Modern TVs

How do the T V companies know how many TV sets are viewing their programmes?

Such as they can announce that 8,000000were watching the come dancing one?.

Public Comments

1. They do a random sample of several thousand people across the country, then do the maths on the percentage basis
2. I have long believed that - like Big Brother - tv sets are watching us. Be afraid - be very afraid!
3. It is done by an organisation called B.A.R.B. (Broadcasters Audience Research Board). Viewing estimates are obtained from a reporting panel of 5,100 television-owning private residential households, to represent the viewing behaviour of the 25+ million TV households within the UK. Households are selected to be representative of each ITV and BBC region, with each ITV region having a pre-determined sample size. On average each panel member represents about 5,000 of the UK population although this can vary owing to demographic representation and weighting requirements.