When travelers to mountain and beach resort communities flip on the small screen on their vacations, the clicker most often stops on RSN Television.
According to a study conducted by the service -- which reaches more than 100 mountain and beach communities around the nation -- resort viewers are between two and four times more likely to watch RSN than other networks while on vacation.
Although viewers within these resort communities watch one-half as much TV when on holiday, 51% indicated that they watched RSN during their stay, according to the research.
Viewing of the service outpaced that of NBC, ESPN, CBS, Fox and The Weather Channel, the other leading networks within RSN’s markets.
Survey respondents indicated that the main reasons why they watched TV on vacation included getting local weather conditions; checking out the local market; finding area dining and nightlife; information about children’s activities; and lifestyle entertainment.
“This research confirms what we have long understood intuitively -- that people on vacation are not watching as much network television but tune into visitor-information stations like RSN because the program offerings are very relevant to the vacation experience,” RSN vice president of marketing Richard Bilodeau said in a prepared statement.
“Of those who were surveyed, 41% of viewers recall seeing a specific RSN program, while 61% recall seeing a local live RSN morning show in the market they are visiting,” he added.
RSN’s research was conducted between March 2004 and June 2005, encompassing three methods: resort surveys distributed during check-in and returned upon check-out; intercept interviews done in-person, on-location; and phone interviews conducted by Nielsen Media Research. Data were collected from nearly 900 resort guests.
