Television-Do They Monitor What I Watch?

I remember when I was young, we would get telephone calls asking what we were watching on TV at that moment. I believe that is how the Nielsen ratings work. Well, that doesn't happen anymore, yet the ratings are still there. Is it possible that Verizon, Cable Vision, or whoever your provider can provide info on what Im watching? The second I hear the word obama on anything but a political show or some nonsense comes on about how Blacks are superior to Whites in every way and were the real inventors of everything from nuclear energy to the diesel engine but Whites re-wrote the history books I change the channel immediately. Did I just vote?

As I understand it you fill out a survey, or you can signup to have a device installed at your house to monitor your habits. So no, they are not aware of your viewing indiscretions.


From Wikipedia:
Measuring ratings

Nielsen television ratings are gathered in one of two ways:

Viewer "diaries", in which a target audience self-records its viewing or listening habits. By targeting various demographics, the assembled statistical models provide a rendering of the audiences of any given show, network, and programming hour.

A more technologically sophisticated system uses Set Meters, which are small devices connected to televisions in selected homes. These devices gather the viewing habits of the home and transmit the information nightly to Nielsen through a "Home Unit" connected to a phone line. The technology-based home unit system is meant to allow market researchers to study television viewing habits on a minute to minute basis, seeing the exact moment viewers change channels or turn off their TV.

I was contacted by nielsen about a month ago. They wanted to wire me up for ratings, I declined.

I have comcast and their "On Demand" box. You can watch pay-per-view or free movies, TV shows, concerts, etc anytime at your convenience. Since you're sending info back to comcast on what you want to watch on their "on demand" section. they know what you are watching. It probably works the same way for the regular channels too.