Abstract
Amid the increase of TV reruns since spring 2020 due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, we conducted an attitudes survey of television viewers (web questionnaire survey and focus group). This is the first part of a two–part series that reports the findings from the survey. The first chapter overviews how reruns have increased since April 2020, when the government announced the state of emergency in relation to COVID–19. As of late–May, even the evening primetime slot had many reruns or programs reusing past video materials. The following trends were observed from the attitudes survey.
– Viewers in general favorably accept reruns, and many do not mind having them even during weekday prime time.
– Respondents tend not to mind whether the program is the first broadcast or rebroadcast if they feel like watching it. They also are less than picky about whether it is reruns or not when checking the program guide and do not attach much importance to the timing of broadcast, or whether it is in or out of season.
– Viewers' unsatisfaction with recent broadcast content is among the factors reflected in their needs for reruns.
– Those who actively watch television have a strong tendency to require various added values to reruns.
– There are tendencies that young people acquire information on reruns from the internet while the elderly do so from newspapers.
– In general, viewers are tolerant about reruns featuring TV personalities who have committed misconducts.
The rest of the findings will be presented in the second part of the series.
