Queef Olberdork slides farther into irrelevance

[diesel driver]

Current TV?

Doesn't that channel that shows a fireplace all the time get higher ratings than them?

I'm with you.  I didn't think it was still on the air.  I don't know, I blocked it off my DirecTV channel list 5 years ago, along with LOGO, PBS, NBA, NHL, and MLS.  I'm thinking about blocking SPEED, since they show about EVERYTHING EXCEPT RACING!   

But then again, MTV (MUSIC Television) shows about everything (sometimes literally) except music, and CMT is heading in the same direction.   

[Carl]

I had to look and right now is a show about Chavez.

It shows a group of 5 or 6 people living in squalor on a "cooperative" that hasn`t produced one bit of produce in 5 years and they are saying Chavez gives them a sense of value and the ability to grow food.

It is like DUmmy TV. 

[vesta111]

I had to look and right now is a show about Chavez.

It shows a group of 5 or 6 people living in squalor on a "cooperative" that hasn`t produced one bit of produce in 5 years and they are saying Chavez gives them a sense of value and the ability to grow food.

It is like DUmmy TV. 

Help me out here, I have lived a long time with an antenna on the roof or rabbit ears on top of the TV to receive reception.    No one knew what I was watching, or what the intire neighborhood was or not watching, or State for that matter.   Same with radio, buy the divice and listen to what you wish and who is to know.  Something called the Neilson ratings came along, 20,000 family's country wide agreed to be tracked and if those few people did not like a program then off the air it went.

Along came cable and now what you watch can be tracked by the cable company.  From your home or work site.

Then there came up some thing about Digital or something that would make older perfectally working TV unable to operate without cable or roof top antennas without some kind of converter box one could in some cases get free from some government site.

What about radio now, how does the station or advertisers know just how many people are tuning in to them every day???

Is this a convenience for us or spying to find our soft spot to spend money.?

[VelvetElvis]

Help me out here, I have lived a long time with an antenna on the roof or rabbit ears on top of the TV to receive reception.    No one knew what I was watching, or what the intire neighborhood was or not watching, or State for that matter.   Same with radio, buy the divice and listen to what you wish and who is to know.  Something called the Neilson ratings came along, 20,000 family's country wide agreed to be tracked and if those few people did not like a program then off the air it went.

Along came cable and now what you watch can be tracked by the cable company.  From your home or work site.

Then there came up some thing about Digital or something that would make older perfectally working TV unable to operate without cable or roof top antennas without some kind of converter box one could in some cases get free from some government site.

What about radio now, how does the station or advertisers know just how many people are tuning in to them every day???

Is this a convenience for us or spying to find our soft spot to spend money.?

Here ya go.            

Better now?

[Doc]

Help me out here, I have lived a long time with an antenna on the roof or rabbit ears on top of the TV to receive reception.    No one knew what I was watching, or what the intire neighborhood was or not watching, or State for that matter.  Same with radio, buy the divice and listen to what you wish and who is to know.  Something called the Neilson ratings came along, 20,000 family's country wide agreed to be tracked and if those few people did not like a program then off the air it went.

Along came cable and now what you watch can be tracked by the cable company.  From your home or work site.

<snip>

Vesta......your cable company does not have the capability to know what you watch.

Audience measurements for television are done by a company called Nielsen.......the way that they measure audiences is that people (viewers) volunteer to have a "Nielsen meter" placed on their TV, and the meter tracks what that TV only is tuned to at any particular time.  It's a "random sample" of the audience that have the meters installed.

Much like political "polls", the audience statistics are drawn form this random sample of viewers that have a meter installed.  It doesn't matter whether you receive your signal from an antenna, cable, or satellite, the "meter" interacts with your TV receiver, and logs the programming that the family watches.  A phone line is plugged into the Nielsen meter, and it "reports" its accumulated data by dialing a toll-free number and uploading it in the middle of the night, after the TV set has been turned off.  It is all done with the participation of the family involved.

A different company (Arbitron) and procedure (manual logs) is used to develop radio ratings, but they too, are based on a random sampling of the audience.

doc

[thundley4]

Vesta......your cable company does not have the capability to know what you watch.

Audience measurements for television are done by a company called Nielsen, the way that they measure audiences is that people (viewers) volunteer to have a "Nielsen meter" placed on their TV, and the meter tracks what that TV only is tuned to at any particular time.  It's a "random sample" of the audience that have the meters installed.

Much like political "polls", the audience statistics are drawn form this random sample of viewers that have a meter installed.  It doesn't matter whether you receive your signal from an antenna, cable, or satellite, the "meter" interacts with your TV receiver, and logs the programming that the family watches.  A phone line is plugged into the Nielsen meter, and it "reports" its accumulated data by dialing a toll-free number and uploading it in the middle of the night, after the TV set has been turned off.  It is all done with the participation of the family involved.

