I have a question about television show ratings, and views, how does this work?

I don't understand how it works, are the ratings made from how many people View the show each week? Or is it something else?





Also, if you RECORD a show on DVR, does that still count as a rating for that house hold? Or is it just if you are watching it at the moment?





thanks!





So is there a website telling what the ratings are for shows?I have a question about television show ratings, and views, how does this work?
Actually, shows get credit based on surveys. The survey data is collected in a number of ways.


1) People Meters and Household Meters - this is equipment that the ratings survey company installs on your TV at your house (with your permission, of course) that reads codes hidden in the picture and audio that records what is on the TV and when.


2) Ratings diaries - these are books that viewers fill out about their viewing habits.


3) Telephone surveys.





In all cases, the viewers know that they are part of a survey group, agree to participate, and are usually paid some small amount for supplying viewing data. That data from the *small* survey group (a.k.a. sample) is then run through some mathematical magic to calculate the ';rating'; for each show.





These things are not always 100% accurate, but it's the best the industry has. I can remember one station where I worked where one rating book said we were #1 sign on to sign off 7 days a week. We didn't believe it, the other stations didn't believe it, but we made a lot of sales that calendar quarter! Other periods, the book sucks for no good reason and we have to live with that too, so it all balances out . . .





So you see, when they say ';50 million people are watching the game right now'; they really don't know for sure, but they can make an educated guess!





According to our Research Director, shows that are time shifted with a DVR or other recorder will get credit just as if they were viewed during the broadcast. Of course, only people in the sample group are monitored. Nobody knows what you are watching at your house.I have a question about television show ratings, and views, how does this work?
TV ratings are done by providing selected households with a monitor that determines what channel they are watching at any given time. This provides a statistical sample of how many people across the country are watching given programming.





I don't believe that the ratings monitors detect when someone is watching a particular program and the TV is off. Otherwise, the data would be skewed. So, I don't think that programming that is recorded by DVR counts toward the TV ratings.