Commentary

Lying About What You Watch On TV? Heavens No!

Guess what? People lie when it comes to research -- TV research in particular.

Hulu research says 46% of people lie about what they watch on TV.

A recent Hulu Insights study of over 1,000 adults who have watched TV in the past six months found that close to half of those surveyed lied about watching a show in order to fit into a conversation. 

You know the water-cooler conversation. That if, there is a water cooler at your place of work. (Don’t bring a plastic water bottle to work!)

Men 18-49 lie twice as much as women about TV -- 62% versus 32% for women 18-49. Maybe I shouldn’t have made small-talk with that Starbucks barista about watching “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

Millennials? They really want to be in the conversation about TV -- 18-34 lie 55% of the time. (Really? But millennials don’t even watch TV, according to other media researchers.)

advertisement

advertisement

Guessing it is all about multitasking here. A certain segment of society can get caught up on specific episodes of series while cruising around social media -- and who better can do that?

This isn’t a one time thing at all -- 75% of those said they have lied about TV in the last three months. What does this all mean? That we all want to be cool when it comes popular culture. Who wants to be left out of the conversation -- especially when it comes to keeping pace on 409 scripted TV shows!

This kind of research reflects a deeper concern beyond actual TV “ratings.” It not only speaks to viewing but engagement and recall -- brand recall, specifically.

In keeping with full disclosure, Jenny Wall, Chief Marketing Officer of Hulu told Business Insider: “We are all human... I’ve lied about watching ‘Breaking Bad’.”

Don’t worry about me, Nielsen. My regular prime-time watching comes from PBS and Discovery Channel. Not only that, but I’m still enjoying the new season of “American Idol.”  Wanna talk about it?

2 comments about "Lying About What You Watch On TV? Heavens No!".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, October 19, 2016 at 9:58 a.m.

    Was this study about "lying" when asked whether they had ever watched a given show that was carried by Hulu? If so, its a rather broadstroke contention to suggest that lying about what TV shows we watch is commonplace---especially for particular episodes, rather than a series as a whole. Also, name confusion is always a problem and respondents are often confused about program titles. As a general rule, the more specific you are the less respondents 'lie".

    To ilustrate, when we asked a sample of adults whether they have ever seen my new sitcom, "Ed & Friends", which is still in development and has yet to be filmed, 34.95% claimed that they had seen the show and the biggest liars were millennials with 51.61% answering "yes". However, when we asked another sample whether they had ever seen my new series and, specifically, the episode where Ed argues with his "friends" about how Trump has botched his Presidential campaign and concludes with an analysis of the many problems facing the New York Yankees next season, only 5.87% claimed that they had seen this non-existant installment of my series.

  2. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, October 19, 2016 at 12:31 p.m.

    That's "illustrate" not "ilustrate". Sigh!

Next story loading loading..