What viewers watch when they watch TV: Affiliation change as case study

Abstract

The investigation reported here lends further support to the interrelated‐ness of television use motives, the identification of instrumental and ritualized patterns in how television is used, and the generalizability of these patterns to times when local television stations change network affiliation. By augmenting traditional measures of viewing affinity and viewer perceptions, this study expands the known parameters of television viewer uses and gratifications and identifies three major viewer archetypes‐medium‐oriented viewers, station‐oriented viewers, and network‐oriented viewers. Implications for theory building and television network audience maintenance and generation strategies are discussed.