Friday, June 06, 2008

How More is Less


When Cable TV first launched some 20 plus years ago, we had new channels such as CNN and HBO. Ted Turner took his regular broadcast station WTBS in Atlanta and redubbed it a Super Station.

Cubs Fans around the country could now watch Chicago baseball on WGN via Cable.

As the number of cable subscribers grew, so did the number of channels, and eventually it all leveled out.

However the Internet has become the new competition to many media outlets. And as a consumer, we simply get more choices and options as to where we get our news and entertainment.

But more choices, if they are good choices also means smaller shares of the pie for everyone.

Check out this report from Mediapost:

TV Channels Viewed Falls To Lowest Percentage Ever
by Joe Mandese, Friday, Jun 6, 2008 8:30 AM ET
In a development that has implications for the greater world of media fragmentation, a new study find that percentage of TV channels actually watched has fallen to its lowest point ever since Nielsen began tracking the phenomenon in the 1980s. While the average number of channels received by American households hit an all time high in 2007 - 118.6 - the number actually viewed was only 16, only a fraction more than the 15.7 channels tuned to in 2006, the 15.4 channels tuned to in 2005, or the 15.0 channels tuned to in 2004. The finding suggests that while the supply of media options is expanding, consumer attention may have reached its limits.

The finding, which comes from Nielsen's annual "Television Audience" report, a compendium of statistics revealing how people watch the medium, shows that the number of channels tuned to by the average American household fell to just 13.5% in 2007, down from 15.1% in 2006, 16.0% in 2005 and 16.2% in 2004, the last year for which such trend data is available.

The finding is significant, because Nielsen's definition of the supply of channels "receivable" and "tuned" have served as a benchmark for understanding how fragmentation impacts consumer behavior as the number of media options expands. The reality is that the number of channel options has actually expanded exponentially if you factor in the supply of micro channels available online, from video-on-demand and pay-per-view services, and a variety of non-linear video platforms. The Nielsen report does not look at those phenomenon, but as Nielsen moves increasingly toward its so-called A2/M2 (Anytime/Anywhere) TV measurement model, it will likely have to grapple with those definitions soon.

TV Channels Receivable Vs. Tuned


Receivable

Tuned

% Tuned

2000

61.4

NA

NA

2001

71.9

NA

NA

2002

79.7

NA

NA

2003

85.8

NA

NA

2004

92.6

15.0

16.2%

2005

96.4

15.4

16.0%

2006

104.2

15.7

15.1%

2007

118.6

16.0

13.5%

Source: Nielsen's "Television Audience 2007"
Joe Mandese is Editor of MediaPost.

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