Audience Ratings Research Articles

The Promise Fulfilled? An Empirical Analysis of Program Diversity on Television

Economic assumptions concerning diversity of program offerings on television are tested for basic cable, superstations, pay cable, and broadcast networks using a 16-day sample of 41 U.S. broadcast and cable networks. Average diversity of program types decreased, and diversity across those channel types increased, as the number of channels increased. Audience ratings for each channel were positively associated with program diversity. Finally, the diversity of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) programming was found to be greater than the average diversity of basic cable, broadcast networks, and pay cable, but it was less than the average diversity of superstations.

Beville, Hugh Malcom, Jr. (1988), Audience Ratings: Radio, Television and Cable (Revised), Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 407 Pp., $45.00 (cloth-bound); $19.95 (paperbound student Edition)

Beville, Hugh Malcom, Jr. (1988), Audience Ratings: Radio, Television and Cable (Revised), Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 407 Pp., $45.00 (cloth-bound); $19.95 (paperbound student Edition)

Review of Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, and Cable (rev. ed.).

Review of Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, and Cable (rev. ed.).

Audience role in the evolution of fictional television content

Most models of the communication process include feedback as a necessary component in the functioning of the system. Although feedback is relatively easy to understand in an interpersonal context, the role and extent of feedback in mass communication is less obvious. This study examined audience ratings as a component of the feedback processes in the evolution of program types. Strong relationships were found between audience ratings and the number of programs of a given type subsequently aired.

Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, Cable

Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, Cable

Review and criticism

Hugh Malcolm Beville, Jr. Audience ratings: Radio, television, and cable. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1985. 362 pp. $39.95 (cloth) Lynda Lee Kaid, Dan Nimmo, & Keith R. Sanders (Eds.). New perspectives on political advertising. Carbondale, II: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986. 388 pp. $34.50 (cloth) Sidney Kraus & Richard Perloff (Eds.). Mass media and political thought: An information‐processing approach. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1985. 350 pp. $29.95 (cloth) Dolf Zillmann & Jennings Bryant (Eds.). Selective exposure to communication. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1985. 251 pp. $29.95 (cloth) Jennings Bryant & Dolf Zillmann (Eds.). Perspectives on media effects. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1986. 358 pp. $29.95 (cloth) NAB Research and Planning Department. Radio in search of excellence: Lessons from America's best run radio stations. Washington, DC: National Association of Broadcasters, 1985. 150 pp. $20.00 (member, paper), $40.00 (nonmember, paper) William E. McCavitt & Peter Pringle. Electronic media management Boston: Focal Press, 1986. 325 pp. $19.95 (paper) Norman Marcus. Broadcast and cable management. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice‐Hall, 1986. 368 pp. $26.95 (cloth)

Estimating the Impact of Advertising Media Plans: Media Executives Describe Weighting and Timing Factors

Abstract Advertising theory and practice require that media plans be developed and evaluated in terms of advertising exposures, or other desired communication effects, rather than media vehicle exposures. This often means that, when evaluating media schedules in terms of effective reach, for example, media vehicle audience ratings must be weighted. Also, optimum levels of message frequency typically must be feasible within an appropriate time frame. This article focuses on how leading advertising agencies implement theoretical constructs concerning effective reach when evaluating media plans. Media executives from 91 leading advertising agencies describe their agencies' procedures for weighting audience ratings, including the magnitude of weights typically applied to vehicle audience estimates in major media categories. Alternative definitions of effective reach and rationale supporting the use of various time intervals for media plan evaluation are also presented.

Sport at Belgian Radio and Television (BRT)

In Flanders over 88% of all owners of TV sets are linked to the cable. On average, these households receive more than 14 stations. It is a well-known fact that the battle for audience ratings is fought partly by means of sports programmes. BRT began transmission on a second channel in 1977; since then the output of sport more than tripled, but the amount of viewing time for these programmes grows quicker than the output. About 80% of the Flemings are interested in sports on television, i.e. 90% of all men, 70% of all women. Live coverage in full is most appreciated. More than 80% of Flemings with an interest in sport tune in to another channel for more sports programmes.

Report Length: A Factor Influencing Audience Perceptions of an Evaluation Study

Findings from an evaluation study can be effectively communicated in a summary form. In this empirical study, the length of the summary report influenced responses of audience members to the summary. Respondents reading either a 13-page “Abridged Summary” or a shorter, 5-page “Executive Summary” favored the longer version. The Abridged Summary was better received, as evidenced by audience ratings of overall quality and worth of the report.

