It's only as accurate as the information given by the users it surveys and I am one of many I am sure that click away at random check boxes of surveys just to get the reward.

As for your son of 5 choosing Xbox360, at that age he will choose whatever you project on him to be the most fun.

Spend a few weeks saying 'x' item is horrible, ugly, bad etc and I think you will find that is also his opinion after a while meaning you're' 'my 5 year old son prefers..' isn't really that useful.

altho i use my wii a lot (mainly just mkwii, wii fit, and the internet channel, for hd tv net) none of my friends use theirs anymore too much

which bugs me, cus we could be playing online!

nielson families are houses that have a special device attached to the tv.

The tv records all activity and each user gets a password. Each user must enter their password before doing anything with the tv. If they leave the room for whatever reason they must turn off the box and then re-enter the password when they return. A password must be used for a everyone using the tv.
Oftentimes these families have more than one tv, so the viewers turn on whatever channel another room is watching, if the primary user is not using the set.
This is not completely based on checking boxes off on a slip of paper. Those reports are only used as supplemental information whereas the actual set-boxes themselves are the primary means of information gathering.

These are regular surveys done over the internet, I do one like this each month on average.

I am currently also doing one for alcohol consumption lasting almost 10 months for a really great reward...

but it can be a nuisance making up data when you're teetotal! :0P

yeah, what I mean is, mail based surveys are not the only data that nielsen draws upon. There are several different venues.

How did you sign up for those, if you did?

The fact that the Wii has the lowest avg usage per household should surprise absolutely no one.

That's the demographic the Wii (and DS) are aiming at!! It's further proof that Nintendo is successfully breaking into the 'casual' and formerly non-gaming populance. These people didn't play VG consoles at all prior to Wii. Nor are they suddenly going to start playing like the 'core' gamers that will spend hours a night playing. They'll play a few times a month or a few minutes a day with the odd enthusiast (mostly kids or Nintendofans) boosting the avg up.

This thread is incorrectly titled because the fact show Wiis are being played regularly and not sitting in closets. Just not enthusiastically and that's expected because that's not it's target audience.

As long as Wii owners continue to buy new games to play - which this shows they do in comparable numbers to other systems - then Nintendo and 3rd parties are happy. Who cares if they play it for 10hrs over the course of a year as opposed to 10hrs over a weekend and then resell it. In fact, 3rd parties would prefer the former.

I signed up many years ago when not many were doing online surveys and from them got invitations from other companies.

I retain membership of the ones who pay well and disreguard the others.

Just being a member of 2 or 3 pays for all my games, consoles and electronic devices each year from Amazon as most rewards are payed in vouchers rather than cash.

these are measurement from devices that are permanently plugged into the tv's, not a survey that randomly comes in the mail or calls your phone.  Once you are a nielson family and they install their equipment they measure everything on the TV, including the DVD player, VCR's, Videogames, and DVR usage.  I am not sure if they do every TV in the house though.

No kids can afford a 399$ machine. And I doubt that their parents are going to spend that amount for them when they can just get the 199$ arcade or a Wii. This is why Sony badly needs a price cut right now, but I don't think they can afford it right now, at least, not until Christmas.

Interesting information, thanks.