Tuesday, February 05, 2008

The megaserial conundrum

Does cohabitation lead to preference effects in the choice of television program viewership? I read a paper which essentially answered this question and the verdict is that the wives' viewing behavior depends more strongly on the husbands' choices and not vice versa. Obviously the analysis was done based on viewers in the United States. Imagine translating to the Indian market. Does the husband in a typical Indian household, prompt his wife to watch the never ending mega serials? Judging from my interactions with friends back home, that does not seem to be the case. But can I be definitive in my conclusions? Of course not! So guys, what is the likelihood that you will end up watching "Kyon ki saans bhi kabhi bahu thi" or "Chitti" or whatever? (I dont watch TV here, so I dont know if there are comparable programs here).

5 comments:

Survivor said...

Interesting !!! I would guess it would depend on who gets to spend time in front of the TV. I would assume in US, the guys most probably might be spending more time after work and get to decide. And most of the soaps here are in daytime TV when , on an average, the men will most probably out. Did the survey take into account the daytime TV?
In India, the soaps are through out the day which changes the scenario, I would presume .
In houses where both have 3 hrs in front of the TV, I would assume it would be a tough fight unless they have the same taste and their wavelengths match or one of them should not be interested in watching TV.

nourish-n-cherish said...

Also, is there a variety to offer in Indian TV during primetime? You can choose between Radhika crying on Sun TV, Bhanupriya crying on Vijay TV or Devayani crying on Raj TV.

Another thing I've noted is: all men in India (older generation, since I am not familiar with our generation TV choices in India) remark contemptuously when asked about TV serials, but they sit and watch them all the same!

BrainWaves said...

Saumya,

I completely agree. All MEN watch the TV serial and even prompt their counter parts to switch the TV on and then join to bash/joke the crying wife :)

"Yenna innum Abhi azharathai parka kanom" - example of Husband's "subtle" hint to wife.

Manohar said...

Actually, I haven't really seen many men watching the soaps. Could be my sample set is too narrow to make this a general observation.

sdpal said...

As saumya said, maybe older generation.

Ive visited all my brothers during last vacation and none of them were interested in the evening serials (as they will be at home during that time) and they preferred news/sports/songs/english movies), if the better half isnt watching serials (at the same time). So, I cant agree with "ALL" men.