How do they do it?

[Grenademan]

I'm just oh so curious.

How do free-to-air stations know what program has higher ratings?

My outrageous theories are as follows:

1. They have spies that hide in the bushes outside people's windows to see what people are watching on TV. The spies then report back to the Evil Overlords.
2. The spies hide in crowded areas and try to listen for anyone talking about a particular show.
3. They use a strange device that 'knows' when a particular program is being viewed. It then adds up teh total.
4. Ummm...they ask people what they watch?
5. Ring you up at 3am asking you what program you enjoyed watching.
6. They just 'know'.
7. Internet polls?
8. They're pyschic?

I really dont know what method they use. Personally, I hate free to air TV these days. Nothing is ever good on anymore, I remember when they used to have movies on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Nowadays its some kind of reality trash or hopeless soap operas.

Screw TV...You let me down!

Channel 10 is to blame. DEATH TO CHANNEL 10!! You know who channel 10 is dont ya Mike?

[Lakie]

Channel 10 is a necessary evil, yes they do boradcast big brother and yes some executives shoudl be charged with treason for that, but on the other hand they do broadcast the simpsons and futurama...

[Grenademan]

The Simpsons are 'ok' but after 16 years of watching the same episodes over and over and over again does get boring. ESPECIALLY the Christmas ones...yeck.

Futurama though is short lived. Channel 10 keeps replaying the same season in same fashion as the Simpsons. What makes it worse though, is that they always play the first season of Futurama over and over again. So every two or trhee weeks we'll be seeing Fry entering the year 3000 again...

And OH YES...Big bloody Brother. Thats just pitiful. And what about neighbours? That show is so ridiculous! The writers dont even do any research about certain things in that show. For example, a Russian comes to that street whatever its called, but the characters keep referring to the Russian as a 'Soviet'. Didnt the Soviets disband years and years ago?

What else...THE BIGGEST LOSER! That show is even worse than BB (no not you BB...

Hmmm...Channel 10 news is pretty wierd too. They keep reporting to us about things we already know! Like this one time they told us that 'UFOs do exist, but they dont always have something to do with aliens'.

WELL DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH I yelled out whilst half asleep. Anyone with half a brain would know that.

Hmmm...and at around 2am, they ALWAYS play the same Kylie Minogue documntary...EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, THE SAME ONE!!

Then after that its some mormon show which is really, really scary. Seriously.

And then there's the endless line up of crime and murder shows. BO-RING as Homer would say.

And then the rest of the reality crap that comes with it. Who watches this stuff!?

And the worst thing are Channel 10's murderous and merciless ADVERTISEMENTS!!! They always have a friggin ad break every five minutes, the ads are ALWAYS louder than the actual TV show.

But the worst ads are the ones for their TV shows. I hate them...HATE HATE HATE . It makes channel 10 seem like they are over-obsessed with their lame TV shows. But WORST OF ALL

WE GET ADS DURING A TV SHOW. Like those bars that flip up from the bottom of the screen and end up taking half the screen, demanding that you "WATCH THIS SHOW CUZ ITS COOOOL" or something. I mean come on, cut us some slack here, we're not supposed to be getting ads during TV shows, thats what the ad breaks are for!

Christ almighty...my hatred for channel 10 burns as brightly as a dying star...the only DECENT show worth watching is Battlestar Galactica, which unfortuanately, they always shift into different time slots, so we never really know when its on. Even when we do finally find it, its already nearly finished, or just ending.

DEATH TO CHANNEL 10! I rant. WHO'S WI----OH CRAP! I GOTTA GO TO WORK!!

*hurrys off*

[Lakie]

The Simpsons are 'ok' but after 16 years of watching the same episodes over and over and over again does get boring. ESPECIALLY the Christmas ones...yeck.

Im with you on the Christmas episodes, i feel the same way bout the Halloween ones, but common, some of the episodes are classic, homer goes to college, they dont put that episode on enough...

Numb3rs is pretty good, so is NCIS and 10 recently got letterman of Nine...

They also have the AFL..

Only decent reality TV was the first 2 seasons of the Mole over on 7

Like i said, a necessary evil...

[Chels]

Uhm, I just miss the old shows all together.

Pinky and the brain, angry beavers.

What ever happend to the old shows.

I hate the new things, Jimmy neutron? I HATE the 3D shows...and I can't help but sit on the couch and rest then my sister walks in and flips to Danny Phantom.

UGH!

[Bustin]

haha Pinky and the Brain! I miss Bonkers, Bobby's World, Dark Wing Duck, Duck Tales.

All the good cartoons

[Chrispy]

The Biggest Loser pwns lol. They had it on here Aussie version a couple of weeks ago...

Adro won at the very end lol... and he lives in NSW... (*hint* *hint* )

Yes, I hate those Christmas episodes of The Simpsons lol, but over here they finished airing the 2006 episodes. They make new episodes every year but the sad thing is, they can only make so much...

Agreed Vix, I seriously hate some of those 3dish cartoons like Jimmy Neutron too... a wannabe Bill Gates with Atom Syndrom lol...

Yes over here in NZ the ads are louder than the shows yes...

And those ads they pop up when a show is running? Meh, that used to happen, but not anymore lol...

I totally hate the soaps too...

If anyone wants to rant about TV channels, this is the place lol.

Chris

[Hellfighter]

only one i not crazy about the most is that on top of my list> Monkey robot team

[JonM]

tv is fine where i'm at...except little kid shows are really lame now. spongebob can be funny occassionaly (lol) but other than that kids shows are gay. and i don't even really watch anything except when my lil bros ahve the tv or it's the office (us version).

[Grenademan]

Originally posted by Chrispy
The Biggest Loser pwns lol. They had it on here Aussie version a couple of weeks ago...

Adro won at the very end lol... and he lives in NSW... (*hint* *hint* )

And those ads they pop up when a show is running? Meh, that used to happen, but not anymore lol...

How could you possibly enjoy such a lard-ass show!? I hate it to death! I couldnt care less about anyone in it! And SO WHAT if someone from that show lives in the same state as me!? I COULDNT GIVE TWO S***!!!

And yes, naturally, the pop-up ads still persist.

Hey Mike, what about that really unsuccesful show "Yasmins getting married" that came on shortly after big brother finally ended? ROFL, that getting married show lives for a whole 3 days i think. What a debacle that was, especially since channel 10 pounded us with ads 24/7 about it.

And onto the simpsons again...I agree that most of those episodes are great and I enjoy watching them a few times over, but like i said, teh christmas ones drive me insane. The 'Tree house of horror' ones are ok. But I dont really like the new simpsons. They just aren't as funny as they used to be. They've now become about as funny as the common American comedy...

Something in one episode did humour me though, and it reminded me of my antics at work.

Bart is off at some brotherl helping an old lady and Homer is home alone watching TV and some ad comes on saying:

"Do you know where your child is?"
and Homer responds
"I told you last night, NO!"

ROFL!!! I do the same with this ad that plays over the speakers at work.

"What are you cooking tonight?"
I respond
"I told you last night, I DONT KNOW!"

Heh

[Grenademan]

So back to the original question...how do free to air TV stations know what show has high ratings?

[Lakie]

I could have sworn i answered this...
http://www.oztam.com.au/html/

or more specifically
http://www.oztam.com.au/pdf/tv_ratin...ngsprocess.pdf

[Grenademan]

Ahhh so thats the secret formula.

In any case; down with channel 10!