‘Grant Denyer’ from Petersham comes clean about his TV ratings box
Ever wondered what your average OzTam TV ratings box holder does with their privilege?
And so it was that a lengthy conversation about the return of Family Feud on Ten on ABC702’s evening show led to host Dom Knight asking for a listener who had a box to call in.
So it came to pass long time a listener first time caller listener, going by the name of ‘Grant Denyer’ from Petersham, called in and gave away a few home truths about the way he and his family use their box.
I had one of these in my house a few years ago. They’ll ring you if they detect you’ve been watching television, but haven’t put the number of people watching and each one of these people has a profile (age, gender etc).
Also, apparently the engineers who go house to house make sure they’re in plain clothes and drive nondescript vehicles.
The foxtel one is hooked up through the box so surely, given you aren’t required to actually do or input anything, this is more reliable?
Why not connect these systems to Microsoft Kinnect to detect who is in the room, during which parts of shows?
I wish I had one of these boxes. I am at home 24/7 and I always have the TV on. I hate when crap shows are on, then 12hrs later an encore of that show appears. I also hate when a whole encore of crap shows a crammed into the weekends. I do not see encores of good shows. There are also so many repeats, it’s rare to see something that is not a repeat. I have worked out that Harry Potter movies is going to be on every year, including other movies. I can not stand Grant Denyer. Every show he is in I do not watch. I also hate how Australian game shows now spend so much time asking the contestants about their personal lives. Seriously I do not care, just get on with the game show.
I have a TiVo, and I’m a bit gutted that they aren’t sold in Australia anymore. Surely we could get AC Neilsen to take them over in Oz and have everyone who has a TiVo on the list of ratings viewers. Then I could buy a new one when mine finally craps itself.
Family *Fortunes*? You’re showing your Britishness there, Dr Mumbo.
It needs to go digital. I wouldn’t trust a Foxtel Box though, because that is Murdoch and co and lets face it, they are usually a little off centre…
If my phone can predict which shop I will frequent on a Sunday (due to my movements over the passed month) and how long it is going to take me to get home (with traffic included), surely we can create a matrix that tells us exactly what programs are being played.
Creating one that shows us what programs are being watched is near enough impossible and of course I generally make a cup of tea, or go to the toilets when the adverts are rolling…
past*
FetchTV has statistics of shows right there on your screen. Very simple bar graph showing the popularity of shows in real time… who’s watching what now.
@Paris – the Foxtel box knows which channel is tuned but not how many people (and who) was watching.
@Craig – not everyone has Kinnect so the results would be biased. By the way this was trialled in the mid ’90s.
@AdPerson – the boxes are digital.
Utter hogwash, there are significant checks and balances in the OzTAM system to ensure this type of behaviour does not happen/kept to the absolute minimum. I would recommend getting a statement from OzTAM to clear things up. I wouldn’t trust the word of someone who claims to sit around adding guests into the system to amuse themselves.
There’s something not right about that interview. Are they saying the “Grant Denyer” called in on the phone? That doesn’t sound like phone quality to me
How is the old TV rating system relevant to today’s typical viewer. With streaming, internet, mobile, table, pay TV..etc now coming more and more into people’s lives, why does various industries still trust this old timey method?
Not sure why Adlands trusts commercial media to make up its own ratings (or pay for it to be made up, same thing).
CK .. because it works and it reports on PEOPLE. The days of counting online devices and not people is dead.
@Bec,
Becoz its in everyones interests. (well excluding the client, but that doesnt really matter right?)
And with the introduction of emma its now sorted throughout the media.