I’m fascinated with the way new media channels mould new consumer behaviours. Yet one thing that tends to annoy me are claims that a new media channel will kill off an existing one. Foursquare is supposedly a Twitter killer. Online video is sure to kill television. Heck… the trend dates back decades! Remember… video killed the radio star! The reality is that these claims are almost 100% bullsh#t. Media channels rarely die. Rather, they evolve. And the web is helping shape that evolution, breathing new life into existing channels. Two recently released research reports validate this theory by providing insight into how the web is changing media consumption habits. The results are sure to surprise anyone who believes “old school/mainstream” media formats are living on borrowed time…
Exhibit 1 – Television
Television has long-been predicted to be on a slow spiral towards its inevitable death, primarily as a result of the exploding popularity of on-demand video sources such as YouTube and Hulu. However, Nielsen’s recent Internet and Technology Report confirmed that rather than falling, television consumption has actually risen! The most interesting insights from the report include:
- The number of hours spent watching television each week increased from 12.9 hours to 13.4 hours
- 49% of respondents multi-tasked watching television with Internet usage
The emergence of multi-tasking behaviour in particular is important when considering how people will engage with television in the future. It points towards a convergence between television and the Internet. Stan from BrandDNA recently wrote an excellent article on the topic of interactive television, citing the emergence of real-time audience congregation and conversation around the ABC’s Q&A program. So prevalent is the discussion that the Q&A hashtag regularly becomes a leading trending topic on Twitter during the program.
And while Q&A is clearly being driven by an intellectual early adopter crowd, the trend of interactive television is slowly penetrating popular culture. One of my favourite uses of Twitter is to follow discussion around live sporting events. And I’m not the only one… the Winter Olympics has been one of the primary trending topics on Twitter for the last two weeks. From a local perspective, there’s plenty of active discussion surrounding AFL games, even of the pre-season variety. And beyond the sporting arena, Masterchef was another phenomenon to dominate the Twitter stream during its first season.
There is no doubt that the interactive television trend will continue to grow as more people discover the benefits of connecting and communicating with fellow audience members in real-time. It’s most likely to explode once programmers recognise the trend and take it beyond Twitter by integrating audience interactivity directly into viewing experiences (most likely via mobile). All of which will make TV a pretty engaging channel for many years to come methinks…
Exhibit 2 – News
Newspapers are more dead than the dodo… right? Only if you consider the physical paper as the product, which it clearly isn’t. News media will always exist, because there will always be a demand for it. It is the means through which that news is distributed that is undergoing a rapid evolution. Recent research from Pew Internet provided fascinating insight into the changing news consumption habits. The key insights included:
- 92% of people use multiple channels to gather their news, with 46% stating they gather news from 4-6 separate sources of a normal day
- Only 21% of people rely one a single site to deliver their news
- 33% of mobile phone owners now access news via their phone
- 37% of users have contributed, commented on or distributed news via social channels
Much like television, news consumption is also moving with the technology. No longer do consumers need to wait until the 6pm news for their fix. RSS feeds, Twitter and smart phones have taken news into the world of real-time. All of which has increased the demand for news, rather than decreased it. The challenge for news media now is to adjust their business model to fulfill the consumer need for news to be portable and instantaneous.
Jeff Jarvis surmised the evolutionary plight of the newspaper industry perfectly in his book What Would Google Do:
“News organisations should stop presenting themselves as destinations and start seeing themselves as services, pushing out feeds, offering content to networks of sites, getting their news to where the people are. This is the new home delivery, the Internet as the paperboy.”
The industry has started to make the shift, with the ABC leading the digital way. The Age has also developed an impressive mobile application. Yet the problem lies in monetising the paperboy model. Being a destination is precisely what the online newspaper business is built around. Eyeballs sell adspace… But the industry must evolve as consumer habits shift.
It may well be that the streamlined news media empire of the future maintains little more than a mobile site and an iPad application. Rather than retaining a journalistic workforce, a limitless pool of citizen freelancers could submit their stories for editorial consideration, with published authors receiving payment for their work. Regardless of what the future holds, you can bet that consumer demand for news will remain as strong as ever!
As will the demand for countless other media formats. The web changes everything. But it rarely kills anything. Except for the music industry. But I guess there’s an exception for every rule…
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
that TV is increasing is suprising. however, I’ve actually found my own tv time increasing because of digital television. Its higher quality and oneHD shows a lot of sports I like, particularly basketball.
I totally agree with the convergence comment. Because whenever i watch TV, I’m on my phone as well. Sometimes the laptop, but its too distracting. I’m on twitter, facebook, looking up stuff about the show (like reviews, info about the actor). the ipad will be fantastic for this.
