Zapp! A Study of Switching Behavior during Commercial Breaks
Lex van Meurs · Journal of Advertising Research · 1998
This article describes an extensive research project concerning the leakage and influx of viewers during commercial breaks in the Netherlands. The research project was commissioned by SPOT (Foundation for the Promotion and Optimisation of TV Advertising). The goal of this research project is to determine which factors bring about this kind of channel switching.The study covers the people-meter data of 12,278 commercial breaks broadcast on the five main television channels in the Netherlands from January to April 1995. Of each of these commercial breaks, both the influx and the leakage of viewers were quantified. By means of multivariate analysis, these two factors are related to a large set of explanatory variables, such as characteristics of the break itself, the commercials in it, the audience, and the programs before and after the break. As a result, the two models provide an extensive insight into factors causing viewers to stay, stop, or start watching commercial breaks.