Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio
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CHAPTER 11
EVALUATION OF MEDIA: TELEVISION AND RADIO
Chapter Overview
The purpose of this chapter is to examine the media of television and radio. We examine the general
characteristics of television and radio as well as their advantages and limitations as advertising media.
Attention is given to how advertisers use TV and radio as part of their media strategy, how they buy
television and radio time, how audiences are measured and evaluated for each medium, and how rates are
Learning Objectives
2. To examine the advantages and limitations of television and radio as advertising media.
4. To consider future trends in TV and radio and how they will influence the use of these media in
advertising.
Chapter and Lecture Outline
I. TELEVISION
Television has virtually saturated households throughout the United States and many other countries and
has become a mainstay in the lives of most people. They rely on TV for news and information and it is
A. Advantages of Television
1. Creativity and impact—the interaction of sight and sound offers tremendous creative
flexibility and makes possible dramatic, lifelike representations of products and services.
2. Coverage and cost effectiveness—Marketers selling products and services that appeal to
broad target audiences find that TV lets them reach mass markets, often very cost effectively.
3. Captivity and attention— Television commercials are intrusive in that they impose
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4. Selectivity and flexibility—TV has often been criticized for being a nonselective medium,
since it is difficult to reach a precisely defined market segment. However, some selectivity is
B. Limitations of Television
1. Costs—the absolute costs for commercial time can be very high, particularly on the major
networks. Production costs for quality commercials can also be prohibitive. The production
2. Lack of selectivity—Advertisers who are seeking a very specific, often small, target audience
3. Fleeting message—Most TV commercials are only 15 or 30 second spots and leave nothing
tangible for the viewer to examine or consider. Thirty-second spots remain the dominant
4. Clutter—the problems of fleeting messages and shorter commercials are compounded by the
fact that the advertiser’s message is only one of many spots and other non-programming
material seen during a commercial break.
5. Limited viewer attention—the increased penetration of DVRs and prevalence of remote
control channel changing or zapping is creating a major problem for advertisers. Studies
have shown that nearly a third of a TV program’s viewing audience is lost during commercial
6. Distrust and negative evaluation—TV commercials are probably the most criticized form of
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Professor Notes
II. BUYING TELEVISION TIME
There are a number of options available to advertisers purchasing television time. The instructor should
point out that the purchase of television advertising time is a very specialized part of the advertising
business, particularly for large companies spending huge sums of money and advertising on a national or
regional basis. The various considerations involved in the purchase of television time are examined.
A. Network versus Spot—a basic consideration that faces all advertisers is the allocation of their
television media budget among network versus local or spot announcements. It is important to
cover each of the ways television time can be purchased including:
1. Network advertising—a common way by which advertisers disseminate their messages is by
the purchase of airtime from a television network which assembles a series of affiliated
stations or affiliates to which its supplies programming. A major advantage of network
2. Spot and local advertising—spot advertising refers to commercials shown on local television
3. Syndication—advertisers may also reach television viewers by advertising on syndicated
programs which are sold or distributed to local stations. There are three basic types of
syndicated programs:
• off-network syndication—reruns of network shows that are bought by individual stations
Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio
B. Methods of Buying Time—Television advertisers must also make decisions regarding the method
by which they will advertise on a program. The options to be discussed include:
1. Sponsorships—under a sponsorship arrangement, an advertiser assumes responsibility for the
2. Participations—most network advertising time is sold as participations, with multiple
3. Spot announcements—spot announcements are bought from the local stations and generally
C. Selecting Time Periods and Programs—another consideration in buying television time is the
selection of the particular time period and program during which the commercial will be shown.
Considerations here include the selection of a specific time period or daypart segment and
audience size and demographic composition. Common television dayparts are shown in Figure
11-3 of the text. The different dayparts are important to advertisers because they attract different
demographic groups.
Professor Notes
D. Cable Television
1. The growth of cable—Cable or CATV (community antenna television) is probably the most
significant development in the broadcast media. By 2010 cable penetration reached 91
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2. Advertising on cable—as with broadcast TV, cable can be purchased on a national, regional,
3. Advantages of cable—cable television has some important advantages including the
opportunities it offers for narrowcasting or reaching very specialized markets though
4. Limitations of cable- limitations of cable include the fact that it is still overshadowed by the
major networks as it has less desirable programming and production than broadcast
5. The future of cable—cable television faces a number of challenges over the next decade such
as competition from new channels, continued fragmentation, and changes in government
E. Measuring the TV Audience—one of the most important considerations in using television
advertising concerns the size and composition of the TV viewing audience. Audience
measurement is critical to the advertiser since they want to know the size and characteristics of
the audience they are reaching when they buy time on a particular program. Audience size and
composition are important to the network or station as these figures determine the amount they
can charge for commercial viewing time. Programming decisions are made on the basis of
audience size and composition.
Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio
1. Audience measures—the sole source of network TV and local audience information is
Nielsen Media Research since Arbitron exited the TV ratings business at the end of 1993 due
to steep financial losses. There are some important terms and various types of information the
rating services provide which should be covered:
a. Television households – the number of households in a market that own a TV. Nielsen
estimates that 114.9 million U.S. households that own at least one television set.
d. Households using television (HUT) – the percentage of homes in a given area where TV
is being watched during a specific time period. This figure is sometime referred to as sets
in use and is always expressed as a percentage.
