Fighting the TV Tide

By Tommy Leung on 08/17/2010 in Marketing

[First, a shout out to a friend's new blog about television, life, and things that make her think. This post was not exactly inspired by her posts but, I'm sure it had some indirect effect that made me blog this after reading an article about the average age of US TV viewers. :)]

I would be the first one to recommend going against the grain and doing what you want to do. Innovations don’t happen because we blindly follow someone else. The key is in knowing when you are really fighting the good fight and when you are just afraid of the coming tide.

Let’s take network TV for example.

The average age of TV viewers in the United States hovers at 50 years old. Either the population is growing old rather quickly or the much coveted 18 – 25 demographic is ignoring the television.

Sadly for those who refuse to change, both things are true. The US population is getting older with the 65+ demographic poised to account for 19% of the population by 2030. The 18 – 25 year olds are ignoring the television and we will continue to ignore the television.

The worst part is not only that young people adopting YouTube, Hulu, and other online sources for their video entertainment but, so are older people. Hulu’s rapid growth has been due to their expanding 35 – 49 demographic.

The problem for network TV isn’t that the younger demographic is leaving the television behind while a large, older demographic will stay behind. The issue is that the market for TV content on a TV is shrinking. Networks that can’t grasp this will see their ratings continue to drop. There will likely be one network left to pick up the pieces. There’s still a profitable market to be had–just not profitable enough to sustain everyone.

There are mega-ratings events that happen on TV several times a year in the form of the Super Bowl, Olympics, Oscars, etc. but, how long is that going to last? The younger demographic is still leaving the television. The demand for this content on a computer is there and it’s growing. A few mega-events throughout the year can’t sustain all the TV networks either. If that’s the plan, it’s not a good one.

The poor CW! Their shows target the exact demographic that is leaving in droves. I remember when they were The WB and UPN existed as well. I was not a UPN viewer but, I did watch a lot of shows on The WB. As The WB was dying and merging with UPN to form The CW, they were extremely hesitant to move their shows online when FOX, ABC, and NBC did so.

I remember this because I no longer wanted to or could schedule my time around their TV shows and I was still watching Smallville and One Tree Hill. They didn’t put their shows online. The thing is, I had not missed a single Smallville episode for 5 seasons. The show was already getting ridiculous–I hear it’s even more so now–but, I had some commitment.

Thanks to The CW’s shortsightedness, I picked up watching House and Bones on FOX’s website. Eventually Hulu arrived and FOX, NBC, and ABC all eventually put shows on it. I now watch shows from all those networks on Hulu. They get to advertise to me where they would otherwise have not had me as a viewer at all. I have not spied a CW show for years.

This goes the same for CBS but, CBS is obviously doing something right in their programming and I was never a big CBS viewer to begin with. I am aware that all the networks have online episodes in one form or another but, they moved too slow. I have already moved on to new shows and there is only so much time I have for watching TV shows. With Netflix’s catalog of streaming shows, I have little reason to go looking for new shows that don’t show up where I already watch.

It would be quite a joke to call The CW a major network. The only thing major about them is how majorly they lag in ratings. The WB was a different story. The WB had some of the highest rated shows including 7th Heaven. I can’t point to a single show on The CW with remotely the same drawing power. The WB was a great product for it’s time. It didn’t change with the times and merged with another lagging network–UPN–to form a still lagging network–The CW.

The CW is still a backwards thinker: ”In fact The CW stopped offering an online repeat for Gossip Girl in order to try to boost viewing figures.” The CW is fighting the tide for all the wrong reasons. Most of network TV has moved on and are continuing to move on.

Fighting to keep everything the same because you’re afraid of what’s coming is not a good fight.