Word of Mouth and the Viewing of Television Programs

ABSTRACT For television programs, positive word of mouth (PWOM) is four times more common than negative word of mouth (NWOM). PWOM also had a positive impact on those it reached, while the effects of NWOM were small and insignificant. The level of PWOM for any program was highly correlated with viewer levels and was most likely to be received by past viewers. This suggests that PWOM works by reminding past viewers about how much they liked a program. However, the reach of even PWOM was limited with only 20 percent of any program9s potential viewers receiving any WOM over a week. Finally, NWOM, as a ratio to PWOM, appeared indicative of new program failure.