Jeff Harris
Creator/Webmaster, TXB
Where'd you get that 288 million number?Jeff, if you want a % breakdown of the American people you take the 288m tv's they estimate & you divide it by the 25-30k metered HH during non sweeps months & the 2.5m covered HH during sweeps months. It's still far greater representation than polling data which news organizations swear by. The statistical methods hold as long as you have a diverse enough representation in your sample. That's how they arrive at national polls from a sample of just 1K's. I abbrev all the time so just get used to it if you bother to converse with me. You should know that NetRatings now include digital simulcasts which include the syncs that are popping up on cable now.
That is inaccurate.
From Bloomberg:
The number of U.S. TV households fell by 500,000, reflecting the popularity of online viewing and results of the 2010 census, according to Nielsen, producer of the weekly ratings that help set advertising prices.
The adjustment in U.S. TV households to 114.2 million took effect Aug. 27 and will apply to the television season starting this week, New York-based Nielsen Holdings NV (NLSN) said today in an e-mailed statement.
Total TV households for the 2012-13 season (i.e. this season) is 114.2 million, not 288 million. You overshot that number by over 170 million. Here's a breakdown by market of where these numbers, provided by Nielsen, are coming from and how they add up.
Further, I don't see any research nor sources that claim that sweeps numbers are enhanced from the small sampling covered per household (between 50 and 60,000 per Nielsen house) to 2.5 million viewers per Nielsen house.
And while NetRatings cover simulcasts of televised programming, 98% of all shows on television are either shown online either next-day or next-week and not counted in the Live ratings.