• by Paul Gough , July 24, 2003

A study commissioned by the Television Bureau of Advertising finds that television is tops among Americans in time spent and perception of advertising.

Television was used by 90% of more than 1,000 people within 24 hours of the survey, according to TVB's Media Comparison Study. That compared to 72.8% for radio, 62.8% for newspapers, 51.1% on the Internet and 48 percent for magazines. TVB represents local television stations, which are not only locked in a pitched battle against other media in every local market but also against cable television for market share.

TV advertising came out ahead of all other comers in TVB's perceptions survey, earning high marks for most exciting, most influential and most authoritative sources. More than 79% of adults in the study perceived that TV ads were the most exciting, compared to 7.2% for magazines, 5.1% for radio, 4% for the Internet and 3.8% for newspapers. More than 80% felt television was perceived as most influential, compared to newspapers (8.5%), radio (4.1%), magazines (2.8%) and the Internet (2.8%). TV was also ranked most authoritative by 48.5% of those surveyed, compared to 26.3% for newspapers, 11.3% for magazines, 8.5% for radio and 5.4% for the Internet.

"The real crux of the study is that advertising perception on television tops advertising perception on other media," said Susan Cuccinello, senior vice president of research at the New York-based TVB. "If you're an advertiser, I think you'd find that important." She said that in the last study, three years ago, Internet advertising was ranked higher than it is today in perception among consumers.

"Internet advertising is not being seen as a viable way to influence people," Cuccinello said.

While most of the study didn't involve the differences between broadcast and cable TV, one question asked people where they went for breaking news. Broadcast and cable news networks dominated, but the TVB study found that 45.6% turned to broadcast television for breaking news compared to 40.7% for cable news. The finding was something TVB believed anecdotally but now the study confirms that, Cuccinello said. The rest of the media came in far below that: Radio (5.4%), Internet (4%), public TV (3.4%) and newspapers (0.9%).

In another portion of the study, TVB found that broadcast TV was considered more involved in their communities than cable, radio or even newspapers. More than half (50.4%) selected broadcast TV, compared to 22.4% for newspapers, 14.1% for radio, 6.3% for cable news networks, 5.3% for public TV and 1.5 for the Internet.

"Adults across all different age breaks see television as the medium that is involved the most in the community," Cuccinello said. "We believe it has to do with the traditional strength of sight, sound and motion." She said when television stations sponsor events in the community, people will flock to meet their local personalities and even for the chance to get on television. It's important in other ways, too.

"Advertisers are looking for that local connection," she said.

The Media Comparison Study has been done by TVB every five years since the 1970s. This is the first time that the survey has been done every three years, which TVB members had asked for to provide more recent information as they arm their sales forces in the local marketplace.