2. Network audience information—the source of national and network television audience
information is Nielsen Media Research’s Television Index (NTI) which provides daily and
3. Local audience information—Information on local television audiences is provided by the
Nielsen Station Index (NSI). These measures are taken using the diary method whereby
record what they are programs they are watching and who is watching. Nielsen provides NSI
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4. Developments in audience measurement—the advertising industry is likely to see changes in
the way viewing audiences are measured. Much of the concern over the Nielsen audience
measurement numbers involves the use of the diary system to measure local viewing
audiences. Nielsen has been expanding the use of people meters to measure local viewing
audiences as they are currently used in the top 20 markets and the company plans to use them
in the top 56 markets by 2011.
In 2007 Nielsen made a significant change in the way viewing audiences are measured when
the company began providing commercial ratings data, know as “C3,” which includes
measures of the average viewership of the commercials in a program, both live and up to
three days after the ads on played back on a DVR. It is important to note that the new ratings
Professor Notes
III. RADIO
The role of radio as an entertainment and advertising medium changed dramatically with the rapid growth
in the popularity of television. Radio has evolved primarily into a local advertising medium characterized
Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio
A. Advantages of Radio
1. Cost and efficiency—Radio commercials are inexpensive to produce and the absolute and
relative costs for radio advertising time is generally lower than for television.
2. Selectivity—Radio allows marketers to focus their advertising on specialized audiences such
3. Flexibility—Radio is probably the most flexible of all the advertising media because it has a
4. Potential for mental imagery—Radio encourages listeners to use their imagination when
5. Integrated marketing opportunities—Radio provides marketers with a variety of integrated
marketing opportunities such as event marketing and point-of purchase promotions.
Advertisers often use radio stations and personalities to enhance their involvement with a
local market and to gain influence with local retailers.
B. Limitations of Radio
1. Creative limitations—Radio is an advertising medium without a visual image. The radio
3. Chaotic buying procedures—acquiring information and evaluating and contracting for radio
4. Limited research data—Audience research data on radio are often limited, particularly
compared with TV, magazines, and newspapers.
5. Limited listener attention—Radio programming particularly music, is often the background to
some other activity and may not receive the listeners’ full attention. Many people who listen
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6. Competition from digital media – commercial radio faces competition from several digital-
based technologies that are impacting the listening audience such as satellite radio. The major
7. Clutter—most radio stations carry an average of nearly 10 minutes of commercials every
hour. During the popular morning and evening rush hours, the amount of commercial time
may exceed 12 minutes. A new technology called Cash is making it possible for radio
broadcasters to reduce the pauses between words of radio announcers and add more time for
C. Buying Radio Time—the purchase of radio time is similar to that of television in terms of
purchasing options as advertisers can make either network, spot or local buys during various time
periods or dayparts. Various options should be discussed including:
1. Network radio – there are three major national radio networks, Westwood One, ABC, and
Premiere. Advertisers can reach a national audience by advertising on one of the networks.
3. Local radio – most radio advertising is done by local companies who purchase advertising
time from stations in local markets.
D. Time classifications—the broadcast day for radio is divided into various time periods or
E. Audience Information—one problem with radio is the lack of audience information that results
from the vast number of radio stations with small, fragmented audiences. Developing precise
measures of radio listenership is difficult because of the nature of the medium and the many
station options available. There are two major radio rating services which should be discussed:
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1. Arbitron—covers 286 local radio markets with one to four ratings reports per year by having
2. RADAR— another rating service that is now owned by Arbitron and collects audience
estimates twice a year for the major radio networks on the basis of 12,000 telephone
interviews covering seven day of radio listening behavior.
Professor Notes
Teaching Suggestions
This chapter is designed to provide the student with a general understanding of the media of television
and radio. Radio and television are probably the most pervasive media in the lives of most American
consumers. The instructor may want to direct the students’ attention to the statistics cited in the text
regarding penetration of radio and television and the amount of time spent with these media. It is
important for students to understand the general characteristics of television and radio including their
Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio
As discussed in the chapter opener, the nature of television as an advertising medium has changed
dramatically in recent years and will continue to do so with the evolution of digital technology. The trend
toward shorter commercials and the resulting clutter problem, the growth of cable and concomitant
advertisers over the measurement of television viewing audiences and how they are being impacted by
new technologies such as digital video recorders. In 2007 Nielsen Media Research began making
commercial ratings available rather than program ratings. In exchange for letting advertisers have
commercial ratings, the networks are now asking that they be paid for the DVR-enabled viewers who may
watch programs and the ads they contain up to three days later.
When teaching this chapter, we encourage you not to contribute to the “Rodney Dangerfield” problem of
radio by giving it only limited attention. Radio has become a very viable media option for national as well
as local advertisers. Examples of the creative and effective use of radio are readily available just by
TV’s visual impact and creative options. Attention should also be paid to the growth of satellite radio and
the two major companies, XM and Sirius, which will soon be merging. While satellite radio offers more
options to listeners, both companies are finding it difficult to attract subscribers. A case study on XM
Satellite Radio is available on the web site accompanying the book for classroom use.
Answers To Discussion Questions
1. The opening vignette discusses how various technological changes have been impacting the television
industry and TV’s role as a major advertising medium. Discuss the key developments that have
impacted over the past two decades and other factors that are likely to affect it in the future. (L01,4)