Sick of weather banners

[techguy1975]

I've said it before..I'll say it again...  Digital broadcast is not their bread and butter yet.  They make all their money off selling ad time on the ANALOG broadcast.  Neilsen does not measure ratings on digital yet.  Things will continue to be like this until next year when analog goes away, and stations & advertisers start seeing Neilsen numbers off of the digital broadcasts.  

Are they ****ing off viewers?  Yes, but it is still a small amount of people who have digital equipment,  Yes, the number is growing, but it is no where near the majority yet.  I'd be willing to bet money that this time next year, we will not be having this conversations.  The locals will have the equipment in place to overly weather graphics without having to drop to SD

[duncantuna]

Neilsen does not measure ratings on digital yet.  Things will continue to be like this until next year when analog goes away, and stations & advertisers start seeing Neilsen numbers off of the digital broadcasts.  

Umm .. not sure about that one.  In a strange twist, about 9 months ago, I was asked to be a Nielsen family.   They interviewed us, and came out to do an install on our TV.  

Long story short, it turns out they hook up cables to EVERY component in your rack.  They open the TV, cable box, DVD, stereo, and clip cables to every speaker.   -- The DVD player?  Yup.  They track every piece of media that's played on your TV, including rented DVDs.  

From asking questions of the installer, since they hack into the TWC DVR, they know exactly what channel you recorded, what you watched, what you didn't watch.  They know you're watching channel 504 and not 04.  

Now, whether or not they report all pieces of data to the networks, I know not.

The end of the story with my Nielsen install was .. they got to my one-box speaker system, called in another installer, made some calls, then after 2.5 hours of installing, came to me and said "Yeah, we can't figure out how to do this.  We're taking everything out and leaving."

I was half happy to see them go, since I really didn't want them performing extensive surgery on my system .. plus, anything I did in the future, they would have had to come out and re-wire.  

I would have enjoyed being your television overlord. -- I would have made it my mission to turn to PBS during every phony weather extravaganza these idiots put on.

(Plus, I would have single-handedly brought back the A-Team.)

[Jack 1000]

Umm .. not sure about that one.  In a strange twist, about 9 months ago, I was asked to be a Nielsen family.   They interviewed us, and came out to do an install on our TV.  

Long story short, it turns out they hook up cables to EVERY component in your rack.  They open the TV, cable box, DVD, stereo, and clip cables to every speaker.   -- The DVD player?  Yup.  They track every piece of media that's played on your TV, including rented DVDs.  

From asking questions of the installer, since they hack into the TWC DVR, they know exactly what channel you recorded, what you watched, what you didn't watch.  They know you're watching channel 504 and not 04.  

Now, whether or not they report all pieces of data to the networks, I know not.

The end of the story with my Nielsen install was .. they got to my one-box speaker system, called in another installer, made some calls, then after 2.5 hours of installing, came to me and said "Yeah, we can't figure out how to do this.  We're taking everything out and leaving."

I was half happy to see them go, since I really didn't want them performing extensive surgery on my system .. plus, anything I did in the future, they would have had to come out and re-wire.  

I would have enjoyed being your television overlord. -- I would have made it my mission to turn to PBS during every phony weather extravaganza these idiots put on.

(Plus, I would have single-handedly brought back the A-Team.)

Just to reiterate,

This was all voluntary, correct?  I thought that those cable boxes could not be opened without messing them up to prevent them from being hacked?  Did all of your equipment work OK after they left?

Jack

[duncantuna]

Actually, no, it's not voluntary.  One day a bunch of guys in a black van just show up with a judicial order from Judge Judy, and say, stand back, your TVs are going to be Nielsenized.

Kidding.  It's voluntary of course.  They called up one day out of the blue, asked just a few demographic questions.  2 months later, they called and asked more.  Next week, they called and said we were in.

As for the TV .. yeah, it worked the same after they left.  That being said, it died 9 months later.  I doubt the two events are linked.  They don't make them like they used to.  I have a TV in the basement that is 17 years old, never had a problem.  But in 7 years, this TV had service 3 times.

Indeed I was surprised they were opening the TWC box too .. I asked the installer the same thing .. do you have authorization to open that??  Yup, he said they have agreements with all the cable providers.  They put a device between the motherboard and disk drive, capturing everything.

