American television directory (1946)

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TELEVISION AUDIENCE RESEARCH What do televiewers expect to see and hear? Some¬ thing, says research, that they cannot get from either radio or motion pictures. Television’s role is unique. By OSCAR KATZ _ Associate Director of Research, Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. Kadio broadcasting began without benefit of any kind of audience research. Broadcasters shot their programs into the air. They (the programs) fell to earth. They (the broadcasters) knew not where. The mystery of “Where?” was so intriguing that, in searching for an answer, nobody asked “How?” Radio research was started in the quantitative field — to answer the “Where?” to measure the size and lo¬ cation of audiences. Not for years was work begun in qualitative research — to find out the “How?” how programs in¬ fluenced people, and how people liked or disliked programs. As a result, early radio programming followed a tortuous, hit-or-miss trail of development. Pioneer radio’s pioneer listeners were a rugged race. If station WAAA re¬ ceived a telegram, “Program coming in fine. Please play Valencia," station WAAA’s listeners would hear Valencia, like it or not. If a sponsor’s Aunt Tabitha had a liking for Irish ballads, the sponsor’s audience would get Irish ballads from noon to breakfast. Luckily, the novelty of the new medium, together with the tolerance of its first listeners, were enough to carry audiences through to the day when programming was based on facts rather than guesswork. Profit from Radio's Findings There is no excuse for television, in its programs, to follow radio’s course of trial and error. Radio audience re¬ search, late as it was in beginning, has made great progress in recent years. Many of its findings and certain of its techniques can, with slight adaptations, be applied to television audience re¬ search. If television fails to take ad¬ vantage of its natural inheritance from radio’s research, it will find no con¬ comitant inheritance of naivete and tol¬ erance from radio’s early audience. These happy characteristics have van¬ ished. The television audience, from the first, will be realistic and hard-boiled. Television is now completing an ex¬ tended, war-born period of rehearsal, during which its programs — and mis¬ takes — have been seen by only a few thousand people. Since Pearl Harbor, the television audience has remained relatively constant, if it has not ac¬ tually diminished, through set break¬ downs. Television programming, on the other hand, has not remained static. About eighteen months ago, CBS Re¬ search began some television experi¬ mentation of its own, with the object of uncovering material that could be used as guidance in television produc¬ tion. The first experiments were with small audience panels, usually made up of people with little or no experience as televiewers. These soon took the form of regular weekly studies that have now been conducted on a continu¬ ous basis for over a year. It wasn’t long before CBS concluded that the field it was exploring was not only wide, but extremely productive. In January, 1945, it announced the forma¬ tion of Television Audience Research Institute — a separate division of its own research department. Working with its own staff, TARI devotes its efforts exclusively to television, and has al¬ ready initiated a number of original studies that are producing material of value to tomorrow’s programmers as well as today’s. CBS intends to continue its television audience research indefinitely, and on a widely expanded scale. Much more re¬ mains to be done than has yet been accomplished. On the other hand, there is tangible evidence that research has already spared the coming audience a certain amount of pain it might other¬ wise have suffered. Certain program faults, for example, have been revealed and corrected through the suggestions of audience research, and subsequent tests have gained audience approval. More important, in my opinion, than any specific examples of program im¬ provement are some general conclusions that are beginning to emerge from our months of study. Conclusions drawn from individual reaction or opinion are, of course, meaningless. When a reaction or opinion represents a group majority, however, and when it is expressed re¬ peatedly week after week, certain con¬ clusions are justified. The comments that follow are based on that type of cumulative evidence. Radio and movies, in the past twentyfive years, have spoiled the American people for any inferior medium of en¬ tertainment, however new and miracu¬ lous that medium may be. People have already accepted the miracle of tele¬ vision. They will buy sets for what those sets can bring into their homes; not for the thrill of snatching pictures from the empty air. They are extremely interested in television and innocently confident that it will bring them what they want. They will be most intolerant if programs fall far short of expectations. Viewers "Participate" in Events Sports, special public events and other newsreel-type material will prob¬ ably be the most popular television programs of the near future. (Fortu¬ nately, these are also the most easily produced.) Viewers sense a feeling of reality or participation in these pro¬ grams that they never experience in a newsreel theatre. They realize that they are watching an event at the exact mo¬ ment of its occurrence; that “anything may happen” and they will be eye¬ witnesses. It pleases them to think that they can, almost literally, be in two places at the same time. For a while at least, television-view¬ ing will be a group or family activity. It may even be the focal point of neighborly social activity. So long as this is true, program selection and con¬ tent should be influenced if not gov¬ erned by that fact. A demonstration of gas-engine construction would bore Mother, just as a prolonged showing of millinery would fatigue Father. More¬ over, we have found that costumes and situations that are perfectly acceptable on stage or screen are not necessarily acceptable in a home atmosphere. There seems to be an exceptional in¬ terest in television as an educational medium. Educational programs, if rea¬ sonably well produced, are well received, and almost always suggest to viewers other subjects and themes they would like to see treated in the same fashion. Women are quick to recognize how tele¬ vision may help them with their house¬ work, by showing how to do things — how to make a dress, use cosmetics, pre¬ pare a meal or take care of children. Most of the programs seen by our audience panels have carried no adver¬ tising. Respondents invariably notice the absence and comment about it. Peo¬ ple expect and want advertising in ( Continued on page 118) 45