous.


A Better Alternative?
It’s sitting there, in your living room. It has the ability to record and send the data back to it’s source. Yes, I’m talking about your cable box or satellite box. Some of them are DVR enabled, and some aren’t. I’m betting though that it wouldn’t be that hard to come up with a program that runs inside that wondrous box that would enable you to be “sampled” so that your opinion would count. Cable companies could build it into their systems, and just ask when you sign up “Would you like to participate in ratings research by allowing us to gain data on what you’re watching?” I know I’d be willing to sign up and give over my age, gender, how much I make, my eye color, my shoe size, my hobbies, etc to be able to be polled. Heck, why not make it like websites. You’d get hits, and then minutes stayed (equivalent to pageviews).

Companies have tried. Companies like Cableclik, SMART TV, and ErinMedia. Problem is, the large networks all back Nielson because…well, probably because Nielson ratings back them. Nielson’s extremely expensive, so it can’t be because these other startups would be more expensive. To say that Nielson is a monopoly…well, that might be correct. There certainly isn’t an easy path to any contenders with better technology and better ideas. Mostly, Nielson is content to sit back on their laurels, only really trying new ideas and innovations with technology when really challenged by a would be competitor. Hopefully someone will pony up the goods to get something better soon. Otherwise, we’ll soon be treated to nothing but Reality TV and Gameshows exposing the ignorance and stupidity of our country when measured against Kindergartners.

The Prophet of Garbage

Joseph Longo's Plasma Converter turns our most vile and toxic trash into clean energy—and promises to make a relic of the landfill

read more digg story

Ah, alternative energy sources. Why don’t they get more R&D funding? Why hasn’t the government pushed to find more things like Joseph Longo’s Plasma Converter?

Joseph had a great idea, put trash in, incinerate that trash breaking it down into it’s elemental components (plasma gasification), with the only outputs being a synthesis gas that can be refined to a multitude of different fuels, and an “obsidian-like glass used as a raw material for numerous applications, including bathroom tiles and high-strength asphalt.” Sounds pretty good. Almost too good to be true…why hasn’t this caught on before now?

Turns out it has. Based on the article, the US Army was the first to buy a Plasma Converter…10 years ago. Seems for the most part, it hasn’t been monetarily responsible to buy and run one, what with the energy costs to run the converter. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, with rising gasoline and fuel costs, and the cost to keep buying land to fill with garbage combined with the increased waste from heavily populated areas (like New York), these Plasma Converters have now become feasible to buy and run.

The next logical question is the same with most alternative energies that are researched…will the bureaucrats in government who get kickbacks from those who make money on the old, inefficient, and environmentally unsafe processes let something like this proceed? Based on the article, it looks like New York’s going to give it a try, and a lot of more responsible and less greedy countries already have their orders in for their converters.

Got any other interesting alternative energy articles out there? Let me know, I’d love to blog them and get them on digg!

JohnChow.com – Making Money Online and Giving Away Wii’s

Do you know John Chow? You might if you’ve ever searched for the term “Make Money Online” on Google…like this. At the time of writing this, John Chow’s Blog is currently #4 on the search list.

The main purpose of this particular blarticle is that John’s running a contest in conjunction with 1234Pens.com (they make promotional pens) to give away a Nintendo Wii by writing a blog post about said contest. Sidebar: it’s easy to sign up for this contest…just write a blog posting about it within the given rules, or if you don’t have a blog, get one and write a blog posting within the given rules. ^_^

There…now that that’s done. Let’s give a little more info on why I know about Johno’s site…

Back in the time before time (read: before I started writing this blog), I used to have the idea that I would be alright at blogging…but I didn’t really have the motivation. John provided that with the first blarticle of his I read: an update on how much money he had made with his blog. I thought it was interesting. Here was a guy who obviously had been blogging for a long time. He had built up interest with it. He had a dedicated readership, and he turned it into cash. Granted…he’ll be the first to tell you that he didn’t start the blog with the intention of making money from it…it’s just a nice side product.

Anyway, he blogs about a multitude of different topics and I always find something interesting when I go to visit. I highly recommend!