[jarschmd]

I'd be willing to bet money that this time next year, we will not be having this conversations.  The locals will have the equipment in place to overly weather graphics without having to drop to SD

[/I]I hope to no end that you are right:) .  I've been complaining to the stations for the past 3 years, probably once a month, every month, in writing, no email.  Milwaukee is a somewhat backwards city, and I don't doubt that the network profits are coming from analog advertising.  I read somewhere about how Milwaukee is among the "worst prepared and/or aware" of major cities of the DTV switch that will happen in less than a year (despite the scrolling message on the bottom of the screen that I've been seeing for the past 4 months...)....

[REVM1M]

Here we go again with those idiots at Channel 4 with T-Storm WATCH, nothing on channel 6 or 12. :bang: :bang: :bang:

[jarschmd]

Oh no!!!!  Severe T-Storm WARNING 8-9-2008 @3:20 PM!!!!  TMJ4 absolutely has to mangle the HD Olympics coverage of once in every 4 YEARS for this so that NO ONE is unnecessarily at risk................FROM A THUNDERSTORM!  In DODGE COUNTY!  OH NO!  GOD FORBID HEAVY RAINFALL AND LIGHTNING!!!!!!!!!!!!  Get out of the shower, everyone!

Has anyone tried to contact GE or the NBC parent company?  This has just gotten out of control.

I'm getting OTA right now, but I would be ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS if were PAYING TWC or D* for this garbage HD, and now SD feed.

On top of that, the broadcasters complain about the proliferation of ppl watching programs via torrent or whatever other format people use nowadays.  If it weren't for the garbage quality controls of local network broadcasts, such as right now, they would have to deal with significantly less market loss via this outlet.

All I have to say is GigaNews.  Screw the locals.  The anchors think that they're celebrities; the locals think that they know what's best for the general idiot Milwaukee viewership, and the sad thing is that they're probably right.  Too many old ppl in Milw don't have a clue about content quality.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

As of 1 minute ago (3:38 PM CST), the weather banner was removed.  I'm still going to complain to NBC Corporate; I will go about this via investor relations at GE.

I encourage everyone else to do the same.  If you hold any mutual funds, odds are that you are an investor in GE.

I HATE LOCAL WEATHER BANNERS.  Damn them to hell.

[Milwaukee12]

Has anyone tried to contact GE or the NBC parent company?  This has just gotten out of control.

Why complain to GE or NBC?  They don't even own TMJ.  The Journal does.  And don't forget, WTMJ COVERS DODGE CONTY!!!.  What would happen if a severe thunderstorm would come through your area no there was no warning?  

I agree whole heartedly that the stations should get with the picture and overlay a small Warning in the corner.  WISN has the ability to add an HD crawl.  They should use it for warnings.

[techguy1975]

Oh no!!!!  Severe T-Storm WARNING 8-9-2008 @3:20 PM!!!!  TMJ4 absolutely has to mangle the HD Olympics coverage of once in every 4 YEARS for this so that NO ONE is unnecessarily at risk................FROM A THUNDERSTORM!  In DODGE COUNTY!  OH NO!  GOD FORBID HEAVY RAINFALL AND LIGHTNING!!!!!!!!!!!!  Get out of the shower, everyone!

See my post at the top of the page..   This will not change until after 2/19/09, when alot more eyes will be watching, and people will actually care.

[goldenear]

What would happen if a severe thunderstorm would come through your area no there was no warning?

Umm, nothing.  Chances are extremely remote that I will lose my life because I was not forewarned by the local broadcaster that a severe thunderstorm warning had been issued.  I think this was the primary beef jarschmd was ranting about.  I know I was absolutely furious as well.

Any idiot should be able to stick his head out the window or door and assess the situation himself.

[REVM1M]

post by Milwaukee12

What would happen if a severe thunderstorm would come through your area no there was no warning?




answer by REVM1M:
if I am that concern, I'll go and watch channel 4-2 or weather channel.

[TAS]

just buy a c-band satellite dish and watch the east / west cost national feeds.
you can also subscribe to satellite (many providers) and get other networks, that don't worship the weather.