The "Feelings just are" children's television project.

Though the use of public service announcements (PSAs) in mass media campaigns has been criticized because they tend to receive limited audience exposure, due to few prime-time broadcasts, the "Feelings Just Are" PSAs reached a target audience of children without relying on frequent broadcasts during evening prime-time. The "Feelings Just Are" series of PSAs for school-age children was aired by 19 commercial, educational, and independent television stations in South Carolina. One of the commercial stations recorded the date and time of each PSA broadcast during the campaign's first year and provided its hourly audience ratings for children. Comparing the time of broadcast of the PSAs to the station's audience ratings revealed the amount of audience exposure the PSAs received. The results indicate that the 188 broadcasts from this station produced an estimated 7.4 million exposures among the station's total viewing audience, including 1.1 million exposures among school-age children. Nearly 80% of the 188 broadcasts occurred during heavy viewing hours for children, mostly during children's daytime viewing hours on weekdays and weekends. The results suggest that public service air time from local television stations may be a potentially valuable resource for mass-media based community interventions.

The role of broadcasting in health promotion in North America.

The range in the choice of viewing available to the British public by the end of the century could, and probably will, look much like that currently available to American viewers. This paper examines the implications to be drawn from American experience in determining future strategies for health promotion broadcasting in the UK. During a visit to the United States and Canada, sponsored by the King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, the author looked at the historical development and background to broadcasting services across North America and Canada, and at current policies and practice in broadcasting for the promotion of health. The first section provides an overview of the North American broadcasting systems, both the United States and Canada. The role of commercial interests is explored, particularly in relation to the existence and form of health promotion programming. The involvement of health professionals and community activists in the production of audio-visual material is discussed, particularly in the light of the competitive and pluralist nature of the television industry. The interests of the media professionals in promoting high audience ratings by attracting the attention of the public and holding it have their pros and cons for medical policy-makers. The shortcomings of the present situation in the United States where health and media professionals act not as educational partners but as business colleagues (so that viewers and patients are treated as consumers) forms a recurrent theme in the second section of the survey.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Report Length: A Factor Influencing Audience Perceptions of an Evaluation Study

Findings from an evaluation study can be effectively communicated in a summary form. In this empirical study, the length of the summary report influenced responses of audience members to the summary. Respondents reading either a 13-page “Abridged Summary” or a shorter, 5-page “Executive Summary” favored the longer version. The Abridged Summary was better received, as evidenced by audience ratings of overall quality and worth of the report.

Telenovelas: A Latin American Success Story

The success of Spanish-language telenovelas a type of soap opera illustrates major changes that have occurred in recent years in television systems in Latin America. There has been a trend toward decreased reliance on programming imported from the US and a flow of telenovelas from country to country within Latin America. This article based on interviews with 65 television personnel and communications experts in Mexico Peru Argentina Brazil and Venezuela in 1982 focuses on the development of the telenovela as the paramount form of popular culture. Latin American audiences consistently prefer locally produced television programs followed by programs imported by other Latin American countries and finally programs imported from the US. Even telenovelas with an educational slant (e.g. promotion of adult literacy training or family planning) earn both high audience ratings and substantial advertising income. In 1977 the year in which a telenovela promoting positive role models for Mexicos family planning program was broadcast the number of family planning acceptors increased by 560000. Mexico and Brazil are the main producing nations. This phenomenon is an example of how Third World nations can create their own products to compete successfully with products from developed countries. Inspired by the Latin American experience other developing countries such as India plan to broadcast educational soap operas to promote national development goals such as family planning and the equality of women.

Books of the Month

AUDIENCE RATINGS: RADIO, TELEVISION, CABLE by Hugh Malcolm Beville, Jr. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 365 Broadway, Suite 102, Hillsdale, N.J. 07642--$39.95) THE DEREGULATION OF INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS by Ronald Eward, (Artech House, 888 Washington St., Dedham, Ma. 02026---$50.00/$60.00 outside of the U.S.)

Multiple audience rating form strategies for student evaluation of college teaching

Michael Scriven has suggested that student rating forms, for the purpose of evaluating college teaching, be designed for multiple audiences (instructor, administrator, student), and with a single global item for summative functions (determination of merit, retention, or promotion). This study reviewed approaches to rating form construction, e.g., factor analytic strategies of Marsh, and recommended the multiple audience design of Scriven. An empirical test of the representativeness of the single global item was reported from an analysis of 1,378 forms collected in a university department of education. The global item correlated most satisfactorily with other items, a computed total of items, items that represented underlying factors, and various triplets of items selected to represent all possible combinations of items. It was concluded that a multiple audience rating form showed distinct advantages in design and that the single global item most fairly and highly represented the overall teaching performance, as judged by students, for decisions about retention, promotion, and merit made by administrators.

