Deck 9: Audience Measurement

Question 1

Television ratings in all local markets take place

A)twice a year.
B)four times a year.
C)six times a year.
D)each month.
E)according to market size.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Ratings reports for syndicated television shows are provided by

A)Nielsen.
B)Arbitron.
C)RADAR.
D)Gallup.
E)SRI.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Data used in compiling "sweeps" information for most markets are obtained from

A)aided recall interviews.
B)passive meters.
C)people meters.
D)viewer diaries.
E)theater testing.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Nielsen's regular broadcast network television ratings are based on

A)a sample of people-metered homes.
B)television diaries from twenty-two key cities.
C)passive meters in ten key cities.
D)a combination of television diaries and passive-metered homes.
E)overnight diaries in the top fifty markets.

Question 5

The only service that provides ratings for network radio is

A)Arbitron.
B)Nielsen.
C)Cassandra.
D)RADAR.
E)NSI.

Question 6

Which of the following statements reflects the networks' initial response to people meters?

A)Very favorable because network ratings showed a large increase.
B)Moderately favorable because network ratings showed a modest increase.
C)Moderately unfavorable because of the added expense.
D)Unfavorable because network ratings dropped.
E)Indifference because ratings did not change.

Question 7

Viewer diaries for daily ratings

A)provide a problem-free method of data collection.
B)have a few problems, but nothing that affects the validity of the sample.
C)have problems due to distorted reporting and diary fatigue.
D)have major problems due to theft, hyping, and expense.
E)are as reliable as telephone coincidentals yet less expensive.

Question 8

In the future, researchers may replace people meters with

A)diaries.
B)Audimeters.
C)telephone coincidentals.
D)telephone recall.
E)passive peoplemeters.

Question 9

Sampling simplifies three aspects of ratings research

A)behavior, time, and number of people.
B)opinions, attitudes, and number of people.
C)sample frames, demographics, and psychographics.
D)error, probability, and response rate.
E)opinions, demographics, and number of people.

Question 10

Regardless of method, audience measurement is based on

A)convenience sampling.
B)random selection.
C)saturation analysis.
D)amended computations.
E)sampling effects.

Question 11

The concept of diminishing returns is used to explain

A)choice of sample size.
B)random digit dialing techniques.
C)response rate.
D)sampling error.
E)market definition.

Question 12

To draw a random sample for a local market survey, researchers often begin with

A)updated telephone directories or census tracts.
B)interviews of people at local shopping malls.
C)county tax records.
D)auto license records.
E)voter registration lists.

Question 13

Sampling error refers to

A)mistakes made in gathering data.
B)statistical laws of probability.
C)difference between a rating and a share.
D)sample turnover.
E)cume ratings for radio programming.

Question 14

Which of the following would not describe Designated Market Areas?

A)A DMA is comprised of one or more counties in which the stations are most viewed.
B)A DMA is comprised of a station's county of license.
C)DMAs are larger in the West where cities are farther apart than in the eastern United States.
D)A county may be assigned to more than one DMA if television signals from competing stations in different markets are received there.
E)Each county is assigned to only one DMA.

Question 15

Which of the following best explains the relationship between ratings and share figures?

A)Shares will be larger than ratings for the same time period.
B)Ratings will be larger than shares for the same time period.
C)Shares and ratings are typically the same for a given time period.
D)Ratings and shares vary inversely to each other.
E)No relationship exists because you cannot predict shares based on ratings.

Question 16

If a prime-time network program has a 30 rating and a 40 share, and there are 100 million U.S.households, in approximately how many of those households was there at least one person watching the program?

A)10 million
B)30 million
C)40 million
D)60 million
E)70 million

Question 17

If a television programmer wants to know how he or she is doing against the competition, he or she would assess the program's

A)HUT.
B)sample.
C)share.
D)PUR.
E)cume.

Question 18

Which measurement unit is widely used in radio to measure how many different listeners tuned to a radio station?

A)Cume
B)Persons Using Radio (PUR)
C)Quarter-hour ratings
D)Daypart share figures
E)Drive-time ratings

Question 19

The greatest abusers of the current ratings system are

A)advertisers, who insist on quantitative rather than qualitative data.
B)audience members who, when chosen to be part of a ratings sample, alter their viewing and listening habits.
C)advertisers, networks, and stations, which treat figures as precise measurements rather than as estimates.
D)ratings services, which ignore sampling error when preparing data.
E)programmers, who insist on qualitative rather than quantitative data.

Question 20

The term "hyping," when applied to broadcast ratings, means that

A)someone deliberately manipulates ratings data.
B)data favorable to client stations are used and unfavorable data are discarded.
C)devious statistical methods are used to inflate the true figures.
D)inaccurate data are entered into the ratings mix.
E)special contests and/or atypical programs are aired by the station being measured.

Question 21

Former CBS programming chief Paul Klein developed a theory he calls __________ to explain why people may stay tuned even if they don't like any programs on the air.

A)audience passivity syndrome
B)"the medium is the message"
C)least objectionable program
D)tuning inertia
E)TV as habit

Question 22

In the late 1990s, broadcast television network viewing share during prime time was down to __________ percent.

A)40
B)45
C)50
D)55
E)60

Question 23

Local cable audiences

A)are easier to measure than national audiences because of the Nielsen Cable Audience Reports.
B)require about the same amount of effort to measure as national audiences.
C)are more difficult to measure than national cable audiences.
D)are easier to measure than broadcast audiences because of Nielsen's services.
E)cannot be measured using current methods.

Question 24

VCRs give viewers more control over their time in all of the following ways except ability to

A)timeshift.
B)develop a permanent home library.
C)view purchased or rented tapes.
D)watch tapes made with home camcorders.
E)switch rapidly among several channels.

Question 25

This company collects data from panels of web users who have installed software that track their Internet use.

A)traffic Analytics
B)Arbitron
C)SRI
D)comScore
E)World Wide Web

Question 26

Audience research that relies on focus groups for data collection is concerned primarily with participants'

A)attitudes and opinions.
B)time spent watching television.
C)media use measurement.
D)objective actions.
E)physiological reactions to stimuli.

Question 27

PPM and RADAR are the two most important ratings research companies.

Question 28

Network television ratings are based on people-meter research.

Question 29

In random digit dialing, researchers use computer generated telephone numbers, not phone books.

Question 30

Ratings and shares are precise, exact measurements.

Question 31

Stations and networks do not engage in hyping during sweeps weeks.

Question 32

Among various groups of viewers, teenagers watch the most television.

Question 33

Cable television determines its potential audience on the basis of number of homes passed by cable.

Question 34

DVR penetration surpasses that of cable.

Question 35

Internet site providers and their advertisers want to know both how many people access these sites and how long they remain online.

Question 36

Most television and radio stations take phone calls and letters from viewers more seriously than systematically gathered data.

Question 37

How do Arbitron and Nielsen collect and use data on audiences for local, network, and syndicated clients?

Question 38

Describe the advantages and disadvantages for four of the following six different methods of gathering ratings data: diaries, passive meters, people meters, coincidentals, recall, and personal interviews.

Question 39

How are ratings, HUT, and shares derived?

Question 40

Outline the uses and abuses of ratings.

Question 41

Describe the differences and similarities among broadcast, cable, DVR, and Internet audiences.