Q: How are television show ratings determined?

A: Watching the watchers has become increasingly important to those who study and work in the media. One company, Nielsen Media Research, collects and compiles all data -- and has become the industry standard in programming and advertising.

According to the company's Web site, it uses three different methods to collect ratings data: the People Meter, the set-tuning meter and the Diary.

The People Meter is an electronic meter placed in 5,000 random households to measure when the television is on, what channel is being watched and who is watching.

This meter, along with the Set-Tuning Meter, can record when the television is being watched, when the VCR is in use and when someone is using a video game system based on electronic codes in each program of every station.

The set-tuning meter measures information on what channels are being watched in only the 49 largest markets and transmits this information daily.

The Diary, the most widely used of the three methods, is filled out by all members of a sample family and includes which channels each person in the family watches, when they watch, and for how long the television was on. This is the least accurate of the three methods, however, since there can be a great deal of human error involved in filling out these survey diaries.

There is nothing more critical when it comes to the importance of Nielsen ratings to television station programming, said Kathy Smith, Operations Manager of WTAJ-TV 10, the local CBS affiliate station.

"[The Nielsen ratings] are critical. They make it or break it," Smith said. "The ratings determine who and what numbers of people are watching every channel at every time."

When a television station receives information from Nielsen, it is very thorough, Smith said. The reports are completely broken down by demographics for every 15 minutes of television programming. The ratings even account for sports shows that run late and affect the amounts of people watching each channel.

There has never been a time when stations went against the ratings data provided by Nielsen, Smith said. Clients want to know what ratings the time slots receive and advertisers make decisions based on the Nielsen ratings.

Smith also said the television industry relies heavily on all information collected by the Nielsen Company.

"It's the bible everyone goes by. All community and national sales are based on these reports," she said. "They are very dependable and attempt to compensate for all mistakes made in their surveys."

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