2001 Viewership Survey

In addition to probing general levels of awareness of City of Tampa Television (CTTV), Channel 15, this telephone survey of Time Warner cable subscribers in the City of Tampa included questions regarding subscriber viewership habits, as well as, interest in a host of specific CTTV programs and programming categories. Questions were also asked regarding the respondents’ opinions and attitudes about the value of various services and programming options, and how well Tampa’s CTTV provides these services.

• Just under four out of 10 of all respondents were aware of CTTV and have watched programming on it. About 40% of those who were aware of CTTV were able to correctly identify the channel number as 15.

• Over three-fourths of the respondents who have watched a program on CTTV first became aware of it by "channel surfing." No other way of finding the channel (Preview Channel, newspaper, website, etc.) was mentioned by more than 5% of the CTTV viewers.

• The CTTV viewership base appears to be loyal, stable and growing, as well as, interested in and knowledgeable about the program offerings. Specifically, over six out of 10 of these viewers watch at least a few times per month, with almost one-third watching at least a few times per week. Over half watch between 5pm and 11pm and well over half usually watch for more than 10 minutes.

• The Tampa City Council meetings are the most watched program, as almost seven out of eight of all viewers report having seen these meetings. This program was followed by Community Affairs Report, Friday Extra! Concert Series and The Mayor’s Hour, all of which have been seen by well over half of all CTTV viewers. All four of these programs are watched by more viewers today than in the most recent previous audience measurement survey (1997) further demonstrating the steady growth of the CTTV viewership base.

• When these viewers were asked to grade the quality of four services provided by CTTV, Channel 15, all four services tested were given the highest possible grade ("Extremely Well") by more than one-fourth of the viewers. One service statement tested, provides a valuable community service, was given the highest grade by over one-third of the viewers. Only about 3% or fewer gave the lowest grade to any of the four service statements tested.

• When asked how interested they would be in watching each of 17 different categories of programming, both viewers and non-viewers were most interested in watching emergency information. Following this category for current viewers were neighborhood information & issues, public safety programs, candidate debates & election information and selected highlights of City Council and other public meetings. Non-viewers were significantly less interested in neighborhood and public meeting programming and more interested in public safety programs and military news.

• By a better than two to one margin, all respondents preferred short "news magazine" style programming segments rather than live gavel to gavel "window on government" style coverage of public meetings. Non-viewers preferred the "news magazine" style programming by a slightly greater margin than did viewers.

• About one-fourth of the respondents who access the Internet from their home computer have seen the City of Tampa’s website. Less than one out of 10 of these respondents were aware that CTTV can be viewed as a streaming video webcast with less than one out of 20 of them having watched this Internet webcast.

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