Remember in 1985's "Max Headroom," set "20 minutes into the future," how TV ratings were measured by the minute? A year from now, Max Headroom's future will arrive as Nielsen changes the way it measures TV ratings in Pittsburgh.

Currently during sweeps months -- February, May and November are the most important -- Nielsen measures a sample of the viewing audience to determine not only who is watching the different channels, but what demographics these viewers fall into (gender, age, etc.). TV stations use the data to sell commercial time to advertisers.

While the number of viewers watching has been measured by meters daily since 1995, demographic ratings are gathered only during sweeps months. But beginning next summer, Nielsen will measure demographics daily with the installation of Local People Meters in 600 local homes. (Diaries now go to about 486 homes; meters are in about 500 homes.)

What will that mean? In the 14 local markets that currently use LPMs, younger-skewing stations saw a boost from the new meters. Viewing in time periods when young people are more likely to watch also increased, according to WTAE director of sales Bob Bee. That's not surprising: Older viewers are more likely to keep up with filling in their ratings diaries; younger viewers are more likely to be comfortable with the remote control used with LPM boxes.

While current meters simply record when the TV is tuned to a certain station, LPMs require each person in the home to note he or she is watching by hitting a button on the LPM remote that's programmed with his or her particular demographic data. The box will also prompt viewers to hit a button again to make sure they're still watching if they stay tuned to the same channel for more than 30 minutes.

Bee said household ratings declined on average by 9.3 percent in markets with LPMs but viewing by adults ages 18-49 increased by 23.1 percent. While the number of homes using television declines, the number of persons using television increases, reflecting a shift in how advertisers use television to get their messages out.

Bee said the TV industry and advertisers originally pitched consumer goods based on the notion of the nuclear family. But purchases for the household by one individual, usually a stay-at-home mom, has changed to individuals making purchases.

"It used to be that households bought a car, a TV set, a brand of toilet paper," Bee said. "But if you visit a friend with multiple people living in that house, you'll find multiple brands of shampoo, multiple bars of soap."

Switching from diaries to year-round LPMs increases the cost to collect ratings to TV stations by 20 to 25 percent, Bee said. For that reason, some stations may not be enthusiastic about the change, but Bee said Hearst-Argyle, the owner of WTAE, has been bullish on the new technology.

WPXI general manager Ray Carter was unavailable for comment, but KDKA general manager Chris Pike said LPMs are becoming the industry standard.

"It's one of those technological changes," Pike said. "We'll go from analog to digital permanently next year and from meters to people meters. Digital television required us to do a lot more significant investments in equipment."

What will LPMs mean for the way local news is presented? It could lead to all-sweeps-all-the-time on local newscasts. Or maybe the concept of sweeps will die altogether. More likely, viewers will see an evolution to more targeted promotion of newscast features.

"I hope it will give us a less sporadic sweeps mentality and replace it with a more consistent promotion scheme," said WTAE news director Bob Longo. "Hopefully you'll see different types of stories year-round rather than hot and heavy just a few months of the year."

"We're not planning on doing anything dramatically different," Pike said.

LPMs will start gathering data next April and then will gather demographics concurrently with diaries in May, switching to just LPM data collection in July 2009. In the meantime, some local TV station executives may look west for a preview of how LPMs will impact local ratings: Cleveland, a similar TV market, makes the switch to LPMs in September.

For details on who's up and who's down in the most recent demo ratings, read Tuned In Journal at post-gazette.com/tv.

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In this week's Tuned In Podcast, we check in with former WTAE meteorologist Don Schwenneker. Subscribe or listen at post-gazette.com/podcast.

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