• by David Kaplan , February 14, 2005

Last year, a wave of controversy hit the network prime time: young men seemed to be slipping from the ratings radar. Did this mean that male viewers under 35 were disappearing from their perches in front of the TV?

Now, a study of the Super Bowl ratings by Publicis Groupe's Optimedia shows a curious statistic that could ignite further debate on whether or not men 18-34 have abandoned television programming. According to Optimedia's look at the numbers, this year's Super Bowl saw a precipitous decline in young male viewers in both usage (minus 7 percent) and ratings (down 8 percent) in the 18-34 segment.

At this point, Mike Drexler, the CEO of Optimedia International, said he could only speculate on theories.

"We can safely say that it wasn't due to counter-programming," Drexler said. "Perhaps there's less interest in the teams, or maybe less interest in watching overall. But with 82 million viewers for this past Super Bowl, that's unlikely. Still, it could be more video game playing--which is still seeing continued growth, and remains overwhelmingly popular with the young male demo. My only other theory was that more men are watching the game outside the home at bars. If that's so, then the environment for watching the games and the commercials may also have changed."

One of the things that bothered Drexler was the chill winds created by regulatory agencies over the past year against the creative community. In particular, the event that seemed to launch the "indecency crackdown" was Janet Jackson's briefly exposed breast during the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show.

"It's been known that one of the reasons many people tuned in for the Super Bowl was to watch the commercials, which became a side event in its own right," Drexler said. "Now, it's clear that with a few notable exceptions, the commercials that ran this year were less creative than in previous years. The fears of coming down on the wrong side of an indecency fine stifled the ad agencies' creativity. No doubt about it. And if the commercials continue to be as lackluster and uninspired, that could have an even more serious effect over the Super Bowl's next few years."