My good friend Nathan Verrill made an interesting tweet last night.

I have been of the opinion for a long time that the method which TV stations track their ratings is broken. Online video streaming has been around for years, and within the last year popular shows have become freely availabe via services like Hulu and Boxee, they still use the same old method from the 80’s to monitor ratings. The networks consult their market demographics and ask a representative group to attach a special device to their televisions in order to monitor the viewers favorite shows.

This method fails because it is relying on a small sample to correctly predict the general populations favorite shows. What the networks should be doing is collect analytics of what people are watching via their DVR’s, online video streaming services, and seasons that are bought/rented when released on DVD. Using this method it would give them a better representation of what people are watching and when they are watching their favorite shows.

This touches on the recent decisions of Hulu to suspend access of their service to Boxee users. On Hulu’s blog they cite the content providers as being the reason for restricting their contents access. This gives us a view of the mentality of the people in charge of the big networks. Restricting their content is the last thing they should want to do, as they are limiting the amount of viewers they can reach with their programs. The networks should strive to create a strong partnership with Boxee and tap into the information that Boxee could collect on what people are viewing to give a proper and real representation of the programs people like and an accurate representation of their viewership demographics. Hopefully one day they will learn the lesson, else they will get sweep aside and the new kids on the block will grow up and replace them.