A different company and procedure is used to develop radio ratings, but they too, are based on a random sampling of the audience.

doc

I wouldn't be too sure that the cable companies don't know what you're watching. When we went back to cable from satellite and had some problems, I called Comcast, and during the trouble shooting process, the woman I was talking had full control of both cable boxes.  Now whether they would be set up to monitor every one all the time might be a different matter.

[AllosaursRus]

I wouldn't be too sure that the cable companies don't know what you're watching. When we went back to cable from satellite and had some problems, I called Comcast, and during the trouble shooting process, the woman I was talking had full control of both cable boxes.  Now whether they would be set up to monitor every one all the time might be a different matter.

Yeah, cable and satellite can be tracked. How else could ya get Pay Per View? My satellite receiver has a place for a phone line. If you're not plugged in, no pay per view. The receiver dials up the provider sometime in the middle of the night and downloads it's info back to the office. I know this because when I was writin' bonds, the damn thing would tie my phone up for about ten minutes around 3 in the mornin'.

[Doc]

I wouldn't be too sure that the cable companies don't know what you're watching. When we went back to cable from satellite and had some problems, I called Comcast, and during the trouble shooting process, the woman I was talking had full control of both cable boxes.  Now whether they would be set up to monitor every one all the time might be a different matter.

Although cable (and satellite) companies have that capability for diagnostic purposes, AR is correct inasmuch as it can only be done through a phone connection for the return path.  Therefore, without tying up your phone line, it isn't done.  They have the capability to "see" and issue commands to the chipset in a cable box, but there is nowhere in the box to actually store viewer use data.

Most cable companies don't have the electronic sophistication to provide dependable ongoing service, let alone monitoring their subscribers.  I've been a number of cable "head-ends" as well as their master control facilities, and they simply are not that "high tech".

AT&T's "Uverse" system, which is delivering digital video on demand over "twisted pair" phone lines could possibly incorporate this ability.......in order to provide "programming on demand" assumes a return path for user data, but that would be the only current system with that ability.

doc

[DumbAss Tanker]

"Queef Olberdork slides farther into irrelevance"

As if 'Farther' was really possible at this point...

[AllosaursRus]

Although cable (and satellite) companies have that capability for diagnostic purposes, AR is correct inasmuch as it can only be done through a phone connection for the return path.  Therefore, without tying up your phone line, it isn't done.  They have the capability to "see" and issue commands to the chipset in a cable box, but there is nowhere in the box to actually store viewer use data.

Most cable companies don't have the electronic sophistication to provide dependable ongoing service, let alone monitoring their subscribers.  I've been a number of cable "head-ends" as well as their master control facilities, and they simply are not that "high tech".

AT&T's "Uverse" system, which is delivering digital video on demand over "twisted pair" phone lines could possibly incorporate this ability.......in order to provide "programming on demand" assumes a return path for user data, but that would be the only current system with that ability.

doc

I believe all the Broadband services that bundle their stuff together have the ability. Oh, and my receiver has the ability to store data. When we went to straight cell phone and got rid of the land line, one receiver still had 2 pay per view movies on it that didn't get uploaded to the office. They're still there and I have never seen them on the bill. So satellite has the ability to store info but without the land line it has no way of reporting it.

[TVDOC]

I believe all the Broadband services that bundle their stuff together have the ability. Oh, and my receiver has the ability to store data. When we went to straight cell phone and got rid of the land line, one receiver still had 2 pay per view movies on it that didn't get uploaded to the office. They're still there and I have never seen them on the bill. So satellite has the ability to store info but without the land line it has no way of reporting it.

True, a two-way continuous path is required.  Your satellite receiver has the ability to store a few kB of data for pay services billing, but nowhere near the capacity to store viewer history.  I use Dish Network,, and you can get into the diagnostics and setup menus and see the system RAM.  In my receiver it is only 15 kB.

Interactive TV is just being rolled out, and THAT includes a two-way path (i.e. UVerse), which incorporates technology similiar to T3/dsl to transmit streaming (and stored) video (both ways), but this technology is just coming on line.  Even with the capability, one would question WHY a provider would want that info on an ongoing basis.  With systems like UVerse, they KNOW what you are watching, because only one (or two, depending on how many receivers are in use) data streams (channels) are sent to your receiver at a time.  Far less bandwidth required to accomplish it this way than the old system of always having every channel available at the same time at the back of your TV receiver.

Digital cable, even bundled with VIOP and internet access uses a different system, which is rapidly being obsoleted by the interactive one.

This is an interesting subject, but it's off-topic for the thread......if someone wishes to continue we can start another thread. 

doc

[AllosaursRus]

Hey Doc, I started a thread in the Science Room if ya wanna continue this. I've gots a few more comments on this.

Follow me over if ya wanna put yer 2¢ in........ Here's the link....Big Brothjer and Your Cable/Satellite TV...

See ya there!