Media/Entertainment Terrestrial Television/Broadcasting Company

BUSINESS SITUATION

A well-known Entertainment TV that has image as “Edutainment TV” (because the programs that aired mostly carried the theme of entertaining as well as educating) has undergone various changes and succeeded in attracting viewers with a variety of innovative and entertaining new programs. They also broadcast some legendary programs that the viewers have known for a long time. In addition to the old programs that still exist, various new programs that generally carry the Comedy and Reality Show genres still attract viewers’ interest. To be able to compete healthy, TV station (program planner) should start opening up to treat the viewers no longer as objects, but the subjects of the inspiration of program production, by understanding their character. By understanding viewers’ character. By understanding the character of TV viewers, TV program managers can find out their hopes and desires of their viewers

FINDING FACTS

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed many viewers’ habits in accessing media, especially free-to-air television. Work from Home and Study from Home give rise to a tendency for viewers to shift not only with regard to the programs or contents watched, but also the media accessed and access time. There is a trend of changing access patterns between before and during pandemic.

From the viewer side, there’s a variety of segment: stagnant, relatively dynamic, very dynamic; from the side of the TV station management, there is a significant impact regarding the demand of the programs. There is an indication of the emergence of a paradox because on the one hand, a viral program discussed on social media is not necessarily a program with a satisfactory or high rating as expected, and vice versa. Program planner need to understand the character of the viewer to capture their expectations and hidden needs, how far the characteristic of the TV stations in accordance with the programs being broadcasted and the characteristic of the viewers.

SOLUTIONS SUGGESTED

We suggest to conduct Netnography among heavy viewers, switchers and netizen (lapsed viewers of terrestrial TV) that exploring the background of the Conventional (Free to Air TV) and Non-Conventional (Netizen) viewers. Netnography was carried out in several stages through two weeks of Diary Tracking among 70 respondents continued by an online In-Depth Interview of 30 selected respondents representing viewers from 4 favorite program clusters and 1 Netizen segment.

OUTCOME

• • • Each TV viewer segment shows a different character, where this also affects their individual preferences for the programs they want to watch and the media they access. Both Heavy and Medium Viewers from this Entertainment TV station are mostly in the Innovators segment. However, when explored more deeply, Medium Viewers who are also viewers of competitors can be detected based on their preferences by character.
    • The Innovators as major segment indicates that they are attracted towards some program genres: Comedy, Light Information, Edutainment, Drama, Infotainment
    • The differentiation of elements in the content of a program is not a major issue, but it deserves attention because there are indications that viewers need a lot of variety of elements in a program. Entertainment TV should show “colorful image” (offers various programs) than only some genres.
    • Program Slots: One example is that competitors have started earlier in airing Prime Time quality programs in the afternoon, this Entertainment TV may still last at long hours, which starts at 17.00. This has a significant impact on viewing interest because viewers have a variety of more “promising” choices.
    • The drop of the quality of iconic programs: An example is the case of an iconic comedy program which is decreasing in popularity, it needs a new strategy to overcome it.
    • Selected program genre cannot compete with other TV stations especially at prime time: This situation causes the duration of watching this Entertainment TV to be less than optimal, due to the “attractiveness” of programs from other TV stations that are more binding because they make them curious.
    • Brand confusion with other Entertainment TV Station: “Wrong recalls” often occur because program content is considered similar, program performers are also sometimes the same, target audience is the same/similar in terms of demographics and characters.