A DECOMPOSITION OF TELEVISUAL AUDIENCE SIZE ACCORDING TO PROGRAM’S CHARACTERISTICS. AN ECONOMETRIC APPROACH ON FRENCH DATA.

The television program is a public good (Samuelson 1964) with an atypical financing given through advertisers. Channels “sell ” programs to viewers against consumption of advertising spot. The TV functioning is based on this relationships. Without an official price system the audience size is the only way for the consumer to express his choice, but didn’t give any indication about the satisfaction’s level of the viewer. In other words, for a given program, the audience reveals preferences between programs but not the satisfaction. Television is also an experimental good. The TV program quality can only be determined after consumption. Even if the TV program quality is known ex post, it isn’t universal: programs are heterogeneous and single goods. This increases the problem of consumer’s choice. This being said, how can we study the demand for television programs in a situation of uncertainty about program quality with a lack of price and heterogeneous products? Based on Lancaster’s theory, the aim of this article is to estimate the characteristics for the demand which allows viewers to obtain information about quality and thus make theirs choices. The approach by the characte ristics of the good presented by Lancaster permits to be aware of viewer