Abstract

   In-home observations on the Television Program Viewing and Commercial Viewing Behaviors.

Park, Soohwa
Dept. of advertising and PR
Graduate school
Hanyang University

The purpose of this is to examine the audience activity and visual attention to the screen during both program and commercial under in-home observations.

The research questions of this study are identified as follows.

1. What is the difference between visual attentions, as measured by eyes-on-screen times for programming and commercial?

2. What kinds of relationship do exist in visual attention between program viewing and commercial viewing?

3. What is the difference between audience behavior during program and commercial viewing?

4. What kids of relationship do exist between length of program and eye-on-screen times for commercial?

5. Does program impact, as measured by cognitive and emotional involvement toward program, effect an eye-on-screen times for commercial?

6. Do audience demographic variables and media environment variables effect the audience activity and visual attention to the screen during both program and commercial?

To examine this research question, 25 observers, undergraduate and graduate students majoring in advertising and PR, collected data on 76 subjects in the home.

The major results of this study are summarized as follows.

Subjects had their eyes on the screen 76 percent of the time for programming and 25 percent for commercials.

There is not a significant correlation between visual attention for programming and commercial viewing.

The most frequently observed activity during program viewing was conversation. The 34.4 percent of subjects engaged in that activity. On the other hand, the most frequently observed activity during commercial viewing was zapping.

There is a significant negative correlation between length of program and eye-on-screen times for commercial.

Program cognitive and affective impact did not effect the eye-on-screen times for commercial.

The eye-on-screen times for commercial viewing was significantly different between subjects who were under and above thirties. The eye on screen times during commercial viewing for the subjects under thirties was twice as high as that of above thirties (32.8% vs. 15.5%). Men zapped significantly more often than women during programming viewing. But women left the room significantly more often that man during commercial viewing. Viewers with cable did not have any difference in viewing behaviors from the viewers without cable.

In conclusion, this study provides a recent perspective of commercial viewing in relation to program viewing in Korea media environment. It is important to note that subjects had their eye-on-screen only 25 percent of the time during commercial. And the eye-on-screen times for the commercial was not effected by visual attention for the program and program impact either. This is consistent with the fact that all the NPM (non program material) should be aired between programs, not during the program in Korea, has reduced the opportunity for commercial exposure.

Key words: In-home observations, eye-on-screen times, audience behavior during viewing, program impact.