Can cable companies determine viewership?

[Loren Booda]

Is it possible for TV cable companies to count the households tuned into, say, the Super Bowl or particular commercials?

 

[mgb_phys]

Not for regular cable with the tuner in the TV
For digital cable (with a box) then they technically can, wether they bother depends on if they think the value to advertisers is worth the cost of the infrastructure, and how bad they think the consumer backlash would be

 

[russ_watters]

Not for regular cable with the tuner in the TV
For digital cable (with a box) then they technically can, wether they bother depends on if they think the value to advertisers is worth the cost of the infrastructure, and how bad they think the consumer backlash would be

I have no doubt that the digital cable companies do it. The information is far to valuable and easy to collect for them not to.

 

[Moonbear]

I wonder if they'd use it for good or evil? What I mean is they could use viewer information to decide what channels people really aren't watching to cut them and keep costs down, while being sure they preserve the ones people do watch, or at least they know they are justified in raising rates if a particular network raises their fees and they pay it to keep them. On the other hand, they could use that information to move the more popular channels to the more expensive, premium packages to coerce their subscribers to spend more or be stuck with stuff they don't want to watch.

If they can do it, I suspect they really probably apply a little of both.

 

[russ_watters]

What I mean is they could use viewer information to decide what channels people really aren't watching to cut them and keep costs down, while being sure they preserve the ones people do watch, or at least they know they are justified in raising rates if a particular network raises their fees and they pay it to keep them. On the other hand, they could use that information to move the more popular channels to the more expensive, premium packages to coerce their subscribers to spend more or be stuck with stuff they don't want to watch

AKA, basic market research. I would expect that to be the primary purpose of collecting such information. It really isn't any different from a supermarket tracking general sales patterns and using that info to rearrange the store or adjust pricing and product selection.

[googling]

Unsurprisingly, it is set to become much more specific:

Time Warner will test new software that sends different ads to different viewers...

Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWX ) will soon begin testing a system designed by software firm Invidi Technologies Inc. that uses the digital set-top cable box to track what each TV in any house has on. It's expected to go into a household test by yearend, with other cable companies following in 2006. By analyzing where a viewer channel surfs, Invidi says the system can figure out the age, gender, and probable interests of the viewer. Most important, the system then matches TV ads to the consumer based on what might actually interest them.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_27/b3941093.htm

This is, of course, already done on the internet.

 

[russ_watters]

Some of the largest U.S. cable operators are quietly testing a service in nearly 2 million homes that may offer the first real competitor—or complement—to Nielsen ratings. The technology can record every click of the remote control by every digital subscriber. And it offers an instant census of millions of homes that dwarfs Nielsen’s current universe of thousands.

Cable operators have already begun tracking digital-cable viewership on a massive scale—without Nielsen. Comcast is collecting viewer data from 1.2 million homes in Philadelphia, for example, while Time Warner’s Oceanic Cable is crunching viewing patterns in 200,000 households in Hawaii.

http://www.frankwbaker.com/who's_really_watching.htm

 

[mynameinc]

I'm glad I don't have a portfolio full of Nielsen* stock. :D




*=I know it's a private company, but I still don't want a portfolio full of Nielsen Media Research, Inc. stock.