Is Nielsen THAT Important?

[Mericalis]

Originally Posted by oldmike

most out side this war dont know whats selling unless its in the news

Again, if you read my post, you will see that I said "informed" people and there are those out there who are still looking who are informed.

And to your suggestion about "unless it's in the news"...you need to add "or in commercial advertising", which Disney has done excellent at here in the past couple of months getting advertisements out for our great format.

[DealsR4theDevil]

How much do these Nielsen Video Scan numbers really matter? I mean look, we have won every week this year by a significant margin, and yet according to this article, "Sony CEO sees 'stalemate' in disc fight," we have a long fight ahead of us. Paramount movies were selling better on Blu than on HD DVD, but that didnt stop them from leaving. Now Warner movies are selling better on Blu than HD DVD (like they pretty much alwasy have), yet Warner is still "considering" which side they want to support.

All this talk about "voting with our dollars" sounds great in theory, but in reality "our dollars" dont matter in this small market. We could have a 80:20 lead and Microsoft or Toshiba can write a check and have a firesale and we are back to a stalemate. I'm tired of "cheap" moves on the HD DVD side, I am tired of the format war, and I am tired of worrying every week about these damn Nielsen numbers. We have had a consistant 64:36 lead this entire year and Blu-ray is winning every market outside of the U.S. with bigger margins. How is HD DVD still alive? Just cause its cheap? What ever happen to people wanting a quality product?

[JimPullan]

Very well put DealsR4theDevil, especially your very last sentence where you said "What ever happen to people wanting a quality product?".
Ever wonder what percentage of the total membership here are 'calm' as opposed to paranoid, fearful, and skepticical?, where everyone's a troll unless they agree with them. Until recently, I came here for accurate information, clarification, and understanding, but now I see only strife and division amongst the members (generally), going at 'each other' as if mortal enemies, questioning the integrity of each post, whether the post has merit or not. Most here have no clue what a healty debate entails. I remember I took some classes that involved debating, and I was prepared, did all my research, ready for bear, then the Professor switches your role to the other side. Boy, did I learn quick the constructive elements of debate!

Now, I have to be very careful of the exact wording of a post I'll make, not to be misconstrued and labeled a 'Troll'. I've come to hate that word! [Jim]

[Anthony P]

I'm a newbie here and I see many mentions about whether a store reports to Nielsen or not all the time. And that's fine as this is one way for the industry to share sales numbers with the public and gives everyone an idea of what the sales of each format are, comparatively. But really, don't you think that the real #'s for sales are relatively available to the execs at each company. The Nielsen numbers are more like the Dow Jones Industrial Average, giving a snapshot of what's going on. I think the decision makers at WB and Fox, etc all prefer knowing what the sales numbers are internally when looking at how each format is selling. No?

the only people questioning the numbers are people that don't like what the numbers are showing. As for the "real numbers" the answer is no. Studios don't know how many are selling directly. They know what the stores and distributors ordered but they don't have the sales numbers because the studio won't call every store and ask "so how many did you sell today" the studios pay big money to VS and others to get the numbers and then combine them to get a better idea. But if you think every mom and pop store out there calls in and says "our general store at the corner of main street and no where in tinyville sold 2 copies" then you are way off.

PS they would also need to know how many copies of the other movies got sold as well.