Broadcasting (July - Sep 1949)

TV RESEARCH QUALITATIVE research can minimize the gamble of an advertisers entrance into television, Horace Schwerin, president of Schwerin Research Corp., New York, said last week. Mr. Schwerin summarized television findings of his company in studying a variety of TV programs and explained how he believed program testing could reduce the risk of television ventures taken now by advertisers. Four considerations were listed by Mr. Schwerin, who spoke at a news conference in New York, as deterring many advertisers from using television now: 1. The great time and production expense needed to learn if an idea is good. 2. The lack of knowledge of how to keep good programs well-liked and how to develop new ideas. 3. The fear that changes in television and its audiences will make present "know-how" worthless. 4. The lack of knowledge of relative sales effectiveness of television versus radio. Quality, he pointed out, is even more important in television programming than in radio. Utilizing slides, Mr. Schwerin illustrated his thesis that in radio, programs may be assisted to impressive ratings by the adjacency of a popular show. Those shows which precede or follow top-ranking programs on radio usually get high ratings, too. In television, however, popularity does not rub off on programs next to one which is a leader. TV viewers are quicker to turn their dial than are radio listeners. The Schwerin technique worked out to test television programs and to discover what parts of them are liked or disliked involves testing Cuts Sponsors Gamble — Schwerin Messrs. Beville (left) and Schwerin examine the television profile display machine. audiences at home as well as at a studio. The Schwerin firm has conducted at-home audience tests in Chicago on NBC's Quiz Kids, sponsored by Miles Labs and is about to undertake similar tests on other NBC shows in New York. Mr. Schwerin said a very close correlation had been noted between the scores achieved by a program tested by the at-home audience and those obtained in studio audience tests (see graph on Quiz Kids). Solid line represents average profile of and Cleveland Dotted line shows profile of studio test Schwerin home tests in Chicago, Detroit in New York He sa'd that Schwerin test scores bore a "direct relationship" with the number of viewers attracted by the tested programs. "A high Schwerin score generally means a high rating, while a low score means a low rating," he said. He showed several parts of various programs to illustrate how test audiences reacted. The only program of the several displayed that could be identified was Quiz Kids. Mr. Schwerin said that as yet his company had not accumulated enough information to indulge in generalities about audience response to various types of programming, but it was possible to discern the degree of liking or disliking for specific program sequences. Mr. Schwerin said his test had shown that there was little difference between television set owners and non-owners in their reactions to television shows (see graph). Further, he said, the size of the screen upon which viewers saw the program did not influence their reactions, nor was there an appreciable difference in the reactions to a given program of persons who had owned sets a long time or those who had owned them a short while. These factors, he thought, tended to dispel the common fear that changes in the television audience would make present programming "know-how" worthless. One important factor that influences audience liking for a show is the socio-economic status of the viewer, he said. It can be stated generally, he said, that those in low income brackets like more about most shows than do those in high brackets. Introducing Mr. Schwerin at the news conference, Hugh M. Beville Jr., NBC director of research, announced that the Schwerin firm, which has tested NBC radio programs since 1946, would begin widespread testing of its TV shows. The first at-home Schwerin testing will take place Aug. 24 on the NBC-TV Believe It or Not program. Ballots have already been mailed to a selected sample of 2,000 New York viewers. The home-testing system uses "cue numbers" that appear at intervals in the picture. At the flash of a number on the screen, the viewer marks, in a place on the ballot, whether he thinks that moment in the program is good, fair or poor. Bolen RTDG Head MURRAY BOLEN, vice president of Radio and Television Directors Guild, has been named president to replace John Guedel who resigned. Helen Mack, secretary, becomes vice president; and Sterling Tracy, treasurer, is secretary-treasurer. Studio vs Home — Matched Audiences 100 QUIZ KIDS (edition of May 17j 80 60 5 10 15 20 25 30 Set Owners vs Non-Owners INCOME GROUPS Page 42 • August 22, 1949 BROADCASTING • Telecasting