Nielsen ratings - wikipedia Nielsen ratings Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems operated by Nielsen Media Research that seek to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States using a rating system. Nielsen Media Research was founded by Arthur C. Nielsen, a market analyst whose career had begun in the 1920s with brand advertising analysis and had expanded into radio market analysis during the 1930s, culminating in Nielsen ratings of radio programming, which was meant to provide statistics as to the markets of radio shows. The first Nielsen ratings for radio programs were released the first week of December 1947. They measured the top 20 programs in four areas : total audience, average audience, cumulative audience and homes per dollar spent for time and talent. In 1950, Nielsen moved to television, developing a ratings system using the methods he and his company had developed for radio. That method became the primary source of audience measurement information in the television industry. Contents 1 Measuring ratings 1.1 Ratings / share and total viewers 1.2 Demographics 1.3 Commercial ratings 1.4 Sweeps 1.5 Criticism of ratings systems 2 Top - rated programs in the U.S. 2.1 Television network ratings by year 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links Measuring ratings Nielsen television ratings are gathered in one of two ways : Viewer `` diaries, '' in which a target audience self - records its viewing or listening habits. By targeting various demographics, the assembled statistical models provide a rendering of the audiences of any given show, network, and programming hour. A more technologically sophisticated system uses Set Meters, which are small devices connected to televisions in selected homes. These devices gather the viewing habits of the home and transmit the information nightly to Nielsen through a `` Home Unit '' connected to a phone line. The technology - based home unit system is meant to allow market researchers to study television viewing habits on a minute to minute basis, seeing the exact moment viewers change channels or turn off their television set. In addition to set meters, individual viewer reporting devices, such as people meters, have allowed the company to separate household viewing information into various demographic groups. Changing systems of viewing have impacted Nielsen 's methods of market research. In 2005, Nielsen began measuring the usage of digital video recording devices such as TiVos. Initial results indicated that time - shifted viewing will have a significant impact on television ratings. A year later, the networks were not yet figuring these new results into their ad rates because of the resistance of advertisers. Since about October 2017, Nielsen has also begun to track select programs from specific partners that air on subscription - based video on demand ( SVOD ) services like Netflix. Partnering distributors insert a `` tag '' into the program to be distributed on these services which Nielsen can track without input from Netflix. Partnering distributors are able to determine if these ratings can be released publicly or not. Ratings / share and total viewers The most commonly cited Nielsen results are reported in two measurements : ratings points and share, usually reported as : `` ratings points / share. '' There are 119.6 million TV homes in the U.S. for the 2017 - 18 TV season ( Nielsen 's National Television Household Universe Estimates ). The number of persons age 2 and older in U.S. TV Households is estimated to be 304.5 million. A single national ratings point represents 1 % of the total number. Nielsen re-estimates the number of television - equipped households each August for the upcoming television season. Share is the percentage of television sets in use that are tuned to the program of Households Using Television ( HUT ) or Persons Using Television ( PUT ) who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. For example, Nielsen may report a show as receiving a 4.4 / 8 during its broadcast ; this would mean that out of all television - equipped households ( that is to say homes with a TV set, not total number of people ), 4.4 % were tuned in to that program, while among those households watching TV at the time 8 % of them watched. Because ratings are based on samples, it is possible for shows to get a 0.0 rating, despite having an audience ; the CNBC talk show McEnroe was one notable example. Another example is The CW show, CW Now, which received two 0.0 ratings in the same season. In 2014, Nielsen reported that American viewership