In this globalization age only few would disagree that television is a powerful medium. It has great ability to reach to large number of people as it has the features of sight and sound both. Each day corporates are joining the bandwagon of television advertising in an attempt to increase their products visibility and in order to reach out to vast majority of viewers.

But this has become irony as this medium of communication has itself become a problem. As the number of television advertisement are increasing fewer and fewer commercials are able to acquire their objective of gaining the consumers mindshare.

Zapping refers to the switching of the channel during live television broadcast. Moreover the changing of the channels during the commercials is known as “commercial zapping”. Most of the commercial zapping occurs at the beginning or at the end of the program during the first 5 minutes or during the last 5 minutes, Whereas 23% reports convey that they are quite or highly likely to ‘flick channels’ during mid-program, 54% are prepared to do so at the end of the program.

Advertisement avoidance is defined as the action made by the viewers that reduce the exposure to ad content. These avoidance rates differ for different media, countries and audience. Many people leave the room in order to avoid the advertisement, changing the channels or muting the television during the commercial break.

Types of avoidance by the viewers

· Behavior avoidance depends on viewers’ attitude, media usage, demographic factors and communication problems. For example leaving the room.

· Physical avoidance includes cognitive avoidance such as diverting attention away from the television set.

· Mechanical avoidance includes the use of the remote control device to switch channels during commercial breaks. Mechanical avoidance

Why zapping?

1. Advertisement relevance
An commercial would be more relevant and more valuable to the viewers who makes purchases in that product category then to the ones who do not make purchases in that category. This may lead to zapping.

2. Has the advertisement seen before?
Perceived value of the ads will also depend on whether the viewer has confronted the advertisement before. This can be described with the help of the following:
Wearin is the phase wherein the viewer has never been exposed to the advertisement and any additional exposure to the advertisement will lead to develop a positive attitude towards the advertisements.
Wearout is the phase wherein the viewer is repeatedly exposed to the commercial with the objective of make viewer acquainted with the product. During this phase consumer might develop a negative attitude towards the commercial and will try avoiding it. Wearout leads to extensive zapping.

3. Time of the day
The time of the day can also influence zapping. It is possible that because of the superior quality of channel being watched at the prime time viewers would be less likely to change the channel consequently less zapping.