New Survey Reveals Impact of Writers' Strike on Prime-Time Viewing

NEW YORK, January 29: A
new survey from Carat, a media communications company, found that the Hollywood
writers’ strike is not driving viewers away from TV but is affecting their
viewing patterns, with 72 percent of respondents watching the same amount of
prime-time TV than before the strike, 25 percent of people watching less and 3
percent watching more.

The survey also discovered
that in addition to their typical television viewing, consumers are changing
what they watch during prime time. For example, they are willing to watch
different genres, watch repeat episodes and channel surf to hunt for different
programs. Sixteen percent of respondents said they would continue to watch
their favorite TV shows in repeats for the next three to six months and among
those viewers, 21 percent said they would never lose interest. For those
viewers who said they "would not" or "may not" continue to
watch their favorite shows in repeats, the top choice was to go online (54
percent), followed by channel surfing until they found something else interesting
to watch (51 percent). Additionally, viewers who are not willing to continue
watching repeats of their favorite shows are also open to expanding their use
of other entertainment options such as online (54 percent), DVDs (80 percent),
magazines (30 percent) and video games (20 percent).

Of the 54 percent of
viewers who said they would go online instead, 6 percent said they would visit
TV networks' websites to watch shows or parts of TV shows (webisodes/episode
players, etc.) that they would or would not normally watch. Eighty-one percent
said they would browse the Internet for topics of interest, with nearly half of
all younger viewers (18-34) reporting that they would visit social-networking
sites, while the same was said for only 16 percent and 8 percent of those aged
35 to 54 and 55-plus, respectively.

Overall, 95 percent of
adult prime-time viewers are aware of the current strike by the Writers Guild
of America. Carat conducted the survey online among 1,000 prime-time TV viewers
aged 18 and older in the U.S.

"The majority of
prime-time viewers are watching the same amount of TV, so not much has changed
yet,” said Michelle Lynn, the senior VP of Carat Insight. “We'll continue the
dialogue with consumers every few weeks to stay on top of what they're doing
and to examine the new opportunities that arise as a result of the strike.”

For full
coverage of the writers strike click here.

—By Irene Lew