Postwar Television

A. C. Nielsen Recordimeter

In 1954 A. C. Nielsen Corp., the dominant audience survey company, introduced a new device, called the Recordimeter, into the NAC diary sample. It sat on top of each TV set in the diary home, and its purpose was to "jog the laggard record keeper" to make entries current (by three short light flashes, plus three short buzzers each half hour). The Recordimeter also provided a measurement basis for rejecting diaries that materially overstated or understated tuning as measured by the Recordimeter. (The diary keeper jotted down in the diary the number of set-tuning minutes recorded by the Recordimeter.)

This device was used as part of a system by the A.C. Nielsen Company to collect the data on American TV watching habits Nielsen needed produce their TV show ratings. The main box would be put on top of the survey subject's TV set with the little tar potted "brick" hanging behind the set. This brick contains a circuit that detects when the TV is on, presumably by sensing the radiated 15.75KHz horizontal frequency.

The device has two basic functions. First, the counter on the front of the device keeps track of the total number of hours that the TV is on. Second,  it reminds the subject to manually record the channel they are watching with a light and buzzer. The knob on the front sets the reminder to three modes: OFF, reminder every half-hour when the TV is on, and constant reminder when the TV is on.

Thanks to Matthew D'Asaro, for purchasing this item and donating it to the musuem.