Critical Reasoning

Many television viewers own videocassette recorders (VCR's). Companies that advertise on television complain that VCR ownership hurts their business, since a VCR makes it possible to view television programs without watching the commercials. Indeed, two-thirds of those who tape programs on a VCR edit out the commercials when viewing the programs.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the companies' complaint that VCR ownership is currently hurting their business?

(A) The methods for determining audience size, which in turn determines charges for advertising time, count households that are merely recording a program as households that are watching it.
(B) VCR manufacturers who advertise on television would themselves suffer the damage, if any, to advertisers' interests that is caused by VCR's.
(C) There are VCR's that are in the early stages of development that will automatically edit out commercials during the recording process.
(D) Those who tape programs on VCR's, but who do not edit out commercials when viewing the programs, tape more often than those who do edit out the commercials.
(E) Some television commercials are as entertaining or informative as the programs they interrupt.

Please explain each of the choices

Maybe i am missing something but, I cannot pick any of the answer choices as relevant.

B, C and E are irrelevant as they do not hint at anything close to why recording on VCR's hurt the TV companies revenue.

A weakens the argument as does D.


Interested in reading what others have to say.

I'm going with A on this one.

We are looking for an answer that would strengthen the companies' complaint that VCR ownership is currently hurting their businesses? The companies that are complaining are the advertisers.

The advertisers claim that VCR's allow people to skip the commercials and that hurts their businesses. It hurts their business because they are paying for advertising that people are not watching.

(A) "The methods for determining audience size, which in turn determines charges for advertising time, count households that are merely recording a program as households that are watching it." Correct. If the methods for determining audience size make no distinction between people who are watching a program and people that are merely recording a program, then the actual viewing audience is overestimated. Therefore the companies are being overcharged for advertising and this hurts their businesses.

(B) "VCR manufacturers who advertise on television would themselves suffer the damage, if any, to advertisers' interests that is caused by VCR's." Incorrect. This answer is consistent with the conclusion but it doesn't strengthen it in any way.

(C) "There are VCR's that are in the early stages of development that will automatically edit out commercials during the recording process." Incorrect. The companies claim that their businesses are "currently" being hurt. We need an answer that supports this. This answer supports the claim that their business will be hurt in the future. Not what we are looking for.

(D) "Those who tape programs on VCR's, but who do not edit out commercials when viewing the programs, tape more often than those who do edit out the commercials." Incorrect. This answer says that some people with VCR's don't edit the commercials and they tape more than those who do edit commercials. This doesn't help or hurt the companies' claim. Without knowing how many people fall into each group we can't come to any conclusions as to the net effect of VCR ownership.

(E) "Some television commercials are as entertaining or informative as the programs they interrupt." Incorrect. This is irrelevant.

Is the OA A? This was a good question. Thanks for posting it.