With digital technology, broadcasters will be able to carve out as many as six channels out of what is now a single channel. In other words, broadcasters will have six times the programming and service options that they have now. Right now there is a law that requires broadcasters to provide at least 3 hours of children's educational programming each week. The research was conducted in November and December, 1998. Focus groups are a type of qualitative opinion research.
Focus groups are idea generators.
They are particularly effective when we want to better understand the ideas that people have and the words and language they use to describe those ideas. They are a powerful tool for revealing the ways in which beliefs are connected to one another, and the feelings and beliefs that diverse people may have in common. Because focus groups are qualitative rather than quantitative, the results are not scientific in a statistical sense. All interviews were conducted via telephone by professional interviewers from December 8 through December 10, 1998. As with all sample surveys, there is a margin of sampling error associated with these survey results.