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  • Article

90 Years of ARF

The ARF is quite a bit younger than the US, but it also has many achievements. For example, it pioneered high-quality media use studies already, in the 1950’s and 60’s. Read more »

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The Co-Viewing Advantage: Maximizing Attention Across TV Platforms

The Co-Viewing Advantage: Maximizing Attention Across TV Platforms

  • JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH

Watching television is often a shared experience, but how does co-viewing affect audience attention? An analysis of nearly 25 billion seconds of TV viewing data reveals that watching with others decreases attention to advertisements while increasing attention to programming. The effects vary by platform, with linear TV outperforming CTV in sustaining attention during co-viewing situations. The study also finds that longer co-viewing sessions strengthen engagement, while longer ads can undermine attention. These findings offer important guidance for advertisers, content creators and media planners seeking to maximize audience engagement in an increasingly fragmented television landscape.

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Inside the JAR: Budgets, Attention, and Audiences — New Evidence for Smarter Advertising Across Channels

Inside the JAR: Budgets, Attention, and Audiences — New Evidence for Smarter Advertising Across Channels

  • ARF
  • JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH

On April 8, 2026, the ARF featured three new articles from the Journal of Advertising Research focusing on advertising budget allocation, viewer attention, and digital magazine audience analysis. Sönke Albers presented research on optimal rules for allocating advertising budgets across movie distribution stages, extending previous work by incorporating carryover effects between stages. Zack Bhan discussed findings on ad repetition's impact on viewer attention, revealing that attention declines more rapidly in connected TV (CTV) compared to linear TV (LTV) due to higher engagement with content in CTV environments. Kaye Chan and Mark Uncles analyzed actual viewing behavior of digital magazine subscribers, finding that circulation numbers overstate actual ad delivery, with only 37% of subscribers repeating viewing content from issue to issue, with most subscribers being infrequent viewers. The presentations were followed by a Q&A session where speakers discussed practical implications and limitations of their research findings.

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