Commentary
Forget Digital Concerns: TV Needs To Focus On Near-Term Viewer Economy
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 6, 2009
There are bigger issues to try and fry. Massive layoffs and plummeting revenues in the news are only the start. Recession? That would be good news, since this one isn't exactly like those that happened in 1991 or 2000. It's something much worse. A depression? Maybe not, but dangerous nevertheless.
What can help? The thing we sometimes fear most is something we should rally around -- the power of TV's marketing muscle. Forget about green marketing initiatives for the moment -- what cause-related things should networks be doing to save U.S. viewers' near-term economic well-being?
Sure, all this sounds a little too philanthropic for commercial and revenue-minded TV networks to get their heads around. But what about the green marketing push of just a few months ago? TV executives would tell you it is needed for the future, even though it's the type of stuff you didn't think TV networks cared about.
You can take issue with the fact that TV may not be relevant in a few years, that digital platforms will rule the day. But, as has been said, that's a few years from now. At the same time, executives are seriously thinking that the economy -- as well as TV and advertising in general -- may not recover until a few years from now.
Get the math picture?
What the TV landscape will look like -- and whether new consumer media platforms grow -- depends directly on what happens in the next 12 months or so, the period where we will be tested under big-time economic duress
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Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
As far as I'm concerned "Digital Platforms" have ruled the roost in my Household for the last two years, and will continue to do so in the years ahead. In 2006 I got fed up at the fare the Media was trying to pass off as TV Programming, as well as the means they used to finance them. Using money leftover after a Vacation I stopped at a Store and bought over 300 hours worth of Television Programs on DVD. In January of 2007 I discontinued my Subscription to Cable TV. The $65.00 that I formerly used to pay the Subscription Fee is now used to purchase More DVDs. Keeping my eyes on the sales I purchase about 3-5 Box Sets each month along with several Movies. Each night I make my own Schedule, and when I watch a Program I watch the Program Only. I don't have to contend with some obnoxious Salesperson butting into my Show so they can hawk a product I have no interest in buying (And even if I did I wouldn't buy from that particular Company because they think the best way to advertise their product is to be Obnoxious and/or Offending!) Two years ago I questioned why I needed to pay for the "priveledge" to watch 200 Channels that basically offered the same Commercial-Infested (20-26 minutes of Ads per Hour) Programming over and over again. Now with the Economy going the way it has, how many other people are going to question why they are paying to watch TV. The Networks have been losing Viewers for some time now. Now I see Cable ceasing to be the Growth Industry it's been.