of live television ( totaling on average four hours and 32 minutes per day ) had dropped 12 minutes per day compared to the year before. Nielsen reported several reasons for the shift away from live television : increased viewership of time - shifted television ( mainly through DVRs ) and viewership of internet video ( clips from video sharing websites and streams of full - length television shows ). Demographics Nielsen Media Research also provides statistics on specific demographics as advertising rates are influenced by such factors as age, gender, race, economic class, and area. Younger viewers are considered more attractive for many products, whereas in some cases older and wealthier audiences are desired, or female audiences are desired over males. In general, the number of viewers within the 18 -- 49 age range is more important than the total number of viewers. According to Advertising Age, during the 2007 -- 08 season, ABC was able to charge $419,000 per commercial sold during its medical drama Grey 's Anatomy, compared to only $248,000 for a commercial during CBS ' CSI : Crime Scene Investigation, despite CSI having almost five million more viewers on average. Because of its strength in young `` demos '' ( demographic groups ), NBC was able to charge almost three times as much for a commercial during Friends as CBS charged for Murder, She Wrote, even though the two series had a similar amount of total viewership during the two seasons they were on the air concurrently. Glee ( on Fox ) and The Office ( on NBC ) drew fewer total viewers than NCIS ( on CBS ) during the 2009 -- 10 season, but earned an average of $272,694 and $213,617 respectively, compared to $150,708 for NCIS. Commercial ratings Nielsen also provides viewership data calculated as the average viewership for only the commercial time within the program. These `` Commercial Ratings '' first became available on May 31, 2007. Additionally, Nielsen provides different `` streams '' of this data in order to take into consideration delayed viewing ( DVR ) data, at any interval up to seven days. C3 was the metric launched in 2007, and refers to the ratings for average commercial minutes in live programming plus total playback by digital video recorder out to three days after. By the end of 2012, some television executives wanted to see C7, ratings for live plus seven days, with CBS Corporation chief executive officer Les Moonves making the claim C7 made ratings increase by 30 %. Sweeps `` Sweeps '' redirects here. For other uses, see Sweeps ( disambiguation ). The American television measurement by Nielsen is based on three different methodological approaches. In the 25 TV markets with the highest sales ( e.g. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston ) the Local People Meter ( LPM ) is measured. Individuals register individually, the measurement is carried out on 365 days over 24 hours. The SET Meter ( Diary & Electronic ) is used in 31 smaller markets ( such as Nashville, Salt Lake City ). In four sweeps in the months of February, May, July and November, target group data are collected with the diary and validated with the data of the devices ( TV set on / off ) in the participating households. In the 154 TV markets with the lowest sales ( e.g. Harrisburg, PA or Honolulu ) the use of TV is only recorded by means of a diary survey. Each year, Nielsen processes approximately two million paper diaries from households across the country, for the months of November, February, May and July -- also known as the `` sweeps '' rating periods. The term `` sweeps '' dates from 1954, when Nielsen collected diaries from households in the Eastern United States first ; from there they would `` sweep '' west. Seven - day diaries ( or eight - day diaries in homes with DVRs ) are mailed to homes to keep a tally of what is watched on each television set and by whom. Over the course of a sweeps period, diaries are mailed to a new panel of homes each week. At the end of the month, all of the viewing data from the individual weeks is aggregated. This local viewing information provides a basis for program scheduling and advertising decisions for local television stations, cable systems, and advertisers. Typically, the November, February and May sweeps are considered more important ; nevertheless, the July sweeps can have local impact in regard to personnel. In some of the mid-size markets, diaries provide viewer information for up to two additional `` sweeps '' months ( October and January ). Nielsen sweeps periods Season November February May July 2016 -- 2017 October 27 -- November 