Viewing choices of TVRO Satellite System owners: A pilot study conducted in Greene County, Tennessee

There are now more than 1.5 million homes in the United States with television receive only (TVRO) satellite systems. Despite the emergence of scrambled satellite signals, the number of TVRO's continues to increase. This dissertation is a pilot study, a first attempt to find out how these households use television and what they watch.

Previous research into the uses of satellite telecommunications has been concentrated in two subject areas: domestic and international telecommunications policy, and the economic implications of satellite technology for the telecommunications industry. In addition, the author reviewed relevant studies on how TV viewers make choices in a multi-channel environment. These bodies of knowledge provided a context for this dissertation.

The study itself was a survey of 111 households, in Greene County, Tennessee, with TVRO satellite systems. It was conducted during the July, 1986, television rating period and used methodology similar to that adopted by Nielsen Media Research and Arbitron.

The results of the survey provided the following conclusions for this group of TVRO households:

1. Movies were the most popular programs, followed by sports, soap operas, children's shows and news.

2. The households watched almost three times as much TV from satellite as from local TV. More than half the households, however, watched local TV at least one half hour during the week.

3. The most popular single service was Select TV, a movie channel destined for subscription television stations. When all duplicated sources were combined, however, the CBS network was viewed most often.

4. Viewers tuned in local TV for soap operas most often, followed by news and situation comedies. For satellite viewing, the most popular program types were movies, sports, and children's shows, in that order.

5. When considering only channels viewed frequently, (5% or more of the time during the week), 71.3% of the households chose between four and six channels from all sources.

6. The TVRO households reported owning more VCRs, stereo TV sets, personal computers, and other consumer electronic gadgets than average.