The ratings. They are sacred in Hilversum. Many broadcasters and producers are concerned about it. TV programs, careers of presenters, TV personalities and broadcasting executives are made and broken with it. But what do these numbers actually mean? How are they calculated and measured? As it turns out, in reality less than three thousand people decide what is a TV hit or a failure. Ratings cannon Farmer seeks wife is a good example. This program is seen as very successful, as it has very high viewing figures. These figures have major positive consequences for the parties involved. It makes the presenter’s career, means a major source of income for the producer and probably a promotion to final responsibility at the broadcaster. Internationally, people also know how to spot audience hits flawlessly. Foreign TV channels want to purchase Farmer Wants a Wife and are willing to pay large sums of money to do so. But would this also be the case if the viewing figures were half? Probably not.
Kijkonderzoek.nl
On the Kijkonderzoek.nl site you can see exactly how many Dutch people watched the programs. It is from the Kijkonderzoek Foundation (SKO), which reports daily on the viewing figures. Yet researchers do not survey the 17 million Dutch people. How are these viewing figures arrived at? Through a sophisticated mix of test subjects who together form a viewer panel.
Viewing behavior
It is impossible to monitor Dutch households’ viewing behavior. The SKO therefore asks a small group of viewers to install a box near their TV; a so-called viewing figures box.
Panel
But how does SKO put together this panel? Every year, research agency TNS Nipo surveys six thousand Dutch people about their viewing and media behavior. This list of households is created randomly. Postal codes are used. A second research agency, Intomart GfK, selects the candidates for the viewing panel from this group of six thousand households. The number of selected households is 1250, or approximately 2800 people. A quarter of the households in the viewing panel are updated annually. According to scientists, the number of 1250 households is sufficient.
Households
How does Intomart GfK select the right households for the viewing panel? The Central Bureau of Statistics knows how the Dutch population can be divided into age, gender, family composition, household size, neighborhood, social class, income, and so on. Intomart GfK uses this composition to achieve an accurate reflection of the Dutch population. For example, if a single-person household (female, middle-aged, living in a big city, highly educated, culture-loving and in the highest income group) leaves, Intomart will look for someone with the same profile to replace her.
TARIS 5000
Once you have been selected, you will receive a box from SKO: the TARIS 5000. It looks like a normal decoder. This box is attached to the TV and associated peripheral equipment where the signal is linked. Then consider the DVD recorder or decoder for digital TV. You don’t have to do it for the money, by the way. Panel members receive a few tens of euros per person annually. Still, some effort is required.
Log on log off
When you turn on the TV, the box asks via the screen who is watching and whether there are any guests present. Every time the panel member goes to make coffee or goes to the toilet, he is supposed to log out with a special remote control and log in again when he returns. The box does automatically save the channel selection.
Central computer
The stored data is sent to a central computer at night. This data mainly consists of sound samples. The computer analyzes the samples of the different programs and matches them with all program sounds from all TV channels that are stored in a huge database. This gives the computer a good picture of the television images viewed.
When the same program is broadcast on different channels at the same time, the sound sampling method does not work, such as during Remembrance Day on May 4 or at certain sporting events. In those cases, the teletext signal is used. Since 2011, a digital watermark has also been used in extreme cases, this is a sound that is inaudible to humans.
It seems a bit strange to use sound in audience research, but SKO knows from experience that this method is the most accurate. Sound is always the same. it does not matter whether you watch the program on Uitzendng Gemist, via a digital decoder or an analogue channel.
Other methods
The ways to watch television have increased enormously in recent years: analogue, digital, cable, fiber optic, ADSL, satellite dish, digital antenna, internet, etc. The audience research has therefore also become much more complicated. SKO is currently seriously looking at other research methods. But for the time being, the viewing boxes in the 1,235 households will remain active, because according to the viewing figures, 95% of households simply watch the TV at home.