ATTITUDE OF TELEVISION AUDIENCE TOWARDS COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTION OF TELEVISION PROGRAMMES

BACKGROUND OF STUDY: Television industry in Nigeria is still in its infant stage comparatively to its counterparts in other parts of the developed world. However, it has metamorphosed remarkably within this short period of its history. There have been some achievement and new dimensions in its scope of operation for the past two decades. At its inception, television in the country was basically used for information, entertainment and educational purposes. It is different because of its ability to combine sound and picture. As a result of these qualities, it is possible for it to attract a large number of viewing audiences. The number of television receivers reaching a formidable of over 30 million people throughout Nigeria, is proof of the immeasurable impact this invention has had on the lives of millions and on the spread of information. The value of television, as a medium of mass communication is fast assuming highly important position throughout the world. Television has added another feather to its wing, which is that of persuasion.

This singular act by television has made it possible for television to dazzle other media of communication. It now serves as an organ through which governments and advertisers sell their goods and services. It has brought the art of product awareness to millions of households. It has the selling power for most types of goods and services – detergents, cigarettes, fridge, beer, furniture, etc. Their impact on the country is attributable to network television advertising. Still talking about what television offers, one cannot but remember educational and entertainment programmes for the audience like cultural dances, drama and comedy programmes. Some of the programmes such as Superstory, Mexican Telenovelas, Indian series, have been known to force people to go home from wherever they are, so as not to miss the next episode. While viewers are watching their favourite programmes, it is a common experience that broadcast stations often insert commercials which break the continuity of these programmes to the annoyance of viewers whom these programmes are their favourites.

The advertisers often want their commercials to be aired at prime time, while these viewers want their favourite programmes to be uninterrupted by commercials thereby creating conflicts between the interests of advertisers and interests of viewers. It has been estimated that well over 80% of the programmes on Nigeria televisions are interrupted as a result of commercials, yet Nigeria television houses do not seem to see anything unusual about this situation. On N.T.A station, there are so many programmes for the week and none is aired without commercial interruption. According to Opubor and Ore (1979) “the commercial interruptions of most of the programmes are of little relevance to the social realities of the average Nigerian”.  Consequently, television houses often just slot in these commercials even at prime time without considering the interests and feelings of viewers. The viewers are now forced to perceive and consume these commercials when watching their favourite programs, thereby subjecting them to the status of captive audience.

According to Nwuneli (1976),”Many of the products in Nigeria television are raw. They display things which portray people as naughty, monsters and didactic under stones, which are underplayed and viewers lose sight of them”. Some researchers have come up with evidence to show that commercial interruption could induce aggressive tendencies in people. According to Greene (1965) a former Director General of the British Broadcast Corporation, “television is being misused and that broadcasters are betraying their responsibilities”

There is no gain saying the fact that television stations need the money realized from these commercial to remain in business. The corporation has to undertake commercial broadcasting in order to make money to supplement the subtrahend; sponsors need the television station as a medium of communicating information about their goods and services to the ultimate consumers with the sole aim at arousing their interests for the goods. But as new television stations are established and more stations introduce the modern broadcasting, the need to interrupt programmes at the detriment of the viewers will be further aggravated. Unless something is done now, this will be another ugly incident and further alienation of television audience.

The points mentioned above have acted as stimuli for this research which is to find out the attitude of television audience towards commercial interruption in television programmes.

Attitude is defined here as ways of thinking or feeling towards something, in this case towards commercial interruption in television programmes. This attitude survey is very crucial because it embraces a lot of things. For instance, it transcends effects of commercial interruptions on television audience because it is only after a subject has observed the effect of a phenomenon that the subject can form a reasonable attitude towards that phenomenon.

According to Parker (1974) “The sooner each new technology is studied, the greater the chance of bringing to use research results to influence policy in a meaningful way”. We can deduce from this that it is necessary to examine audience attitude towards commercial interruption by Nigerian televisions at this embryonic state of televisions industry when the institutional and economic structures of broadcasting are still being formulated.

Finally, this study will also find out whether television audience will prefer uninterrupted programmes to interrupted programmes and whether these commercial programs increase or decrease the viewer’s interests. In short, it will come up with suggestion on how Nigeria television stations can best serve their audience.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Television by virtue of sound, vision and movement offers a high degree of creative flexibility. An increasing number of people have television sets and this allows for greater realism of presentation in commercials. What is more?  Television has achieved a very high degree of penetration of the population and many people watch television programmes for several hours each day. However, these programmes are intermittently interrupted to make way for the insertion of commercial message.

It has been estimated that well over 80% of the programmes on Nigerian television are interrupted as a result of commercial insertions, yet Nigeria television houses to not seem to see anything wrong or unusual about this situation. The situation has come to a stage where it will be logically assumed that the gullibility of the television audience is now taken for granted by television houses and also that money has now become their primary consideration.

Thus, this study intends to examine the attitude of television audience in Enugu towards commercial interruption of television programmes. By and large, attitude is a formidable factor in any human communication. It is defined as a psychological predisposition that allows a person to behave in a certain way towards objects, people or actions, hence, the objects in this case will be commercials interruption of television programs.

Given the situation, what does the television audience have to say about the commercial interruption of television programmes? How do they feel or react when the programmes they are watching on their television sets are interrupted midway by commercial message? Will uninterrupted television programmes appeal more to regular viewers than to non-regular viewers? Is it true that television audience will like to watch their favourite programmes uninterrupted by commercial message than when watching their unfavourite programmes? Will television viewers pay more attention to commercial messages that tend to satisfy their needs than to commercial messages that does not satisfy their needs?

Finally, would television audience recall faster commercial messages that tend to satisfy their needs than those that do not tend to satisfy their needs?

This background will now form the bedrock of the statement of research problems which is self-explanatory on “the attitude of television audience in Enugu towards commercial interruption of television programmes.