WHAT HAPPENS TO TELEVISION RATINGS DURING COMMERCIAL BREAKS

We study television audience levels during commercial breaks by recali brating the people meter to produce second-by-second ratings, The audi ence levels show a surprising amount of change, not just during commer cial breaks and between programs but also during programs. As expected , television ratings drop during commercial breaks, but only by 5 perc ent. This drop varies by program type and length, with movies being th e biggest audience losers during advertising breaks while soaps barely change their ratings. Furthermore, it appears that characteristics of the commercial break, such as number of ads in the break and length o f ads, have an affect on the ad break ratings, but they are not substa ntial. Lastly, it is evident that viewers appear to sense the timing p attern of ad breaks and their ad-avoidance behavior is dictated somewh at by this sense of patterning.