Analog shutoff may put asterisk on 2009 February sweeps
Here's a nice wrinkle -- issues associated with the digital switchover on Feb. 17, 2009 may taint the Nielsen "sweeps" ratings for that month. Depending on which reports you believe, the switch to all-digital signals will either be a small bump or an apocalyptical cliff. But one thing's for sure -- lots of money rides on those sweeps numbers, and Nielsen cannot break its role as an impartial observer and give its "families" any special help in making the transition. For its part, Nielsen has no plans to change operations for February 2009, which we think is the best approach. Despite ethnographic discrepancies in homes with unready TVs, there's still time and lots of PSAs in the works. Looking into our notoriously murky crystal ball, we see lots of panicked consumers buying (sans coupon) DTV converter boxes during the third week of February and a week or two of skewed data.[Image courtesy Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen]
Filed under: Industry, Regulatory, Set-top boxes, OTA
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
slarity @ Apr 25th 2008 10:29AM
I wish the switch was 2 years ago. So ready for HD...
I got my coupons, need to go to the store and pick one up for my only non-hd tv in my house.
looseinthedeuce @ Apr 25th 2008 1:16PM
The switch is to digital, not HD. If you're already enjoying HD, this will not affect you.
Honestly though, I'm not sure how this is going to have any affect on ratings. Whether people watch OTA or through a subscription, the ratings will be the same.
Plus, the ratings don't care about the older viewers, and they're the only ones who may make it to next February without knowing about the switch...and having their TVs go to snow.
Seth A @ Apr 25th 2008 2:25PM
Why not just do two sets, the Analog ratings and the Digital ratings, when Feb. hits, drop the Analog set and make the Digital set standard. Thats my idea anyways.
Scott @ Apr 25th 2008 8:17PM
Perhaps link to my blog, rather than to the image?