Broadcast television flow scheduling and the viewers’ zapping: conflicting practices

Authors

  • Eduardo Cintra Torres

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS1042016916

Keywords:

Scheduling, zapping, ratings, flow, audience, television

Abstract

Broadcast television and its audiences live a paradoxical situation: on the one hand, channels still schedule according to the concept of flow; on the other hand, viewers’ zapping counters it. This paper wishes to ascertain the audiences’ practices regarding their fidelity to flow. The research tries to answer these questions: how many viewers watch the same channel during a long consecutive period? How many viewers watch a complete programme? Are there significant differences in zapping versus flow faithfulness according to sex, age, socio-demographic class and cable TV access? Is “companionship television” still a viewers’ consume practice? The research verifies the effectiveness of flow scheduling, which, while being an ideology and a scheduling and self-promotion practice, is not a practice of most viewers. The results show that flow faithfulness flow is a minority behaviour mainly of older people, women, lower classes and viewers without occupation.

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Published

2016-12-29

How to Cite

Cintra Torres, E. (2016). Broadcast television flow scheduling and the viewers’ zapping: conflicting practices. Observatorio (OBS*), 10(4). https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS1042016916

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 4 (2016)

Section

Articles

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