From the 2010 Public Opinion Survey on Viewers Satisfaction with Programs
February 2011
This article presents the latest findings of the 2010 Public Opinion Survey on Viewers Satisfaction with Programs, a survey series that has been conducted by NHK’s Programming Department as an attempt to objectively grasp viewers’ evaluation of “qualitative aspects” of TV programs by focusing on their perceptions. The author examines the advantages and challenges of this survey and reports the present state of viewers’ awareness and evaluation of TV programs.
The purpose of this research is to measure viewers’ satisfaction levels and other feelings towards specific programs. The survey included questions on the visibilities and satisfaction of major regular programs on NHK General TV and five terrestrial commercial channels aired in the evening in the Kanto area.
NHK News 7 marked the highest visibility rate (85.9%). Other long-run news and variety shows broadcast at prime time, such as Mito Komon (85.8%) and Tokyo Friend Park 2 (84.6%), are also well-know among respondents as observed in the past. Ikegami Akira no Manaberu News had the highest satisfaction rate (80.2%), followed by Ryomaden (75.1%) and NTV’s drama Mother (74.3%). Seven NHK GTV programs were among the top-ten satisfactory programs. This tendency--NHK GTV programs’ earning high satisfaction rates—has been unchanged over years. In the past, dramas tended to have high satisfaction rates, but this year, a commercial TV program that belongs to an “information variety” genre was high on the list. This is a new tendency that indicates the public perception of “satisfactory” quality might be in the process of changing.
The Public Opinion Survey on Viewers Satisfaction with Programs series asks respondents to choose one or more “reason(s) to watch” certain programs from eight options. In this report, their choices were analyzed to classify the programs into various types. After their “reasons to watch” given programs (not including NHK’s news programs) were analyzed, five types were identified, from which three patterns were further identified: programs that higher percentage of respondents perceived as (1) “comforting/relaxing” or “casual,” (2) “informative/ enlightening,” and (3) “impressive” or “exciting/thrilling.” As one of the future tasks, the author will search new evaluation indices from a viewpoint of different aspects of TV programs that are difficult to evaluate only with the above items.