how do they work out viewing figures?

[bendigedig]

it's on the bbc website that vicar of dibley is on top, but that doesnt include viewers that taped shows, how do they know what i watched and what i taped?

[Ethel]

BARB is responsible for viewing figures.

All the information you need is here:

http://www.barb.co.uk/

[Bazile]

I think you will find that there are representative 'samples' of the viewing public , in different areas , who are asked what they watched - the figures are then multiplied up across the country , to get an overall estimate .

[saxy_jag]

Friends of ours used to have a box attached to their set that monitored their viewing and fed the results back to wherever. They were part of that 'representative sample' Bazile talks about.

Not sure where the monitoring was done, though.

[MrBen5]

Hnmm, you will be surprised what people know about what you are doing...
I heard there was a batch of cable TV boxes with cameras in them. It hasnt been public knowledge yet,but the guys on the other end were taping people doing things in their house and selling the footage on abroad...

[brachiopod]

They don't know what you watched.

They do, however, know what a representative sample watched. The sample is made up of the same demographic profile (age group, family/singles, income groups etc) as the UK as a whole, and then multiplied up by the relevant factor to give the 'viewing figures' for the population as a whole.

It was originally done by sending out questionnaires which would be filled in by just one member of the household - (my mum was asked to fill one in back in the early 80's) - though it was much easier then, as there were only three channels and most households only had one television set.

Nowadays, participating households are all wired up to a 'black box' that records exactly what is watched by every television, satellite, digital-box, VCR and PVR in the house. Each member of the household is supposed to record their presence by clicking a button whenever they enter or leave a room where a television is.
The results are sent down the phone line to the company HQ. Some 4� to 5 thousand homes are monitored in this way.

I have two friends who work for a company that does this, and supplies BARB (The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board) with their Audience Measurement data. They have some amusing anecdotes too. Like the teenage son who insists he �doesn�t need� the satellite box in his bedroom wired up, as he 'doesn�t use it�. They found out when the results were compiled that several hours of porn were being watched through that particular receiver each night !!

For a recorded programme to be counted as 'viewed' , it has to be watched within a certain period from the date of broadcast (something like three or five days - can't remember which)