The annual survey carried out by the ITC, Television: The Public’s View 1996, identified television as the main source of news for 68% of homes.
The majority of viewers, 73%, considered news programming to be free of bias. Although, 16% felt that ITV favoured a political party, this fell to 12% for Channel 4 and below 5% for satellite and cable. 29% detected favouritism on BBC1 and 17% on BBC2.
When it comes to the provision of local news, television is increasingly named as the most important source for information. The research shows that 32% of respondents turn to television for local news, almost double that of a decade ago. In the same period, the numbers of people who turn to newspapers first has fallen by over a quarter, to 41%.
When questioned about regulation, over half of the respondents felt that there was the right amount of regulation for terrestrial TV, but 26% felt that there was too little. When satellite and cable viewers were asked about the regulation of non-terrestrial channels, 58% thought that the balance was right, around a quarter felt that there was too little and only 7% considered there to be too much regulation.
To the question: “Do you personally see or hear things on television that you find offensive?” 56 % of viewers said that they did not. Those that did experience offence gave bad language, violence and sex as the causes.
Almost 70% of homes have more than one TV set and, over half of households with 10-15 year olds have sets in children’s bedrooms. 87% of respondents lived in homes with at least one VCR. Only 3% of homes had Internet access, this figure rises to 8% for 20-24 year olds.
46% of satellite and cable viewers said that they subscribed to the services to gain greater access to sport and 42% gave the extra film screenings as the reason for joining. Approximately three quarters of subscribers thought it likely that they would still be subscribing a year from now and 5% were unlikely to continue.
When it came to viewing habits, 86% of respondents watch TV every day and 60% of the sample watch between 2 and 5 hours a day. Each week an average of 26 hours of TV is watched. When asked which channel they would choose if allowed only one of the existing channels, 44% of viewers opted for ITV compared to 33% for BBC1.
Just over half the respondents thought that programme standards remained the same as the previous year, with 11% feeling that they had improved and 28% believing that it had worsened. When asked what single improvement to television they would like to see, the most common suggestion, 15%, was less repeats.
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