It’s Official: Average TV Viewer “Too Old” to Count

Like many mass media that dominated in the second half of the 20th century, television is dying a thousand slow deaths in the rising tide of digital media.  (See also: print newspapers, recorded music, the adult movie business, etc.…)

I used to think that I was terribly retro because I rarely watch television, have only sporadically owned a set, and have paid for cable just one year of my life.  But recently I realized I haven’t been living behind the curve of American media consumption, I’ve been ahead of it. 

At a roundtable at the Ad:tech conference, I noticed that the participants who were 10 years younger than me didn’t have television service either.  Who needs to scroll through channels of ComWarnerCast when you can choose on-demand from the vast menu of the Web -- with a side order of Netflix?  Especially with sites like surfthechannel.com and  pandora.tv streaming all the network TV you could want, for free, over web servers in South Korea and China.  College students are increasingly watching tv on their laptops. 

In our Center office, most of the under-30’s either prefer their TV content over the Internet, or are source-agnostic (“Wherever the game is” said Anthony, whose EuroCup viewing skipped from cable to web and back).  Apparently, my in-office poll is not unrepresentative either, because…

It’s now official. Half of the people still watching live broadcast television are so old that advertisers won’t even pay to market to them.  I just read the sobering facts on the Silicon Alley Insider: 

The average age of the network TV viewer hit 50 years for the first time this year. Consider, for a moment, that advertisers don't pay the networks a nickel for any viewer older than 49 -- except during news programs, when they'll pitch adult diapers to those up to 54 years of age. So viewers' average age is now too old.

Lisa Hsia, VP of Bravo TV told me recently about the dynamic work they’re doing to put their content in new interactive media, from Hulu.com to online voting contests.  She conceded that despite making money, the interactive outlets are still a small minority of Bravo’s revenue.  But at least they’re moving in the right direction.

Broadcast as a mode for any medium (1-way, top-down) is a waning game.  TV networks will need to aggressively embrace social media and disruptive business models if they’re going to avoid heading into the steep decline of the music industry. In the meantime, I’m going to pull out another episode of “House, M.D.” from Netflix.  My media, my schedule.

Comments

[online meeting reviews]

Who would have ever thought the TV would become a second rate choice. I am guilty of watching way less TV since the advent of the internet. I prefer a laptop any day.

[Viagra Online]

T.V viewers are on extinction, due the advance of internet , how nostalgic.