Different people view television differently.B Two people with identical demographic profiles can have different motivations for watching the same program or demonstrating loyalty to the same network.
To gain insight to those different motivations and discover which networks attract the attention of audiences with widely differing preferences for content, we’re experimenting with heat maps applied to tune-in data gathered through TNS Media Research‘s InfoSysTV.
In the example heat map below, we examine how ten audience segments, organized according to their attention allocations to different program genres, tune in to ten different networks.B The radius of the heat map circles indicate the relative size of the audience tuning in to the network.B The colors indicate the audience rating compared to the general population; the darker the hue, the greater the rating relative to the general viewing population.
For programmers interested in locating the audience likely to enjoy their fare, we think this is a good way to start.B We see that Crime Solvers have affinity for A&E and USA.B We see that the Family Oriented audience arrives at scale to ABC Family and Disney.B With a quick glance at this heat map, we’re able to focus subsequent analysis on the few networks presenting the best opportunities to learn more about the core audience.
A note on construction:B We’ve used the plug-ins available at Sparklines for Excel to build our heat maps.