Captioned television and hearing-impaired viewers: the report of a national survey.

In fall 1980, the WGBH Caption Center conducted a national mail survey to determine media habits and preferences among hearing-impaired people. The survey was undertaken to supplement audience ratings reports for WGBH's Captioned ABC News and to collect preliminary information to guide future captioning efforts. Responses were received from 1,745 people, 59% of the mail sample. Respondents were primarily deaf, with an early age of onset. They averaged high levels of newspaper reading and captioned television viewing. Roughly 50% reported watching the Captioned ABC News two or more times per week. Level of education was found to be significantly related to news reading and television viewing behavior. The response rate and the findings suggest that such direct approaches to the hearing-impaired students can provide important and useful data for captioned program producers.

News Selection and the Language of News: Brisbane Commercial Radio

Unlike the ABC, in commercial radio advertising and audience ratings are interdependent. Each commercial station aims to win specific audiences. To do so, Brisbane commercial stations choose their music selectively for their audience. This study looks at market segmentation. It examines these stations selection of news items for their particular audience, and the relationship between audience, news selection and news language.

A component analysis of public‐speaking behaviors across individuals and behavioral categories

Although many persons feel that public speaking is an art, Fawcett and Miller (1975) precisely identified criterion‐referenced public‐speaking behaviors so that they could be easily and reliably counted by observers. This enabled them to evaluate the effect of a behavior modification instructional package designed to help individuals become better public speakers. The current study extended the Fawcett and Miller research by evaluating the relative importance of the three main components of the Fawcett and Miller public‐speaking training package, along with a fourth component, and by assessing the generality of trained public‐speaking behaviors over time, across settings, and across behaviors. Each of the four speaking skills increased in frequency to high levels only after they were introduced sequentially via written instructions and training. In the follow‐up evaluation, two of the speaking behaviors remained at high levels. Audience ratings and self‐confidence ratings increased following public‐speaki...

Scheduling of Network Television Programs

Maximizing average audience size is a major objective of national television networks. This paper examines the effect of scheduling programs on audience ratings. We determine the predictability of ratings and the major factors which influence ratings. We measure the extent to which ratings can be changed by rescheduling programs, and then test commonly discussed scheduling strategies and propose new strategies. Finally, we ascertain the extent to which the audience's benefit is served by a system of three major networks, each competing to maximize individual ratings. A forecasting model based on five years of historical data estimates ratings for hypothetical schedules. A heuristic fitting procedure yields a model which has consistent estimated parameters and explains about 70% of the variance. The previous year's ratings of a program and competing programs in its time slot are the best predictors of its rating. Also important are the day, time, and lead-in audience. The resulting estimates are incorporated in a combinatorial model, representing the decision of a program scheduler seeking to maximize ratings. A typical sized problem of scheduling 23 programs of various lengths into a week of 40 half-hour time slots can be formulated as a 65 × 800 assignment-type integer program. The optimizations show that rescheduling programs can, on the average, substantially increase a network's audience size (11.6%) and advertising revenue ($61 million per year). The optimal program scheduling for one network generally decreases the ratings of competing networks. The forecasting and optimization models are then used to evaluate commonly discussed scheduling strategies: Protecting Newcomers, Starting Fast, Homogeneity, Counterprogramming, and Bridging. Of these, Counterprogramming is the only strategy that is presently and optimally used and justified by the model. An additional strategy, termed “Avoidance,” is discovered and theoretically justified by subadditivity in ratings. This strategy increases total audience size and benefits the viewing audience.

Weekly Variation in Audience Delivery of TV Advertising Schedules

Abstract Individual TV advertising spots may vary as much as five rating points from one week to the next which implies that summary measures of audience delivery of TV advertising schedules composed of multiple spots could vary quite drastically. Obviously this would have a marked effect of cost per thousand calculations which is a common criterion for choosing between alternate TV advertising schedules. Based upon examination on a large number of TV advertising schedules, however, this study reports that weekly changes in audience ratings of individual spots comprising an advertising schedule tend to cancel out so that total schedule audience delivery and cost per thousand estimates are not greatly affected over a two week period.