80% Satisfied With Terrestrial Choice
A new poll published by the Independent Television Commission shows that 80% of terrestrial-only viewers believe that the four main channels gave them all the viewing choices they wanted. This is offset however by the finding that only 29% of those in cable and satellite homes had a similar opinion.
The report also shows that the majority of both terrestrial and cable/satellite viewers agreed with the statement “It annoys me that in the future I may have to pay to watch sports events that currently I can watch on the four main channels” (73% of terrestrial, 68% of cable/satellite). Viewers further believed that if people want to pay extra to watch violent or pornographic programmes not available elsewhere they should be allowed to do so.
In terms of television and children, the majority of people (63%) believe responsibility for children’s viewing lies mainly with parents, with 29% believing it should be shared with broadcasters and 6% believing broadcasters alone should be responsible. Nearly one in three parents said they actively prevented their children from watching certain channels because they felt they were unsuitable or bad for them. This proportion was higher amongst parents who were cable and satellite subscribers (36%). Mothers were more likely to take action than fathers, and respondents with young children (aged 5-9) were the most likely to intervene. Of those cable/satellite viewers who had the facility to block certain programmes from being viewed by children (31%), only 12% (which is around 3% of all cable or satellite subscribers), used the system frequently.
Less than half of the sample said they find programmes on TV offensive – a figure which has remained virtually unchanged since 1970. Those who say they are offended tend to be older, more prevalent in the AB class and are more likely to be women. As in previous years, the main causes of offence are bad language, violence and sex/nudity in that order. Films tended to cause most offence with sport least mentioned. The majority of respondents (59%) thought programme standards had stayed the same in 1995. 10% thought they had improved and 28% thought they had got worse. The primary reason for believing standards had declined was ‘more repeats’, particularly for ITV and BBC1.
Most viewers considered that channels did not favour any particular party: of those who did detect favouritism they found it most on BBC1 and towards the Conservatives.
In terms of programme preference, news is of interest to the most respondents with 85% very or quite interested in it. Men are more interested in factual programmes, sport, alternative comedy and adult-only films than women. Soap operas, women’s programmes, chat shows, health and children’s programmes were more popular with women. Satellite and cable subscribers were more interested than terrestrial-only viewers in pop or rock music, children’s programmes and recent film-releases.
When asked about news sources, 95% mentioned television, 70% newspapers and 40% radio. Two thirds of respondents have two or more TV sets in their homes, 35% of households with children had a TV in the child’s bedroom, with this figure rising to 52% among 10-15 year olds. 60% had access to teletext services although frequency of use appears to be in decline with 38% reporting use of teletext most days, a fall from 49% in 1992.
ITC: 0171 255 3000