PT68, S2, Q6 (Explain a Result)
(D) is correct.
For these questions, it’s essential to be clear about what we expected and why what actually happened is surprising. In this case, since film makes its profits through ticket sales, movie execs try to maximize ticket sales. Notice however leads us into what we should find surprising. In this case it’s that the TV execs don’t try to maximize viewers. What did we expect? Well, given the first piece of information, we would’ve expected that, like movie execs, they would try to maximize viewers.
Let’s head into the answers. Remember that our job is to pick the answer that explains this result; we want it to make sense that the TV execs don’t try to maximize viewers.
(A) Having repeat viewers seems to be getting at our number of viewers issue somehow, let’s keep it.
(B) Owners of movie theatres? We were talking about movie execs and TV execs. This is irrelevant. Eliminate.
(C) So TV is cheaper to make, wouldn’t we still want to maximize our revenues? Irrelevant. Eliminate.
(D) TV gets its money from people who care mostly about the types of viewers rather than the number of viewers. This seems good. Keep it.
(E) This is irrelevant as well. Is pay-to-watch the only way to make money for TV studios? What about the other half of the most popular TV shows? For that matter, what about all of the other shows that aren’t considered the most popular? Eliminate.
Down to (A) and (D), (D) just seems to do the trick. Why is (A) wrong? Do we care about repeat viewers? So people watching a TV show don’t watch it again; would that make the TV execs not care about maximizing viewers? No. This is irrelevant. Eliminate. Notice how out of scope (D) can feel if we’re not clear on the difference between expectation and reality. Purchasing power? Sponsors? This question type is designed to bring in outside information, so let’s not let it dissuade us.