CRE Studies TV Ratings Nonresponders

A new study from the Council for Research Excellence gets to the heart of trust in TV ratings. Just who are those people who decline to participate in ratings? And if they did participate, would ratings change?The daunting task of getting nonresponders to step up was the goal of the CRE’s latest study, “Measuring the Unmeasured Television Viewer,” set to be released this week at the Advertising Research Foundation’s annual conference in New York. The study is long overdue—it’s been nearly 30 years since the last comprehensive study of nonresponders was conducted. Yet, every year research firms find it harder and harder—not to mention more expensive—to get people to participate in surveys. In the 1980s, more than 60 percent of people contacted would agree to cooperate. Now, response rates in the 40s are considered good.“This study revealed more about unmeasured viewers than any other effort,” said Ceril Shagrin, chair of the CRE nonresponse bias committee and evp of corporate research for Univision Communications. Getting nonresponders to respond to a nonresponse study is a conundrum. It took a year to collect data, a year to analyze, and it cost $2.1 million. The study of 2,300 nonresponders in metered markets and 9,000 nonresponders in diary markets dove into comparisons of how people watch TV, how they make program choices and their TV equipment. The study’s good news should elicit a sigh of relief from TV researchers. There is little evidence of bias in the ratings. That doesn’t mean that the conclusions have no practical value. “The more nonresponders that can be turned into responders, the greater the reliability of the ratings,” Shagrin said. One of the biggest findings was that noncooperators are more likely to have cable, DVRs, big screen TVs and more TVs. For those households that have high-end equipment, there may be more than a little trepidation about having Nielsen come in and wire up the equipment with meters. Noncooperators also do more unplanned viewing and are more likely to watch TV in groups. Noncooperators in metered markets spend less time listening to radio, but in diary markets, they spend less time at home and more time listening to the radio. Nielsen, which analyzed the data along with experts at the University of Michigan, was pleasantly surprised at the results. “We thought we were doing a good job reducing bias. It buttressed some of the notions we had about households with high-end equipment,” said Michael Link, chief methodological for Nielsen who oversees data collection methods for the research giant.While Nielsen’s response rates for its national people meter sample climbed from 33.4 to 46 over the last decade, keeping response rates from declining is a constant battle. “If we had done nothing over the last decade, response would significantly drop off to the point where you couldn’t have a quality service,” said Link.

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CRE Studies TV Ratings Nonresponders

Katy Bachman

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Katy Bachman