Viewers Know Show Favorites, Not Their Networks

by Wayne Friedman , January 16, 2017

The TV show is still the thing: Programs get strong marketing attention among viewers -- but that awareness connection is not always linked to the network that produced the show.

Subscription video-on-demand platforms are making those associations harder.

Among viewers who watch a original broadcast or cable network TV program that is airing on a SVOD platform, fewer than half -- 41% -- could correctly identify the network where the show originally aired, according to Hub Entertainment Research.

The remaining 59% either guessed the wrong network or said they had no idea. Only 13% say a specific TV network is a “big factor” in their decision about which shows to watch.

Still, consumers do have strong associations with specific traditional and digital TV providers. Some 99% of respondents can identify their traditional pay TV provider -- multii-video channel program distributors -- and 89% are very/somewhat “confident” in knowing those companies.

Other brands that are “well-known” and “well-understood” include Netflix, with 99% saying it is well known and 82% saying it is well-understood; Amazon Prime Instant Video, with 97% and 65%; and Hulu, at 94% and 61%.

“Consumers associate great shows with the company that delivers them, not necessarily the one that created them,” according to Hub.

When asked whether they could only pick three specific networks/TV brands for original programming to have, Netflix scored the best results, with 36%, followed by ABC at 20%; CBS, 18%; HBO, 15%; and NBC, 13%.

The December 2016 survey was conducted among 1,300 U.S. consumers ages 16-74 with broadband and who watch at least five hours of TV per week.

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2 comments about "Viewers Know Show Favorites, Not Their Networks".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, January 17, 2017 at 4:40 p.m.
These findings document what we have long known, namely that people select program content, not channels---unless the channel is of a highly thematic nature like The Weather Channel, The Food Network, CNN, BET, etc. The finding that people who claim to have watched off-network or off-cable series fare long after their original airings, ,via syndication or SVOD channels, certainly makes even more sense. Why would someone, who might or might not have seen a show like "Seinfeld" on NBC many years ago, know that it was originally an NBC series? Some might recall, but many rerun viewers are "new" to the shows and could care less who funded their "original" outings.
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John Grono from GAP Research, January 17, 2017 at 5:27 p.m.

As it has always been.

We conduct random 'co-incidental' surveys via phone with our TV panellist homes to check that they are pushing the PeopleMeter buttons correctly. We ask which channel and programme was being watched on each TV when the phone rang. We get a surprising amount of impossible combinations. We take programme name as primacy.