23, 2016 February 2 -- March 1, 2017 April 27 -- May 24, 2017 June 29 -- July 26, 2017 2017 -- 2018 October 26 -- November 22, 2017 February 1 -- 28, 2018 April 26 -- May 23, 2018 June 28 -- July 25, 2018 2018 -- 2019 October 25 -- November 21, 2018 January 31 -- February 27, 2019 April 25 -- May 22, 2019 June 27 -- July 24, 2019 2019 -- 2020 October 31 -- November 27, 2019 January 30 -- February 26, 2020 April 23 -- May 20, 2020 June 25 -- July 22, 2020 Criticism of ratings systems There is some public critique regarding accuracy and potential bias within Nielsen 's rating system, including some concerns that the Nielsen ratings system is rapidly becoming outdated because of new technology like smartphones, DVRs, tablet computers and Internet streaming services as preferred or alternative methods for television viewing. In June 2006, however, Nielsen announced a plan to revamp its entire methodology to include all types of media viewing in its sample. Since viewers are aware of being part of the Nielsen sample, it can lead to response bias in recording and viewing habits. Audience counts gathered by the self - reporting diary methodology are sometimes higher than those gathered by the electronic meters which eliminate any response bias. Another criticism of the measuring system itself is that it fails the most important criterion of a sample : it is not random in the statistical sense of the word. A small fraction of the population is selected and only those that actually accept are used as the sample size. In many local areas during the 1990s, the difference between a rating that kept a show on the air and one that would cancel it was so small as to be statistically insignificant, and yet the show that just happened to get the higher rating would survive. In addition, the Nielsen ratings encouraged a strong push for demographic measurements. This caused problems with households that had multiple television sets or households where viewers would enter the simpler codes ( usually their child 's ) raising serious questions to the quality of the demographic data. The situation further deteriorated as the popularity of cable television expanded the number of viewable networks to the point that the margin of error has increased, because the sampling sizes are too small. Compounding matters is the fact that of the sample data that is collected, advertisers will not pay for time shifted programs ( those that are recorded for replay at a different time ), rendering the `` raw '' numbers useless from a statistical point of view. Even in 2013, it was noted that Internet streams of television programs were still not counted because they had either no ads ( such as Netflix ) or totally different advertising ( such as Hulu ) than their television counterparts, effectively skewing the raw data on how popular a show really is. A related criticism of the Nielsen ratings system is its lack of a system for measuring television audiences in environments outside the home, such as college dormitories, transport terminals, bars, jails and other public places where television is frequently viewed, often by large numbers of people in a common setting. In 2005, Nielsen announced plans to incorporate viewing by away - from - home college students into its sample. Internet television viewing is another rapidly growing market for which Nielsen ratings fail to account for viewers. iTunes, Hulu, YouTube, and some of the networks ' own websites ( such as ABC.com and CBS.com ) provide full - length web - based programming, either subscription - based or ad - supported. Though web sites can already track popularity of a site and the referring page, they can not track viewer demographics. To both track this and expand their market research offerings, Nielsen purchased NetRatings in 2007. However, as noted in a February 2012 New York Times article, the computer and mobile streams of a program are counted separately from the standard television broadcasts, further degrading the overall quality of the sampling data. As a result, there was no way for NBC to tell if there was any overlap between the roughly 111.3 million traditional television viewers and 2.1 million live stream viewers of Super Bowl XLVII. Responding to the criticism regarding accusations by several media executives ( including Viacom CEO Phillippe Dauman and former Fox Entertainment Group chief operating officer Chase Carey ) that it failed to count viewers watching television programs on digital platforms, Nielsen executive vice president of global product leadership Megan Clarken stated in an April 2015 summit