Abstract

Digitalization and market deregulation have increased competition among German television broadcasters. To secure audience rates and advertising revenues, viewer retention presents an important success factor. By enabling personal relationships with an otherwise anonymous audience, the internet allows TV-stations to adopt Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Interaction and participation, driving forces of viewer relationships, represent key features of Web-2.0- applications. Based on a content analysis and expert interviews with TV-marketing representatives, this paper describes the status quo of Web-2.0-adoption by German free-to-air broadcasters and evaluates the applications’ contribution to Viewer Relationship Management (VRM). Findings show that Web-2.0-adoption still has explorative character: TV-stations test applications with respect to technological possibilities and user acceptance, while copy-right-restrictions and missing benchmarks currently present obstacles. Offering a wide range of options to promote viewer retention, Web-2.0-applications are eligible to support VRM by collecting user data and enabling individual viewer services as well as direct communication.

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