Posted: 02/14/07

You are what you watch
College TV viewing statistics are now available

Jon Ketchum | contributing writer
jketchum@smcvt.edu

The Nielsen Company has completed a pilot test which analyzed college TV viewing patterns. (Jon Ketchum, photo)

The random channel that acts as ambient noise to a dorm-room-get-together could now potentially shape future television viewing for all.

The Nielsen Company is an information gathering company which specializes in tracking media viewing statistics The company has recently expanded its sampling pool to include college students. By collecting and assessing data pertaining to television viewing, The Nielsen Company determines what is popular among viewers. The company then passes on this information to more than 80 cable networks, potentially resulting in new advertising campaigns and TV programming.

The Nielsen Company started media-tracking with radio in 1950, and it has monitored audiences ever since.

Now 57 years later, Nielsen is looking for new leverage among the media-tracking industry. Anne Elliot, vice president of marketing communications for The Nielsen Company says it is essential for the company to adopt the monitoring of college television viewing.

“By making the shift, we are just overcoming potential viewing resistance,” she says.

Watching students watching TV

In the past, The Nielsen Company surveys were conducted in random households. Households would then choose to participate in one of three surveys. Then, Nielsen’s engineers install a people meter next to the televisions, which calculates duration of viewing for select TV channels. Each family member is then assigned a button on the remote control. Before viewing, family members are asked to press their assigned button, sending data to The Nielsen Company's production facility in Florida.

However, within the past few years, the majority of 18-to-24-year-olds were not producing data, Elliot says. The Nielsen Company later discovered that the missing statistics directly correlated with students leaving their homes to attend college, she says. As a result, Nielsen has begun to plant people meters in dorm rooms.

“What we found was that the dorm room was a part of a person’s primary residence," Elliot says. "Your dorm room is really just an extension of your bedroom."

By monitoring college viewing, Elliot says she believes the company will gain efficiency in their data, resulting in better insight and revenue for Nielsen’s clients.

“We expect to get a much more accurate read on how TV is being viewed, and that’s our goal,” she says.

The results are in

Last November, The Nielsen Company conducted a pilot test to examine, on a smaller scale, television viewing of college students while at school. Based on the results, The Nielsen Company declared that a switch to accommodate college viewing statistics had to be made, Elliot says.

“What we found was that college students watched TV more as a whole than they had in their homes,” she says. “These increased ratings have a huge impact on our clients.”

In late January, Nielsen began tracking select college students on a full-time basis.

A student watches TV in his dorm room. Director of Telecommunications Andrew Day says students have the power to change what channels are made available. (Jon Ketchum, photo)

Instead of picking new students to survey randomly, Nielsen scouted members of an already monitored sample family. The company asked the parents of the surveyed households for consent to monitor their TV viewing while at college.

“It is very important to keep the extended household sample as accurate as possible,” Elliot says. “We want to stay ahead of the curve.”

After assessing the data from the test pilot, new statistics in the viewing patterns of 18-24-year-olds were discovered. These statistics are what clients such as MTV analyze closely, Elliot says.

“What we found was that women in college are watching a lot more Sports Center and men are watching more cartoons than they normally would,” she says. “Statistics showed that both men and women were watching more late-night TV while at college.”

Although The Nielsen Company has officially started tracking college viewers, the number of students surveyed is low. Elliot says of the 100 household samples that make up the data, only a select few of those homes have children who are away at college, Elliot says.

In the future, she says, The Nielsen Company will be constantly be monitoring new mediums for tracking. This could include computers, ipods, and cell phones.

College TV, believers and nonbelievers

Although Elliot says she believes students watch more television while at college, some students disagree. Sean Naughton, St. Michael’s College sophomore says he thinks college students watch less TV at school than at home. Watching at most, two hours of TV a day, Naughton says his schedule doesn’t permit viewing.

“Sometimes I’ll watch Animal Planet or the Discovery channel,” he says. “Other than that I don’t watch TV. The TV may be on most of the day, but that doesn’t mean I watch it.”

Sophomore Matt Winkler says he seldom watches TV, even though his dorm room has two televisions.

“I really only use the TV to watch movies or play video games, or to put me to sleep,” he says.

According to Andrew Day, Director of Telecommunications at St. Michael’s College, the campus television package does not reflect student interest or viewing. Day says this year’s addition of National Geographic and G4 had little to do with student viewing statistics.

“New TV packages come around a lot,” he says. “If it is within our budget then we will purchase it.”

Although St. Michael’s programming is not selected to match the demand of the viewers, Day says students have the power to change what channels are available by contacting the Student Association.

“Anytime the S.A. wants to revisit programming we’ll do it,” he says.

However, Jerry Barnes, Chief Executive Officer of Falls Earth Station, St. Michael’s programming provider, says the prices of the TV packages are indicative of network ratings. Barnes says the package prices depend on network popularity.

“If you look at the prices for ESPN, it’s almost half the total package cost,” he says.

However, for students like Winkler, TV is not a major part of the college experience, he says.

“There’s so much to do other then watch TV when you’re at college,” he says. “There are so many other outlets that St. Michael’s provides. Why would you choose to watch TV?”