by the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement that the company is able to count digital viewers in audience and demographic reports, but are unable to do so under the current set of rules devised by networks and advertising industries last revised in 2006. As such, Nielsen can only count viewership for television - originated broadcasts, and must exclude viewers who watch programs on digital platforms if the program does not have an identical advertising load or a linear watermark. After Nielsen took over the contract for producing data on Irish advertising in 2009, agencies said that they were `` disastrous '' and claimed that the information produced by them is too inaccurate to be trusted by them or their clients. In 2004, News Corporation retained the services of public relations firm Glover Park to launch a campaign aimed at delaying Nielsen 's plan to replace its aging household electronic data collection methodology in larger local markets with its newer electronic People Meter system. The advocates in the public relations campaign charged that data derived from the newer People Meter system represented a bias toward underreporting minority viewing, which could lead to a de facto discrimination in employment against minority actors and writers. However, Nielsen countered the campaign by revealing its sample composition counts. According to Nielsen Media Research 's sample composition counts, as of November 2004, nationwide, African American households using People Meters represented 6.7 % of the Nielsen sample, compared to 6.0 % in the general population. Latino households represent 5.7 % of the Nielsen sample, compared to 5.0 % in the general population. By October 2006, News Corporation and Nielsen settled, with Nielsen agreeing to spend an additional $50 million to ensure that minority viewing was not being underreported by the new electronic people meter system. In 2011, CBS and Nielsen proposed a model consisting of six viewer segments which according to their empirical research are more relevant for advertisers than older models based on gender and age. The segments are based on user behavior, motivations, and psychographics. It is argued that the model can increase reaching the desired audience as well as message recall and advertisement likeability. Top - Rated programs in the U.S. Main articles : List of most - watched television broadcasts and List of most watched television broadcasts in the United States The table below lists television shows in the U.S. with the highest average household Nielsen rating for each television season. The program with the all - time highest average rating is in bold text Sports programs have italicized rating numbers Two or more programs tie for highest average Nielsen rating in the same season The program with the all - time longest winning streak in Nielsen ratings based on number of consecutive seasons Season Program Network Rating 1950 -- 1951 Texaco Star Theater NBC 61.6 1951 -- 1952 Arthur Godfrey 's Talent Scouts CBS 53.8 1952 -- 1953 I Love Lucy 67.3 1953 -- 1954 58.8 1954 -- 1955 49.3 1955 -- 1956 The $64,000 Question 47.5 1956 -- 1957 I Love Lucy 43.7 1957 -- 1958 Gunsmoke 43.1 1958 -- 1959 39.6 1959 -- 1960 40.3 1960 -- 1961 37.3 1961 -- 1962 Wagon Train NBC 32.1 1962 -- 1963 The Beverly Hillbillies CBS 36.0 1963 -- 1964 39.1 1964 -- 1965 Bonanza NBC 36.3 1965 -- 1966 31.8 1966 -- 1967 29.1 1967 -- 1968 The Andy Griffith Show CBS 27.6 1968 -- 1969 Rowan & Martin 's Laugh - In NBC 31.8 1969 -- 1970 26.3 1970 -- 1971 Marcus Welby, M.D. ABC 29.6 1971 -- 1972 All in the Family CBS 34.0 1972 -- 1973 33.3 1973 -- 1974 31.2 1974 -- 1975 30.2 1975 -- 1976 30.1 1976 -- 1977 Happy Days ABC 31.5 1977 -- 1978 Laverne & Shirley 31.6 1978 -- 1979 30.5 1979 -- 1980 60 Minutes CBS 28.4 1980 -- 1981 Dallas 34.5 1981 -- 1982 28.4 1982 -- 1983 60 Minutes 25.5 1983 -- 1984 Dallas 25.7 1984 -- 1985 Dynasty ABC 25.0 1985 -- 1986 The Cosby Show NBC 33.7 1986 -- 1987 34.9 1987 -- 1988 27.8 1988 -- 1989 25.6 1989 -- 1990 23.1 1989 -- 1990 Roseanne ABC 1990 -- 1991 Cheers NBC 21.3 1991 -- 1992 60 Minutes CBS 21.9 1992 -- 1993 1993 -- 1994 20.9 1994 -- 1995 Seinfeld NBC 20.6 1995 -- 1996 ER 22.0 1996 -- 1997 21.2 1997 -- 1998 Seinfeld 21.7 1998 -- 1999 ER 17.8 1999 -- 2000 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ? -- Tuesdays ABC 18.6 2000 -- 2001 Survivor : The Australian Outback CBS 17.4 2001 -- 2002 Friends NBC 15.0 2002 -- 2003 CSI : Crime Scene Investigation CBS 16.3 2003 -- 2004 15.9 2004 -- 2005 16.5 2005 -- 2006 American Idol -- Tuesday Fox 17.6 2006 -- 2007 American