Unless you have sky box or something they can't tell what you're watching... but 12hours seems a little soon to be asking focus groups!
Cheers,
James
Reading someones post in the Top Gear thread with a link to the view figures last night made me think.
How do they work out how many people watch a tv show? Surely they cant tell what our tvs are tuned into? I heard a while ago that a cross section of
people have little boxes that are used to work out what the population are watching. But it must be a large amount of people to get any sort of idea
and I've never heard of anyone with a box.
I heard that a number of people have boxes attached to their sets too but like you have never know of anybody with the box
I was wondering something similar!
Unless you have sky box or something they can't tell what you're watching... but 12hours seems a little soon to be asking focus groups!
Cheers,
James
Maybe the take the ten people from the office, ask what they were watching, divide by 10 and times by 60 million then put the figures on the website!
Ok, just proved im lazy!
A ten second search on wikipedia brought up this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcaster%27s_Audience_Research_Board
5100 homes seems a small cross section for 15 million homes maybe? Although their figures only seem accurate to 100,000 people and I guess they pick a
wide and varied selection of people.
The amazingly high-tech way they calculate this:
Measuring the amount of power demand on the national grid, to indicate the number of people boiling their kettles at the end of a particular
programme.
Works in reverse as well - they calculate power demand based on the TV listings - if there's something that's likely to draw loads of
viewers (England in a world cup final, for example...) - they make sure there's extra generation on the grid for when all those kettles go
on.....
Not sure how they do it in warmer climes, where they don't drink so much tea or coffee.... 
Cheers
Vince
Yeah, I heard they did this for calculating how much reserve power they will need.
But surely if 2 shows are on channels with ads 15 mins in how will they calculate who has the best ratings.
Would work with ITV v BBC, but not ITV v C4.
it is one of those kife's mysteries, like we know coin phone boxes need to be emptied of money but I've nor anyone else I know have every
seen it been done.
This is how it's done... 5100 homes are measured and the results multiplied up.
http://www.barb.co.uk/
Sky collect a fair amount of information, it's why they insist on the box being plugged into the phone line for the first year. Sending them the data subsidises your 'free' installation.
quote:
Originally posted by vinny1275
they make sure there's extra generation on the grid for when all those kettles go on.....
Vince
Ive been there!
Its like an underground James Bond baddie base! Like the one in the volcano.
I remember them saying they check when the big programs are on so they can get ready for the ad breaks when all those kettles go on. Then pump all the
water back up at night when the electricty is cheaper.
me too! serveral times the name of it escapes me now, it is quite cool alot like a james bond set. but my fave place that i went too when i was younger was those two nuclear power stations on the south coast right by that mini railway, god i am hopeless with names! but that was brill!
Found it... was Ffestiniog Power Station.
http://www.fhc.co.uk/ffestiniog.htm
Would love to take the Indy up or down all those hairpin corners on the way there!
They were exciting enough in a coach