Television audience data gathering

A method of collecting data from a television audience comprising:

• (a) storing a demographic description of each expected viewer in a potential viewer list,
• (b) indicating which of the potential viewers is an active viewer prior to display of said potential viewer list,
• (c) following said indication, displaying on the screen of a television set an indication of which of said potential viewers have already been indicated as active viewers, as confirmation of said indication,
• (d) storing a list of the indicated active viewers in an active viewer list,
• whereby the active viewer list can be retrieved to obtain a display of a list of actual active television viewers.

An audience measuring apparatus for use in association with a television set comprising:

• (a) means for providing an off-screen prompt to a viewer from time to time,
• (b) first memory means and means for storing data in the first memory means designating expected responses to the prompt,
• (c) means for receiving signals from a remote control for selecting particular ones of said expected responses prior to displaying data corresponding to said expected responses to the prompt,
• (d) means for displaying data corresponding to said particular ones of the expected responses on the screen of the television set following and in response to the signals received from the remote control,
• (e) means for storing data signals corresponding to said particular ones of the expected responses in a second memory means,
• (f) means for retrieving the stored signals from the second memory means to provide an indication of said particular ones of the expected responses which were selected.