The Lost Boys

Adding to the evidence of a shift from mass culture to niche culture, the latest Nielsen numbers (link coming it turns out this was custom research for us, so no external link I'm afraid) confirm that network TV is losing young men at an accelerating pace. For the September 04-April 05 period, broadcast (network) TV viewership by 18-34 year old males was down by 7.8%.

Where are they going instead? Ad-supported cable TV (ie, Comedy Central and the Cartoon Network, but not premium channels such as HBO), which were collectively up 5.3% over the same period, and videogames, up an astounding 16.7% in equivalent viewership terms.

Source: Nielsen Media Research

Comments

[Jeff]

Hi! Average, white 28 year old guy here. I agree, network TV is a waste of time, especially network news. I leave one network channel on in the background (behind me) in the morning time because I don't want to miss another 9/11 if it happens again. I don't channel surf and I don't have cable. It just stays on one channel and I know what to expect..everyday.

But the reason for my post today is this. I had a telemarketing firm call me yesterday afternoon to survey me about my local network news viewing habits and tastes in viewership. What anchors I liked on my local news braodcasts, which weather segments I liked.. "scale of 1 to 5" kind of answers I had to give. I explained to the interviewer my viewing habits just like I told you in my first paragraph (I don't change the channel..etc), but that apparently wasn't good enough for the data she needed to get answered for her client. So I answered, "Channel 6...Channel 6...Channel 6..." over and over for 15 minutes worth of questions.

Needless to say, it was a very ineffective use of a telephone survey. The woman started out explaining to me how tough it was to get males between 18 and 32 on the phone to talk about this topic. No lady, its not tough, its just a boring topic! lol

[xango juice]

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[truly true]

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[wii zubehör]

Great analysis. Thanks! Once thing I don't understand is the way the industry tries to build their brand or audience. Here's an example, I've been buying Battlestar Galactica on DVD. Presumably they would like me to watch it on TV and see the commericals. But they seem to only release one season immediatley before another. So I can't get season 3 until season 4 is airing. If I don't have time to watch the whole thing right away they have missed the opportunity to turn me into a TV watcher. Seems like they are more concerned about building buzz around the next season than building potential fans by making a show available immediatley after it has aired. If everyone is talking about it (because it just finished, not because the next installment is about to start), what better time to have it for sale on DVD?

I also don't understand why they aren't more clear about re-runs. Tell everyone that you are going to show an entire season of say Lost, then, re-run the whole season, in order, for anyone who missed it. Random re-runs don't make sense.