Could someone please help me to find market data regarding cable and
broadcast tv stations in the US, specifically:
- what is the demographic reach of each station, in each major
city/area, in different time slots during the day,
- how many people do actually watch,
- what is the average response for direct response advertising.

Are there websites for subscriptions or research companies providing
such service? I checked the Nielsen site, but found only data at least
1 or 2 years old (even for that I would have to pay money - the only
free report was one about ecommerce based on data from sprint 1999!!).

Additionally, I would like to know what models does the media industry
uses to estimate advertising response?

Finally, is there a web site which collects all current advertising
rates for each tv station?

Hello hagen,

I hope I can help you with your question.  I company out there called
SRDS Media Solutions offers a quarterly publication, the SRDS TV and
Cable Source, which has all information that you are requesting on
market shares, advertising rates, etc.  For $486 annually, you not
only get the print publication, but a PIN allowing you to access their
website for the latest data.

Another company which seems to have similar information, and
apparently in print and CD form only, is Warren Communications News. 
I am not sure from their description if their "2002 Television & Cable
Factbook" has all the information you are looking for, or only contact
information for sales managers and so forth.  That factbook is
available for $695 for the first copy, and is updated annually.


You may be able to find a copy of either company's latest guides at
your local library to see if it meets your need.  If not, you can get
a copy from interlibrary loan from the Jackson Library at the
University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

According to David W. Stewart and Scott Ward, in their 1994 book,
"Media Effects on Advertising", four thing affect consumer response
towards advertising:  Attitudes  toward the medium, uses of the
medium, involvement while using the medium and mood states affecting
media usage (abstracted in
http://www.uis.edu/~grubbs/bryant/chap11b.html ).  For example,
identical advertising that was identified as having come from
different magazines was judged differently by consumers depending on
their preconceived notions.

Surveys on how consumers feel towards particular ads, how much they
were able to recall, how much more likely they are to purchase a
product before an ad than after are some of the ways that advertisers
use to fine-tune their advertising.  To see how much their advertising
dollar has gone towards influencing people towards buying their
product, they use test-marketing, and again comparing how much sales
have improved with more advertising money spent.  It would appear to
me that the exact numbers would depend on the particular type of
product being sold.  It appears from my research that the media
assumes for the most part that advertising delivery correlates
directly with response rate.  That is, if twice as many people of a
given demographic are watching their show (and hence seeing the
advertisement) than another station's, then twice as many people will
buy the advertised product than a similar one shown on another
station.

I find an interesting little tidbit while researching marketing models
that said that for every 1% increase of money spent in TV advertising
for milk, demand for milk increases 0.01281% (
http://www.extension.umn.edu/newsletters/ageconomist/components/ag237-689a.html
)

If you need more clarification, I will be on again Sunday night.

turnip-ga


SRDS website (main and book info):
http://www.srds.com
http://www.srds.com/servlet/LoginServlet?action=loginFrame&linkHit=ips

Warren Communications News:
http://www.warren-news.com/tvcabledata.htm
Bibliography of Media Modeling in Advertising from the University of
Texas:
http://advertising.utexas.edu/research/biblio/MediaMod.html


Description of both books from the Jackson Library:
http://library.uncg.edu/depts/ref/biz/media.htm

Search Terms:
national  television "advertising rates"
television "advertising response" models

Excellent answer, could not hope for more! Thanks!

Thank you for asking this question. Although I couldn't find the full
answer (I'm not going to the library to do research for $20) I'm glad
your request put me onto the the US Census site.

Top 210 TV markets in US

http://www.tvb.org/search/docs/build_frameset.cgi?url=/tvfacts/trends/advolume/1998_2001.html&my_section=tvfacts

The Television Bureau of Advertising site includes many of the facts
you are looking for, including trends, with hundreds of free atricles.

http://www.tvb.org/tvfacts/trends/tv/

Two books you can find at a university library:

Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook (TK6540 .B86 Latest Langsam Reference)

Leo Burnett Worldwide Advertising and Media Factbook: The
International Sourcebook of Media Conditions, Facts and Statistics.
(Latest Langsam Reference HF5826.5.L46)

Nationwide breakdown of media veiwing/listening by age and demographic
(see pages 5 and 10of the PDF document)

http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/statab/sec18.pdf

No. 909 Media Usage and Consumer Spend 1993-2003 (US Gov Printing
Office)

By the way, a nice breakdown of the Canadian TV market is found here:

http://www.bbm.ca/Get_Data/TV_Data_Tidbits/Summer_2000_TV_Data_Tidbits.pdf

The company that offers for pay reports that may include EVERYTHING
you want

http://www.warren-news.com/tvcabledata.htm

I hope another researcher can use some of this info to finish the job.

morris-ga

Not exactly what you're looking for, but might be helpful:

MediaWeek Top 50 Market Profiles (focus on newspapers, but also
includes TV)
http://www.mediaweek.com/mediaweek/top50/top_50index.jsp

Scarborough Research
http://www.scarborough.com

Scarborough does media market profiles for the 75 largest markets,
however, they're quite expensive -- in order to get all of the ones
they publish I'm guessing you'll have to pay thousands of dollars. 
It's pretty desirable information that large companies and advertising
agencies are willing to purchase so the prices are high.  This kind of
market research info is RARELY free and most often pretty darn
expensive.

MediaWeek Magazine publishes a Scarborough Market Profile in most (if
not all) issues.  Unfortunately, copyright restricts likely prevent
any of the researchers here from pasting them in for your information,
however, you might head to your local library to photocopy these out
of MediaWeek.

Other places to look:

The Direct Marketing Assocication
http://www.the-dma.org

American Association of Advertising Agencies
http://www.aaaa.org

Response Rates are Down All Over (Iconocast.com, 11/13/2001)
http://www.iconocast.com/issue/9001,1,1101,13,1.html