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Re:Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics by WorldMaker on Tuesday August 31, 2021 @12:59PM (#28370549)
Ironically, modern streaming apps have far more accurate numbers than anything Nielsen ever cooked up sampling people, but Netflix made the precedence that they should be "secret sauce" and not shared publicly and most of the "Streaming Wars" diaspora today are following that policy/precedent.

We're in something of a worst of both worlds situation where Nielsen has an increasingly small number of viewers where traditional TV boxes work to get decent samples, has to rely more than ever on surveys, and distrusts all streaming viewership numbers because they are cloak and dagger white lies between competitors, despite in theory being way more accurate than all the previous tools (the surveys and the TV boxes).

It's almost wild. The most forthcoming to shareholders/the general public over the years has been Hulu and Hulu's numbers at times have suggested Nielsen's data is very, very wrong right now, but Nielsen doesn't trust Hulu's data at all because it smells like lies because Netflix does nothing but lie or ghost them.

Re:Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics by nebula8804 on Tuesday August 31, 2021 @02:22PM (#28371622)
I have been exploring ways to avoid sending this data to them. To start: using an instance of Pi-Hole and running all your apps will remove some tracking from them.

Following this up with paying for your subscription but pirating all the shows might help remove you from the cycle completely.

I understand the second point is not realistic for the majority of people but I wonder if in the future we might have an easy to use version of Pi-Hole that most people can just flip on and strip a large chunk of tracking from the apps.

Re:Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics by WorldMaker on Tuesday August 31, 2021 @02:59PM (#28372068)
That just gets us back to the topic way above: if we aren't giving that tracking data to TV producers, it's tough to complain when our favorite nerdy/intelligent shows get cancelled.

That's the deep weird irony that we live in a world where we could have the best possible numbers (directly tracked statistics), and yet TV Producers are still relying (for the most part) on Phone and Snail Mail Survey Results because they don't think they can trust streaming provider numbers. Pi-Holing those numbers just gives those Producers even more reason to feel that they are lies or wrong. At what point do you Pi-Hole too many telemetrics to oblivion and aren't allowed to complain when your favorite TV shows get canceled because "no one" was watching it?

Re:Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics by nebula8804 on Tuesday August 31, 2021 @03:30PM (#28372422)
I guess this contributes to me watching less and less shows because I am tired of stuff being canceled midseason. It might be a self fulfilling prophecy. Less people watch these shows/appear to watch these shows, the networks stop producing it and these people don't come back to whatever the network does end up producing.

From what I am hearing, traditional forms of media are in decline because people are spending their time on Youtube/Twitch/Social media instead.