• by Wayne Friedman , September 25, 2013

One ongoing question for forward-looking TV marketers in a digital and DVR world is: How will viewers find TV programs to watch?

Somewhat old-school methods are still in force when it comes to TV shows: Almost 90% say the deciding factor is “a show that I have watched in the past," per a PricewaterhouseCoopers study.

For newer TV content, almost 60% say a TV show was recommended by a friend or family member, while 45% say they just channel-surf until they see something they like. More than 40% say they “saw a commercial on TV, online billboard or other.”

Another question in the survey: How would you find new TV content if you didn’t have a TV subscription service? Studies have shown that about 90% of U.S. TV homes have a subscription service -- cable, satellite or telco.

The study says 64% would look to online sources for automated recommendations on content, while only 6% of respondents say they would seek friends’ suggestions. The biggest area of content discovery after online has 22% of people looking to “other offline sources.”

In looking at pay TV segments, the study says 70% of U.S. consumers have a cable TV subscription; 41% have Netflix; 26% have a satellite TV service; 18% have Amazon Prime; 16% have iTunes; 8% have Hulu; and 2%, other.

Looking at the current “a la carte” question: 65% would be willing to access 10 or more channels to customize their package. This is driven slightly by the older demographic: 50-59.The youngest demographic (18-24) would be likely to access fewer channels, 6 to 9.
        
What channels? Almost 70% (69%) say basic cable;  67% say premium cable; 59% say sports; and 56% say lifestyle networks. There is less interest in children’s programming (21%) or premium sports channels (29%).

The study was of 1,008 people, surveying non-password-protected public forums, at 49% male, 51% female.

"Watching TV" photo from Shutterstock.

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