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An Exclusive First Look at TVDALERT
As we have reported in TV Dimensions 2018, it is a myth that all self-proclaimed TV viewers attentively watch everything that appears on their screens or that attentive viewing cuts across all demographics. In other words, the belief that “a viewer is a viewer” never held much water and is increasingly being debunked by new data.
One of the sources of such data is TVision, which maintains a panel of 2,000 homes in three large markets and utilizes an “eye-camera” method to note whether people in the TV room have their eyes fixed on the screen when the receiver is turned on, second-by-second. In addition to detailed show-by-show and ad-by-ad findings, TVision produces overall norms such as those in its fourth quarter 2017 report. These compare the average propensity of attentiveness (eyes on screen) for all program viewers by sex, age and household income. In the case of commercials, TVision provides similar indices, but the base is how well an average ad performed relative to all of the ads in the same break.
The basic findings are summarized in the accompanying table. In general, program content and commercials display a similar attentiveness signature. Both are less likely to draw the attention of younger viewers and more likely to attract older viewers. The income findings correlate fairly closely with those of age, because many low-income adults are also older and semi- or fully retired. Finally, TVision finds a consistent edge in attentiveness for low income viewers relative to those living in homes with the highest incomes, which is unsurprising given that “lowbrows” in general seem to be more avid and engaged TV viewers than “highbrows."
