Skip to Content

Nielsen wants to know what you're watching on your iPod

by Scott McNulty Oct 25th 2006 at 6:00PM

Earlier this month Network World's Phil Hochmuth profiled Nielsen's efforts to figure out what people are watching on their iPods and other mobile devices. Nielsen, you may know, is the company that determines the ratings, i.e. audience size, of a particular TV show. As technology has progressed Nielsen has had to try and cope.

Early on the Nielsen box would be bolted to your TV and hardwired into the electronics to know exactly what you are viewing, but since home electronics have changed so much this is no longer a viable option (no one is bolting a box to my iPod). Luckily, Nielsen has partnered with content creators to use psychoacoustic encoding to let Nielsen figure out what you're watching. Psychoacoustic encoding sounds scary, but it is simply an audio signal that is encoded into the television program. This way Nielsen's gear can look for this signal and find out what you're watching. They are working on a small device that one would plug in between your headphones and your iPod and monitor for these signals. When it hears one, it registers the show you're watching. At night, you charge the device and the data gets sent to Nielsen.


View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

iPod Family Video

Earlier this month Network World's Phil Hochmuth profiled Nielsen's efforts to figure out what people are watching on their iPods and other...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

6 Comments

Filter by:
Sean Hattaway

I read in Gearlog last time about these new measures. I didn't know they've already started with the surveys and stuff.:)

I also read in that particular Gearlog page that it would hopefully help increase the ratings of fave TV programs like Veronica Mars and Everwood. Hey, I hope so, too!

October 26 2006 at 2:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric B.

I am taking part in this survey and they have asked me to install a piece of software on my computer. My understanding is when I plug my iPod back into the computer it will update what I have played/watched and send the data back to them. I've thought about investigating the workings of the software a little more but haven't had the time. Check out the pretty icon if you're interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecbusalacchi/279467990/

October 25 2006 at 8:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
djscott

Wonder if they've considered how to count the amount of Pod-capable content that is viewed on the computer, never to be loaded on the mobile device? There's research that indicates most educational podcasts are seen on the computer only; not sure of the ratio for entertainment programming.

October 25 2006 at 7:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
one1step1

We were a neilson Family a few months ago. We had to fill out TV logs -- no box on the TV. If anyone was watching tv, even a visitor, for more than 5 minutes, they wanted you to log it.

The guides were setup to work with the use of today's DVRs, and no matter what the time, you simply logged the show and when you watched it.

October 25 2006 at 6:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
niclet

Put aside the Pixart shorts, there is no film or TV show available on the iTunes Store Canada. I am disappointed, especially that I had bought a Video iPod for that :(

October 25 2006 at 6:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kokernutz

Nielsen actually relies on hand written logs by the viewer to track ad impressions.

October 25 2006 at 6:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.