Quote:
Originally Posted by wao
...do the ratings count people who've left their recorders on for the show in question? I imagine a lot of people actually watch the latenight shows by recording them. (This is just my guess) If those aren't counted then perhaps the latenight shows are more popular than they may seem....
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I'm not familiar enough with the technology to be sure from what I have read in
Video Research's FAQ. It refers to "terebi" as what the "people meters" in the sample homes track: whether they're on and what channel they're tuned to. If the PVR always works through a TV, then I guess it's counted. But if the signal goes directly to the recorder, then maybe it isn't. I kind of think it would be counted, but I'm not sure. Maybe someone else who understands the technology and reads Japanese more easily can check the FAQ. I myself don't see any direct reference to how recorders are counted, although everything else is covered in great detail.
From what I can gather, I think you're right that a large proportion of the people who "watch" late-night shows do it by recording them. That helps explain the obsessive attempts at accuracy on
Shoboi Calendar.
Many anime are so much more entertaining and interesting than most other TV that you do wonder how people can prefer the other stuff. Does this mean anime-watchers are the weird ones, or just that we have better taste? lol. I do think that the association anime=kid stuff is so strong that people just click past anime without really checking it out. Of course, sensible people are asleep when most of the good shows are on, so they never know what they're missing.
EDIT: rooboy makes some good points. The whole purpose of the exercise is to tell broadcasters and advertisers what people are watching. VR makes a point of metering viewership of commercials as well as of shows. But it still comes down to exactly how the people meters work. Video Research samples 66,000 households around Japan, using directly connected people meters and meters that work through computers (from the TV), as well as hand-recorded diaries. I'm not sure if metered people also fill out diaries.