• by David Kaplan , January 21, 2005

It's no secret that cable has steadily grabbed viewers away from broadcast TV over the past several years--but a new study gives broadcast some hope of improving at least its image, if not its actual numbers.

E-Poll, an Encino, Calif.-based market research firm, surveyed 1,171 individuals ages 13 and up who watch some television and had either a satellite or cable connection. The online poll was conducted January 7 through January 12. The poll was based on a similar one taken back in July.

The good news for both cable and broadcast is that overall viewer satisfaction in TV programming has improved from July of 2004 to January 2005. According to the poll, the number of men who indicated they had a high level of satisfaction with cable programming increased from 47 percent to 50 percent, and females increased by 4 points--up to 54 percent from 50 percent in July.

But for just broadcast programming alone, the results are mixed, the survey seemed to find.

The percentage of men who indicated a high level of satisfaction actually decreased, from 40 percent to 37 percent. However, among women, satisfaction increased dramatically, from 45 percent to 53 percent. This is most likely attributed to hit shows such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," both on ABC, and Fox's "The O.C."

For both broadcast and cable, viewers liked anything that was seen as innovative and new, which suggests that if broadcast were to experiment more, the image of broadcast could improve greatly.

When viewers were asked to select particular qualities that describe cable and broadcast programming, cable programming scored higher across the board, which is in keeping with earlier results. As for the descriptions, words like "entertaining," "unique," and "cutting edge" are each used more frequently to describe cable programming as opposed to broadcast, the study said.

And as for the notion of "objectionable content," not surprisingly, men and women tend to differ in their definitions of what constitutes "objectionable" viewing.

Men are less likely to find program content objectionable in all of the major categories, with the exception of "foul language." Among males, 18 percent said that "foul language" was a reason to label content objectionable, versus 13 percent of females.

In predictable fashion, males were less put off by "sexual content," (20 percent of males versus 27 percent of females), "physical violence," (18 percent of males versus 24 percent of females), and "nudity" (6 percent of males versus 15 percent of females). One might infer that men are more offended by what they hear than what they see.

"What's ironic is that the [Federal Communications Commission] seems to be out of touch with the viewing public by lowering the hammer on violations that involve nudity, while violence appears to be of greater concern to viewers," an E-Poll spokeswoman said.

Interestingly, cable's more edgy approach does not seem to be perceived by viewers as being more "objectionable," or "inappropriate." In fact, the percentage of viewers who said cable was "inappropriate" was slightly less than those who found broadcast programming inappropriate in the latest study.