Media opinions of AB adults
Placing advertising in a medium according to the environment in which it will appear is a long established principle and may be especially prevalent where the audience is being targeted for their role as opinion formers. However overall opinions of a medium, based upon big enough sample sizes and at a ‘currency’ level of acceptability, has only just become available. This weeks release of the 2003 Premier TGI contains, for the first time, data on the opinions held of the media consumed by readers, viewers and listeners alike.
In the case of television it is logical to assume for example that a viewers ‘trust’ of a channel will most likely be reflected in the viewing of its factual output and is therefore most reasonably cross-analysed by ‘specially chose to watch’ information for such programming.
Given that the more niche the channel, the more extreme will be the index, the Premier data shows the significant correlations between overall ‘channel trust’ and the level of commitment to serious/factual programming broadcast by that channel.
For instance, those who specially choose to watch Channel Four News are twice as likely to rate Channel Four as a whole as ‘trustworthy’. In contrast, they attribute half the average trust level to non-terrestrial stations and, in some cases of course, will have rejected them completely as a viewing option. Even between the two main terrestrial channels the loyal viewers of Channel Four News have different views with regard to how much trust they invest in them. The fact that both Ch4 and ITV are commercial seems to have little sway.
Committed viewers of the two main early morning broadcasts (BBC Breakfast and GMTV) reveal not too dissimilar attitudes towards the non-terrestrial stations – but their views on other channels can differ widely. The BBC fans rate Channel Four relatively highly but report below average trust in ITV. The reverse is true of the ‘specially choose to watch GMTV’ group. They show an almost 50% above average level of trust of ITV but are barely on the average for BBC1. Their trust in Channel Four shows one of the poorest levels in the analysis.
The most dramatic correlation is that between commitment to Sky’s news and trust in non-terrestrial output generally. This index is boosted by differences in reception capabilities - but is nevertheless, a significant contributor to the view that, as channels run the risk of potentially looking more and more alike, the attitudes held towards them by the upmarket opinion leaders can still show enormous variation.
