In the early 1980s, when viewers typically had the choice of only a few channels, television was shown to be a mass-market medium (Barwise and Ehrenberg 1988). Channel segmentation was effectively non-existent, different channels attracted near identical audiences, and no channel attracted a more loyal audience than its competitors (Goodhardt, Ehrenberg et al. 1975; 1987; Barwise and Ehrenberg 1988). Over the last two decades the UK and US have witnessed dramatic changes in television. Viewers today not only have access to a prolific number of channels, but there are now specialist channels devoted to single genres such as sports, music, children's, news etc. This thesis investigates the effect these changes have had on television viewing behaviour. The patterns and structure of present-day viewing behaviour in the UK and US are established and interpreted, focusing primarily on how viewers are using 'new' multi-channel television services
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/284064 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Beal, Virginia |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | EN-AUS |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Virginia Beal 2003 |
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