New measures and a new model for television network loyalty (MOTNL)

Network loyalty is of major interest to television program schedulers and advertisers. However, until now there has been no method for measuring the loyalty of individual viewers. This paper analyses People Meter data collected by Nielsen Media Research in New Zealand during July 2003. The data provides information on minute by minute television viewing for 1067 individuals in terms of channel and program genre. From this empirical data, new short-term and long-term measures of network loyalty are calculated for each viewer. The short-term measure of network loyalty can be used to monitor the frequency of channel switching within any 15 minute time slot, providing an essential reality check for television ratings. The long-term measure of network loyalty can be used by network schedulers to monitor performance. This data is used to test a postulated Model of Television Network Loyalty (MOTNL) in which network loyalty is linked to viewer demographics, socioeconomic variables and viewing behaviour. MOTNL has significant implications for network executives in their programming choices as well as benefits for advertisers.