Relationship between Sociological Characteristics of Citizens of Sary and Tabarestan Provincial TV Channel Viewership

The Iranian national and provincial TV network is nowadays encountering the serious challenge of attracting and maintaining audience attention due to the ever-increasing expansion of satellite TV networks and social media. In the face of such a challenge, paying attention to the personal and social differences of the audience in an attempt to attract attention and to meet the satisfaction of the viewers of IRIB provincial channels is becoming ever more imperative. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between the sociological characteristics (age, gender, education, marital status, socio-economic base) of citizens of the city of Sari and the watching habits of the viewers of the Mazandaran provincial TV channel. The method of research is to survey the population over the age of fifteen in the city of Sari using the Cochran formula from which a sample of 400 people was selected using multistage cluster sampling. Finally, 400 questionnaires were collected and analyzed using the SPSS program, analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, Eta coefficient test, and the Pearson coefficient. The formal validity of the questionnaire was obtained using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The research findings suggest an inverse relationship between the provincial TV channel consumption (time spent watching TV) and the socio-economic base as well as the level of education of the respondents. Meanwhile, they suggest a direct relationship between the age and marital status of the respondents on one hand and the time spent watching TV on the other. The research findings also suggest no significant relationship between the respondents' gender and time spent watching TV.