Are Nielsen ratings still relevant? How do they judge sports market viewership?

[SpeedyBull]

Do they still go by Nielsen ratings or do the dvr/cable boxes collect that data now? Just wondering if tuning into the other American games and not being a Nielsen home affects the conference viewership positively. 

[cmhatter]

Cable boxes collect a ton of data but they aren't very good for accurate measurement.

They do no maintain demographic data of each household member and they never know if the TV is actually on or off. WIth that said, statistical models may be applied to this data to make it more accurate. It is sold by companies like Rentrak.

Ads are predominantly bought and sold on Nielsen's C3 data. The answer to your question is most likely no. 

[WoolyBully]

As for 'relevant'...to whom? They are still used to sell time to advertisers.

The other difficulty is measuring viewership outside the home (e.g. digital devices and of course, sports bars). NMR was pretty accurate when the bulk of our television viewing was done at home, but now, with the proliferation of personal devices, and television in public places (bars, restaurants, etc.) there are gaps. I know we were working a device that would capture the sound and try to match it to a broadcast so here's the background on OOH (Out of Home) viewing. 

 

http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/newswire/uploads/2009/06/nielsenoutofhomeviewing.pdf

[SpeedyBull]

Thanks Wooly I think I stumbled upon something like that searching but that went a little more in depth. I would think as sophisticated as these boxes are getting that the TV providers would be using that over nielsen data. 

I am hoping with the excellent year The American has been having that viewership stats are up and will eventually command more $$ for the conference, even though negotiations for that is still a bit away.