Audience research is a primary decision-making tool for commercial broadcasters.
Producers knew little about their audiences because they wanted to know more than numbers. They wanted to know, more qualitatively, whether or not people were learning from their programs. The purpose again was simply to justify funding and make scheduling decisions. The Ford Foundation, as well as educational programmers, wanted to know more than just numbers. In April 1971, Fred Friendly, PBS advisor and former CBS news president, gathered a group of academics to probe beyond the numbers.