Idol -- Wednesday 17.3 2007 -- 2008 American Idol -- Tuesday 16.1 2008 -- 2009 American Idol -- Wednesday 15.1 2009 -- 2010 American Idol -- Tuesday 13.7 2010 -- 2011 American Idol -- Wednesday 14.5 2011 -- 2012 Sunday Night Football NBC 12.4 2012 -- 2013 NCIS CBS 13.5 2013 -- 2014 Sunday Night Football NBC 12.6 NCIS CBS 2014 -- 2015 Sunday Night Football NBC 12.3 2015 -- 2016 NCIS CBS 12.8 2016 -- 2017 The Big Bang Theory 11.5 2017 -- 2018 The Big Bang Theory CBS Television network ratings by year ( total viewership, exclusive of demographics ) Total View Rank Network 2016 views 2015 views 2014 views # 1 CBS 8,814,000 9,419,000 9,375,000 # 2 NBC 8,426,000 7,757,000 8,264,000 # 3 ABC 6,325,000 6,894,000 6,838,000 # 4 FOX 5,053,000 5,198,000 5,973,000 See also C.E. 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External links Nielsen Media Research official website Nielsen Holdings Units Nielsen Consumer Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Online Nielsen Mobile Nielsen Business Media Gracenote Services Nielsen BookScan Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems Nielsen SoundScan Nielsen VideoScan Nielsen Media Research top - rated United States network television show 1950s 50 -- 51 : Texaco Star Theater 51 -- 52 : Arthur Godfrey 's Talent Scouts 52 -- 53, 53 -- 54, 54 -- 55 : I Love Lucy 55 -- 56 : The $64,000 Question 56 -- 57 : I Love Lucy 57 -- 58, 58 -- 59, 59 -- 60 : Gunsmoke 1960s 60 -- 61 : Gunsmoke 61 -- 62 : Wagon Train 62 -- 63, 63 -- 64 : The Beverly Hillbillies ( S1, S2 ) 64 -- 65, 65 -- 66, 66 -- 67 : Bonanza 67 -- 68 : The Andy Griffith Show ( S8 ) 68 -- 69, 69 -- 70 : Rowan & Martin 's Laugh - In 1970s 70 -- 71 : Marcus Welby, M.D. 71 -- 72, 72 -- 73, 73 -- 74, 74 -- 75, 75 -- 76 : All in the Family ( S2, S3, S4, S5, S6 ) 76 -- 77 : Happy Days ( S4 ) 77 -- 78, 78 -- 79 : Laverne & Shirley ( S3, S4 ) 79 -- 80 : 60 Minutes 1980s 80 -- 81, 81 -- 82 : Dallas ( S4, S5 ) 82 -- 83 : 60 Minutes 83 -- 84 : Dallas ( S7 ) 84 -- 85 : Dynasty 85 -- 86, 86 -- 87, 87 -- 88, 88 -- 89 : The Cosby Show ( S2, S3, S4, S5 ) 89 -- 90 : Roseanne ( S2 ) / The Cosby Show ( S6 ) 1990s 90 -- 91 : Cheers ( S9 ) 91 -- 92, 92 -- 93, 93 -- 94 : 60 Minutes 94 -- 95 : Seinfeld ( S6 ) 95 -- 96, 96 -- 97 : ER ( S2, S3 ) 97 -- 98 : Seinfeld ( S9 ) 98 -- 99 : ER ( S5 ) 99 -- 2000 : Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 2000s 00 -- 01 : Survivor ( S2 - AO ) 01 -- 02 : Friends ( S8 ) 02 -- 03, 03 -- 04, 04 -- 05, : CSI : Crime Scene Investigation ( S3, S4, S5 ) 05 -- 06, 06 -- 07, 07 -- 08, 08 -- 09, 09 -- 10 : American Idol ( S5, S6, S7, S8, S9 ) 2010s 10 -- 11 : American Idol ( S10 ) 11 -- 12 : NBC Sunday Night Football 12 -- 13 : NCIS ( S10 ) 13 -- 14, 14 -- 15, 15 -- 16, 16 -- 17 : NBC Sunday Night Football 17 -- 18 : The Big Bang Theory ( S11 ) Top - rated United States television programs by season Nielsen ratings 1950s 1950 -- 51 1951 -- 52 1952 -- 53 1953 -- 54 1954 -- 55 1955 -- 56 1956 -- 57 1957 -- 58 1958 -- 59 1959 -- 60 1960s 1960 -- 61 1961 -- 62 1962 -- 63 1963 -- 64 1964 -- 65 1965 -- 66 1966 -- 67 1967 -- 68 1968 -- 69 1969 -- 70 1970s 1970 -- 71 1971 -- 72 1972 -- 73 1973 -- 74 1974 -- 75 1975 -- 76 1976 -- 77 1977 -- 78 1978 -- 79 1979 -- 80 1980s 1980 -- 81 1981 -- 82 1982 -- 83 1983 -- 84 1984 -- 85 1985 -- 86 1986 -- 87 1987 -- 88 1988 -- 89 1989 -- 90 1990s 1990 -- 91 1991 -- 92 1992 -- 93 1993 -- 94 1994 -- 95 1995 -- 96 1996 -- 97 1997 -- 98 1998 -- 99 1999 -- 2000 2000s 2000 -- 01 2001 -- 02 2002 -- 03 2003 -- 04 2004 -- 05 2005 -- 06 2006 -- 07 2007 -- 08 2008 -- 09 2009 -- 10 2010s 2010 -- 11 2011 -- 12 2012 -- 13 2013 -- 14 2014 -- 15 2015 -- 16 2016 -- 17 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nielsen_ratings&oldid=859231837 '' Categories : Advertising terminology Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies Lists of American television series Marketing terminology Market research Mass media rivalries Promotion and marketing communications Television terminology Hidden categories : Pages containing links to subscription - only content Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2004 All articles containing potentially dated statements Talk Contents About Wikipedia Dansk Deutsch Español فارسی Français Gaeilge 한국어 Հայերեն Bahasa Indonesia עברית Latviešu Português Română Русский Simple English Svenska Türkçe Tiếng Việt 中文 11 more Edit links This page was last edited on 12 September 2018, at 17 : 14 ( UTC ). 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Question: the nielsen television ratings is an example of a
Answer: audience measurement systems