October 16, 2021
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As many are aware, our ancestors kept time with sun dials and monitored the weather by watching the flight patterns of birds. But luckily for us modern folk, we have access to enormous amounts of precise and empirical data for our daily decision making.
Data of course is what keeps inventory on shelves, traffic flowing more smoothly, and people safely indoors before the storm hits. “In God we trust,” said noted management expert W. Edwards Deming, “all others must bring data.”
It is a peculiar sign then when a sizable and culturally critical industry has yet to fully avail itself to the data it needs and our consumer economy requires. As a result, the measurements of what appeals to Americans in their television viewing (and, now, smart phones, tablets, and computers) are barely more precise now than when we had access to just a handful of channels from which to choose.
The near-monopoly Nielsen Company has by and large handled this task, through an antiquated system of having a small group of “representative Americans” agree to fill out paper diaries or put boxes on their TVs to record their viewing habits.
Nielsen’s way of analyzing media viewership is dramatically outdated. It comes up decidedly short in determining who is watching what, when they’re watching, and on what device they are watching it. Shockingly, during a pandemic when most Americans were trapped at home, Nielsen actually reported a dip in overall TV viewing.
Read full article here.
