TV Is Dying, And Here Are The Stats That Prove It

TVI s Dying, And Here Are The Stats That Prove It 

Above is a link to a very compelling article.  According to Jim Edwards, TV is dying.  However, I believe it would be more accurate to say that the medium of TV is wounded. Content remains King.  A large portion of what we are witnessing is the migration of the medium.  The content is being consumed, it is the manner in which it is being consumed that is changing.

For example, while the overall ratings are declining on traditional viewing, theamount of time spent daily viewing DVRs has risen from 16 minutes per day in 2009 to 26 minutes per day in 2013.  “I am still going to watch Modern Family.  I am just doing it when it is convenient to me.” 

Here are a few highlights from the report:

·       Media stock analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson recently noted, "The pay-TV industry has reported its worst 12-month stretch ever." All the major TV providers lost a collective 113,000 subscribers in Q3 2013. That doesn't sound like a huge deal — but it includes internet subscribers, too.

·       Time Warner lost 306,000 TV subscribers in Q3.

·       Cable TV ratings are sinking.  Looking at the most recent 14 quarters, cable ratings have declined over the prior year in 11 quarters.

·       Primetime U.S. Network Ratings are declining.

·       Ratings for some major TV events are in decline.  World Series and NBA to name two.

·       Nearly 5 million cable subscribers have gone elsewhere in the last 5 years.

·       It used to be that up to 500,000 new subscriptions would be added across all companies in any given quarter. But now, cable and internet companies are lucky if they get any new subscribers at all.

·       …  People are giving up on cable TV as a standalone product, and the market is shifting in favor of telco companies like AT&T and Verizon who offer TV as a package with high-speed internet access

·       One macro-economic factor behind the decline is that fewer houses actually have TV.  These charts, from Citi Research, show that the total "Nielsen TV Universe" — the number of people who watch TV — is declining

·       Fewer households have TV because they are watching video on mobile devices instead

·       Tablets are stealing prime time, the period we used to devote to TV.

·       … Cable TV revenues are still rising because companies are charging the dwindling number of customers more in subscription fees. According to analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson, those higher prices are "part of the problem" that pushes out poor subscribers — losing the TV business even more eyeballs:

·       Free wifi — at work, in coffee shops, and on campuses — is making it easier for consumers to get the shows, movies and videos they want without subscribing to any kind of cable or broadband service

“The very best marketing comes from observing consumer behavior and inserting your message into their behavior.”  The change in the consumer’s viewing habits is one of the reasons digital marketing is so compelling.