Do you think the Nielsen ratings are out of date for today's world

I think they should use social media buzz to determine ratings instead of a box. A lot of people watch shows through piracy and alternate platforms so you'd have a much better idea if you at least combined the two statistics. I would also put up legal high quality streams with shorter commercial breaks concurrent with broadcast on the network sites to try to recapture the young people and cordcutters. Not all, but some people would go back and support a show legally if you made it convenient

They have yet to figure out the multi platform content world. Back when viewing live broadcasts was the only game in town, with a few people taping shows on their VCR, it was easy to calculate total ratings. The Nielsen system was designed for that marketplace. The great digital paradigm shift has yanked the rug out from under them, yet they have nothing clearly better as yet to replace the antiquated Nielsens. Networks have no one to blame but themselves for the sheer number of people who now avoid live broadcasts like the plague and prefer to download. They keep chipping away at show lengths to include more and more commercials. People don't want their shows constantly interrupted so Verizon can tell them about their latest offer, and Astra Zeneca can extol the virtues of an overpriced drug with alarming side effects. They want to watch the damn show!

Services like Netflix and Sling are the perfect models of what I believe the real future of TV looks like. For as little as $20 a month with Sling you can get the collection of live channels that twenty years ago were called basic cable, and didn't cost a goddamn fortune. And for only $10 more a month Netflix delivers some really amazing original series and a whole library of older ones in their entirety to binge watch. Traditional cable service with its ten thousand ads and premium movie channels for a hefty extra charge, a system forced on us by profiteering service providers like Comcast, is headed for the junk heap of history. May it rot in peace. Just give us internet access. We'll take it from there, you greedy douche bags!

The reason why the preferred demographic is 18-35 is because they are still deciding among brands. 50+ already have a preferred brand and it's harder to change their minds through advertising.