Design effects in people-meter panel research

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In the world of television-making, the media industry relies on measurements from a people-meter panel in order to find out how many people watch a certain program or commercial on television. A people-meter panel is a special-purpose panel in which the television-watching behavior of household members is measured using a special device attached to television sets. The measuring device can also register the television-watching behavior of guests to the panel homes. The reliability of estimates based on the people-meter panel primarily depends on the sample size. Due to the complexity of the sample design, the effective sample size cannot be determined straightforwardly. This is even more the case when one incorporates the viewing behavior of guests. This paper describes a methodology that determines effective sample sizes by computing design effects and which extends the methodology in such a way that it incorporates 'guest viewing'.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)409-445
Number of pages37
JournalCommunications
Volume31
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2006

Keywords

  • Cluster effects
  • Effective sample size
  • Guest viewing
  • Television ratings
  • Weighting effects

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