My new television set by Brandon KingIs big brother watching you?
A guest post from eduation provider EduCare.

No, basically what happens is that there is a nationwide panel of television-owning private homes that together represent the viewing habits of the 26 million TV households within the UK. Each individual panel home represents about 5,000 of the population.

Households on the panel are carefully selected to ensure they are representative of a certain segment of the population (broadcast area, age, income, lifestyle, social status etc.) When the household agrees to join the panel their home has all their television sets, video and DVD recorders electronically monitored by a meter (a small box placed by the TV and connected to it). The box is also connected to a master monitoring meter controlled by BARB – the Broadcasters' Audience Research Bureau. It's their job to provide the official statistics. Read more of this post