Twenty-five years ago, when the Big 3 television networks ruled the airwaves, audience measurement firm Nielsen Co. introduced a gizmo called "people meters" that revolutionized the television industry.
Instead of relying solely on the diaries that viewers filled out by hand, listing the shows they watched, the device provided a more efficient and accurate way to measure who was watching what and when. Diary results were suspect because procrastinators often waited until the end of the month-long periods, typically November, February and May, to fill out the diaries.
But with the introduction of people meters into 2,000 homes in 1987, the networks suddenly got overnight ratings results.
Today, the Nielsen "people meter" panel has expanded to 20,000 homes, measuring the viewing habits of a sample audience of approximately 45,000 people.
While Nielsen has been slowly trying to phase out the handwritten diaries, they are still used in smaller markets, according to a Nielsen spokeswoman. "We collect more than two million paper diaries from across the country each year during sweeps," she said.
