News, How-To Shows Score Best In Trust

When it comes to “trust” among media consumers, TV news programming and "How-To" TV content rate the highest.

A study from GFK's MRI reveals that about half of viewers of TV news (49%) and "How-To" (48%) programs say they “strongly trust” the networks that run that programming. Research also says 46% of TV news viewers say those networks “reflect their personal values.”

Spanish-language networks and kids/family TV networks were next -- posting 45% and 40%, respectively.

Among a number of data segments, the study looked at trust of the network overall and trust of the commercials on that network. In virtually all cases, trust of commercials' results was lower than for the network overall.

Spanish-language networks scored higher trust scores for commercials (48%) than for the trust score of the networks overall (45%).

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These results came from an online study of roughly 10,000 nationally representative respondents looking at more than 150 TV networks.

TV programming on networks that scored the poorest overall trust results were sports TV programming and general interest/entertainment programming on broadcast networks, which tallied 39% and 27%, respectively.

Advertising trust issues were at 23% and 18%, respectively.

Research also says viewers who watch TV on digital devices and streaming services have higher levels of trust in advertising than on linear TV. More specifically, viewers owning Internet-connected devices over-index for trusting ads in five of the six network categories, and especially in sports and broadcast.

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