Series of Surveys to Provide Women with a Stronger Voice
within the Marketplace
Results of First Survey Released – Exploring Women’s Attitudes toward ‘Bundling’
New York, New York – WE: Women’s Entertainment, the only cable network dedicated to helping women connect to one another and the world around them, announced today that it will invest in a series of broad based scientific surveys designed to explore and define the new trends among women television viewers.
Conducted by ePoll, the online research firm, each poll will address a specific subject, with the results providing a stronger voice to the valuable and unique perspectives that women bring to the marketplace. The surveys, which will be conducted throughout the year, will also build on the goals of WE’s new public affairs initiative, WE Empowers Women, which has become a valuable mechanism on and off air to its viewers, supporting the modern lives of women and their families.
“Since becoming GM of WE at the beginning of the year, it has been my goal to create a television network that mirrors the everyday lives of women, creating a home where diverse thoughts, needs, and passions are not only reflected, but are celebrated and showcased” stated WE General Manager Kim Martin. “In addition to our network programming and our new public affairs initiative, this research initiative will provide a valuable third tier in ensuring that the female perspective has a strong ongoing voice. These surveys will not only address a number of important and timely issues, but the results will show a very clear and defined sense on the thoughts of women television viewers. We are committed to ensuring that these opinions and attitudes have a true impact.”
Each survey that is conducted will have a specific central theme and a scientific pool of over 5000 18+ female potential respondents, providing a margin of error of approximately +/- 4%. In the coming months, several surveys are planned, touching on various subjects such as internet content, television usage and various marketing awareness issues.
In conjunction with today’s announcement, WE also released the findings of its first survey, which addressed women’s attitudes towards the “bundling” of phone, internet and cable services.
The poll measured the degree of decision-making influence women have for cable services in the home, the awareness and the desire for bundling services, the motivators for switching services and the impact of telephony and high speed access on switching of services. The poll was completed in early October of 2005.
“The work we are doing will establish WE as one of the experts in women’s opinions and we are very excited about launching this initiative,” stated Charlene Weisler, Senior Vice President Research, Rainbow Networks. “We chose to explore the issue of ‘bundling’ as our first subject, because it is one of the most important consumer issues facing television viewers. As shown in our new poll, women are very engaged in the decision-making process for cable services, so these numbers not only provide valuable context to the consumer needs of women but also an interesting preview on where the cable industry maybe headed in the future. Most of all, as the industry addresses these sensitive and important issues, the numbers define a strong point of view that will need to be addressed.”
The following are key findings from WE’s first scientific survey:
- Women are engaged in the decision-making process for cable service in their homes – More than half are joint decision-makers with another adult concerning the level of cable service (whether basic or pay) with very few (7%) leaving that decision entirely to another person.
- Generally speaking, switches tended to occur because of price (24%) and better programming packages (22%) or because they moved (23%) and not because they were dissatisfied with customer service (14%) or that the signal was unreliable (11%).
- Women want networks to be located in “neighborhoods” – 73% agree that “I would prefer to have like channels near one another in the channel line-up” with 43% strongly agreeing, 25% neutral and 1% disagreeing.
- Would bundling like networks enhance their viewing experience? The answer is yes: 74% agree with 37% strongly agreeing. 23% are neutral. Well-educated women are more likely to agree (82%) as are young 18-24s (80%).
- Women are not as motivated to switch phone services. And yet when asked which reasons would encourage them to switch telephone services, better pricing and discounted packaging appear to be the main drivers.
- Assuming that the cost was reasonable, “High Speed Internet” (75%) followed by “Local & Long Distance Phone” (65%) and then “Cellular Phone” (45%) are the other services that women would like to have provided by the cable company in their area.