I think one of the most exciting areas is going to be around streaming content to your tv. When stuff like netflix and amazon are able to stream stuff to you will be cool (prolly still can get around it). have u seen boxee? that’s really cool.
and on your news comment – agree as well! i actually realised i get a lot of my news from facebook pages. I subscribed to about 80+, a lot of them popular blogs that I read, and every morning i get my news and social updates mixed together!
@Matt – I definitely watch less TV now, and when I do it’s usually downloaded shows rather than regular programming. Which is why Boxee is definitely appealing to me. I like to have the choice of when I watch a program, rather than being a slave to the networks. Agree it’s definitely going to be a big growth area in the future. I suspect this will be the one development that’d actually make me watch more TV. Real-time audience engagement is cool, but only for shows I’d already be watching.
There is always going to be a big slice of the population that bucks the trend of using online services. I met a lady the other day, 35 years old and did not have the internet, are you kidding me, I thought everyone had the internet. Plus the more lazy we get as a population, the more we watch sport on the big screen in our own homes instead of kicking the footy around with the kids. Between the internet and television it’s no wonder there is an obesity crisis. Gotta go, my pizza delivery is here just in time for the football game I want to watch!!
An integrated approach works best. All marketing channels need to work in unision. No channel should be overlooked.
What is largely left out of these discussions is how each mode of communication actually fractures the public into manageable ‘bitesize’ pieces. If digital TV enables ‘minority’ audiences to access highly specialised communication – like Dante’s Cove, a supernatural drama that explores sexuality – then we can imagine analogue TV as the ‘variety pack’ of communication (bit of this, bit of that).
Think about it, as a marketer and business person, you could save thousands of advertising and marketing dollars if you knew your ideal audience:
- Watched a particular show,
- Watched a particular channel
- Were heavy users of a specific internet site
- Preferred SMS communication, etc.
You could cater one single message over four different channels, therefore enabling you to saturate the ideal audience.
Funnily enough, smaller businesses and niche markets could thrive and co-exist in an environment where industry monopolies are rampant.
On another note, I do not believe that older forms of communication (newspapers and books) will die out. Many believe that the tactile properties of such products provide a type of ‘escapism’ that mobile phones andthe Amazon Kindle cannot provide (I’d live in fear of dropping the Kindle). Honestly, nothing is nicer than zoning out with a book on a cramped train or noisy tram.
I wonder what effect PVRs have had on TV consumption. In our household every show we want to watch is recorded…and played back with the ads running at quadruple speed. We hardly ever watch shows live.
A few years ago I was having a conversation with a friend who works for a renowned Print Media house. Is the print media dying? You didn’t answer that question.
Print Media is increasingly looking at newer ways to reach it’s audiences. What with breaking news on the web, and that too delivered to your Blackberry or iPhone, the morning newspaper is becoming more obsolete. As much as I hate this fact, it’s happening.
People are choosing to connect more over the web, Social Media, than over any other form of communication. Well, now that we’ve hooked upon this new age media form, might as well make the best of it.
I talk about some of my crazy ideas on how Social media is helping organizations connect better with their prospects in my latest blog post: http://blog.insideview.com/2010/04/27/connecting-the-dots-how-sales-2-0-can-help-you-connect-with-prospects/
Despite the advancement of newer technoligies TV will always have a place. Can’t see it ever dying. It’s too ingrained in our lifestyles.
Definately agree that print media is a thing of the past. It is hard to get a good response rate out of this medium. It is best for branding. Atleast with the online medium, if its not working you can change it.
Hi James,
really interesting and insightful article, and it was balanced. It is interesting to note that as far as media is concerned what we have seen with the fragmentation of media is more opportunities to consume it in more ways.
Which is great for marketers in general.
What ha snot been so good for old world media empires has been the fragmentation of their rivers of gold with classifieds and display ads.
But the death of these channels such as Newspaper and Print in particular are overstated in some ways and not in others.
What we are seeing in particular in the USA is the consolidation of Print and the reduction of ‘less viable’ newspapers. There is no doubt that their revenues have declined and their customer tales have grown!
The important thing now is how quickly and ‘smartly’ the Newspapers and TV can move into these newer formats yet still deliver quality impressions/viewers to their media.
That said we have seen a precipitous decline in newsprint in the USA and some decline in Australia… but is it really terminal? I would suggest the real decline is in ad revenue and as you point out the advent of the multitasking consumer… mobile smart phone, laptop, TV all in one room and choosing to interact on-demand how they choose.
The trick for marketers is being found on the right device at the right time and integrating the communications into an ongoing worthwhile discussion about your brand.
Anyhoo, just wanted to drop a line and say thank you for the post.
Cheers, Clinton.
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