Building an alliance with viewers

Canadian broadcaster Alliance Atlantis recently announced that it was conducting an ongoing research project involving four online consumer advisory panels. The panels were established at the beginning of the year in an effort to engage viewers more meaningfully, and provide valuable insights on important industry and company issues.

The first panel is made up of 6,000 members of the general viewing public, while the other three are made up of regular viewers of HGTV, Food Network and Life Network. The panels are tapped every three to four weeks to test viewing and other media habits, as well as communication preferences, brand perception, advertising awareness and other critical issues.

So far, some interesting facts have been revealed. Asked if having HD affects the amount of live recording they watch, viewers responded: about the same (60%), somewhat more (23%), a lot more (8%), somewhat less (5%), and a lot less (4%).

Viewers who agreed with the statement 'I visit the channel's website' numbered 42% for the Food Network, 18% for HGTV, and 17% for Discovery Canada. In order to help promote the program Junk Brothers on HGTV, the panel was also asked about their garbage-picking habits. A startling 40% of Canadians reported they have picked up items at the curb, and 73% of those call what they salvaged furniture.

The advisory panels also support multimedia content to allow testing of programming, on-air promos and other advertising.