RE: People Meters arrive in Boston

["Paul Bacchiocchi" <bacchioc@ici.net>]

Sorry Chris, for your getting this message separately, I keep forgetting
Outlook only sends it to the sender, not the group.




Anyone care to venture what the future effects of Personal Video Recorders
such as TiVo and Ultimate TV would have on this type of surveying.

As I understand what TiVo does (yes I own one and it saves a great deal of
wear and tear on my VCR), it knows what you have watched and what you prefer
to watch based on you giving "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down" to programs and
transfers some of that information during its daily phone call to TiVo to
retrieve its 2 week program guides, although there is nothing in the
transmission that ties that information with a specific person.  I would
guess Ultimate TV operates on the same principles, but I'm not sure.

There have been discussions recently on the TiVo bulletin boards in regards
to "privacy concerns" but in the opinion of quite a few if the networks knew
what we were watching and if it meant better programming, all the better.

Obviously at this time only the "early adopters" and "gadget lovers" would
be drawn to this because of the expense so the data would be skewed in that
direction, but the costs of these machines will be coming down.

FWIW, because I can't rely on cable where I live, I get everything from
DirecTV, including the 4 major network locals.  Unfortunately 2, 38, 44, and
56 (as well as the Providence stations) are not included in that package.

Regards

Paul Bacchiocchi

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
[mailto:owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org]On Behalf Of Chris
Beckwith
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 9:33 AM
To: Boston Radio Interest
Subject: People Meters arrive in Boston


Today's Cynthia Turner's Cynopsis reports that Nielsen has 420 of its
controversial People Meters in place for May sweeps in Boston (eventually
there
will be 600.)  Cable channel honchos believe they might more accurately
represent television viewership (favoring cable, as they see it) but
traditional
broadcasters are cooler to the newfangled device.  Channel 7 is boycotting
the
new service, saying the results would be skewed compared to non-People Meter
markets.  Channel 5's GM expressed concern that "traditional television
viewers"
might be intimidated by the device.

Take care,
Chris