How Likely Are Viewers to Watch Television Commercials: A Connectedness Perspective

With the recent return to more advertising-generated content by entertainment providers, it again becomes important to understand what will drive consumers to view commercials. We utilize the construct of television connectedness developed by Russell, Norman, and Heckler (2004) to predict viewers’ propensity to watch television commercials. Based on data derived from a survey completed by 816 residents of the United States, we estimate a logistic regression model and find that older (35+) viewers high on connectedness are more likely to view television commercials. We further employ correspondence analysis of free-response data to uncover differences in motivations to view commercials among younger (18-34) and older (35+) consumers with different connectedness levels. We discuss implications for television networks and subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD, streaming) providers that seek to enhance revenue with advertising-supported content on their platforms.