Getting an IPG
Hypothesis vs. Reality
Fontana FitzwilsonTV Guide Networks, United States
Stan SeagrenNielsen Media Research, United States
PROGRAM CHOICE BACKGROUND
In 1971, Paul Klein of NBC postulated that the program choice made by the average viewer was in fact based on the “least objectionable alternative” (Webster and Phalen). This premise obtained some currency, in particular as television grew as a mass medium.
UK researchers Barwise and Ehrenberg approached the problem from a slightly different angle, arguing that in markets with general purpose broadcasters (like the United Kingdom in the 1970s) that television was largely an unsegmented medium....