In a way, 2,000 of these things already exist. The 2,000 people who own them determine the T.V. ratings for the whole country. I think the margin of error is too large. How about a cablebox that tells your cable provider what shows you are watching. If all the cableboxes had this function, the margin of error would be 0, insuring good shows don't go off the air because none of only 2,000 people watch them and bad shows that a few of these people like would finally dissapear.

Everyone in the house would have thier own remote that not only controlled the T.V. but had its own frequency that would tell the cablebox exactly who is watching what. (What channels the teenage rs are watching vs. what channels the senior citizens are watching, rich vs. poor, men vs. women, ect.)

Some people would think this is an invasion of privacy, so for their sake this function would be optional. If you agree to participate and fill out a survey for demographic purposes (age, househould income, ect.)you get a few bucks off your cable bill or a free chanel or something. The cable companies could sell the information on who's watching what to the networks and advertisers, saving you, the consumer, money.
-- Pac-man, Jan 26 2006

Time Warner is already doing this http://www.business.../05_27/b3941093.htm
"It takes about 30 hours to detect the makeup of a household -- say, frat house, vs. nuclear family -- and store it, and about 25 clicks of the remote to tell who's clicking." [DrCurry, Jan 26 2006]

Too big-brother-ish for me, sorry. They already tap our phone lines and listen to our cell phone calls, the last thing I want is for them to know what TV I'm watching.

Besides, I watch a lot of softcore porn on HBO and Cinemax.

Regardless, still a [+] for it's originality.
-- DeliveranceRiverBoatCaptain, Jan 26 2006


Given that cable boxes *are* smart these days, I would be surprised if they aren't already doing this thing.

Yup - see link.
-- DrCurry, Jan 26 2006


With the addition of DVRs I think that if a cable box could do this, it should also let the company know which shows I recorded, how long I kept a show before I watched it, which one I watched first, and which ones I kept after watching it. I would do it without a monetary reward.

(+) for this, I have often thought this should be done.
-- PollyNo9, Jan 26 2006


I can't imagine my digital cable (VDSL) provider not knowing what I'm watching. They're sending three MPEG-2 streams to my network address. My remote control tells the set top box to tell the provider's box via 2 way network connection (using frame relay, if I remember correctly) which "channel" to send on each of the three streams.

If they don't know what I'm watching, it's because they choose not to know.
-- half, Jan 26 2006


In your case, I guess that's entirely understandable.
-- DrCurry, Jan 26 2006


This is baked on Comcast's network.
-- Shz, Jan 27 2006



random, halfbakery