MUMBAI: Most US viewers are not only satisfied with cable programming, they find it more entertaining and original than broadcast programming, according to a study conducted by the E-Poll recently.

E-Poll that provides innovative market research services and access to its US database of people aged 13+, asked as many as 1,023 TV viewers how they compared broadcast programming with cable TV. Most of the respondents came out in favour of cable programming.

Though most US viewers don't find TV programming objectionable, there may be bigger issues involved here that may be pushing viewers from broadcast TV to cable.

As many as 36 per cent of the respondents described cable programming as "controversial." Viewers indicated that they wanted content that was different and unique. Words like stale and less appealing were used more often to describe broadcast TV.

Only 17 per cent found that cable was less appealing. More than four in 10 (42 per cent) said the same thing about broadcast TV. As many as 38 per cent of the respondents found cable to be informative versus 29 per cent who went for broadcast. As far as the excitement quotient was concerned, cable had nearly twice the number giving it the nod -- 33 per cent versus 18 per cent for broadcast.

On a 1-10 scale with 10 being strongly agree, only 23 per cent strongly agreed that the US federal government needed to create and monitor programming standards.

Only 17 per cent selected the term objectionable to describe cable programming. For broadcast TV, the figure was 19 per cent. It, therefore, appears that government intervention is considered unnecessary and unwanted by the majority of TV viewers.