• TV Week, Monday, May 11, 2009 9:34 AM

Many people have no clue just how Nielsen collects data from consumers because the company shrouds its process in secrecy. Media columnist Joef Adalian was one of those in the dark -- until his mother was recently sent a Nielsen diary to track her viewing.

He says that among the surprising steps in the diary process is requesting participants to list every channel they get on their TV and the city from which the station originates. It's an odd request in an era in which the average TV consumer has access to more than 100 channels. He also notes that nowhere in the diary is there any mention of how to tally programs watched using a digital video recorder. "In Nielsen's diary-based world, TiVo apparently has not yet been invented," writes Adalian. Ten lines in the back of the diary are provided to write down shows recorded using a VCR.

Paper diaries aren't nearly as important to Nielsen rating as electronic people meters, but "it's pretty shocking that Nielsen is still spending millions on a diary system that has no connection to modern TV viewing," he concludes.

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