TV is proving to be irreplaceable: YTV

While there has been a lot of debate within the broadcasting industry about the extent of the Internet’s impact on traditional television, it’s almost universally accepted that the constantly evolving menu of always-available, online content is drawing Canadians away from their TV sets to some extent, and will continue to do so. However, the recent Tween Media Usage report – commissioned by Corus Entertainment Inc.’s YTV and performed by Solutions Research Group – finds that this is not the case, at least with the younger set. In fact, according to Nielsen Media Research data included in the report, TV viewing among the kids demographic (seven to 12 year olds) has remained constant for the past 10 years. And, when it comes to overall media consumption per day, TV ranks first at 2.6 hours, followed by DVDs at 1.7 hours, the Internet at 1.6 hours, and video games with 1.5 hours."We’ve been watching the tone of the debate over the last little while, and we’re keeping our eye on Internet usage and watching it increase," says Mark Leslie, director of research at Corus. "But, at the same time all of our TV tracking certainly didn’t indicate that TV viewing levels were going down. From our point of view it was always, ‘Does it have to necessarily be one at the expense of the other?’"It would seem not, and Laura Baehr, VP of marketing, kids’ television at YTV, suggests why. "We know from talking to kids…they use for relaxation," she says. "I know it’s hard to think of kids as being stressed, but that’s how they describe themselves often. And the one thing about watching television is they can just chill, they relax."Leslie agrees. He says that the higher production value of TV programming is one factor that keeps viewers from migrating to computers, but it is television’s role in our lifestyles that make it irreplaceable. "There really is a special environment that gets created at the end of a busy day when a mom or dad can sit down with their kids and just spend a real easy hour or two watching TV." As for the widely accepted notion that the Internet is cutting into TV time, Leslie and Baehr say it’s an assumption people likely make because they figure that as kids spend more time online, it must be at the expense of TV.Michael McGuigan, director of new media at Breakthrough New Media (BNM) as well as CFO of its parent company Breakthrough Films & Television, admits the findings of the Tween Media Usage report are contrary to what he believed about the sector. "We’ve sort of always been operating under the assumption, and it seems to be supported from what I thought, that people were definitely moving away from television," he says. "So it’s an interesting study."And although McGuigan is surprised by the finding that Internet usage time does not come at the expense of watching TV, it doesn’t have a huge impact on the way Breakthrough develops its online properties. McGuigan says BNM already tries to make its kids’ properties as multi-platform as possible, either through online or mobile games, streaming content for mobile phones or the Web, or any additional forms of content on other media that complement television programming."I don’t think you can put anything on – it certainly should be keeping in the spirit of whatever the show is that it’s supporting," says McGuigan. "It should be ancillary to it in the sense that it offers something new and different. So I don’t see that just streaming old episodes or pieces of episodes is enough. You need other things whether it’s games and contests and activity-based things depending on the age group."With most TV shows being complemented by online content, the study’s results raise the possibility that the Internet could actually be helping keep TV viewership numbers steady, as opposed to eating away at them. It’s an idea McGuigan doesn’t dismiss. "I could see kids that watch a TV show and then find out more about it on the Web, it might keep them coming back to watch the show more often than if they’d just forgot about it during the rest of the week when it’s not on," he says.But according to the study, Web content doesn’t just have to complement TV shows when they’re not on the air; 34% of kids watch TV while online. One factor at play here is that computers are more and more being placed in the same room as televisions, which also provides more opportunities for broadcasters to create direct synergies with their online properties, like real-time polling or game codes, without pushing viewers away from the TV.Baehr, however, says the fact TV has withstood such large waves of new media devices and content already indicates there’s no reason to think viewing hours will drop off. "The main reason we did this was not really to find out anything we didn’t already know, it was just to have better proof of it," she says.For people like McGuigan, who find the survey results surprising, it’s a situation worth keeping an eye on. "It’s something I’d like to learn more about and have other studies done...if you found that they all supported this I think you’d have to make business decisions based on this," he says. "It certainly flies in the face of what people have been spouting the last couple of years."What did you do yesterday?Media consumption patterns of 419 kids aged 7-12 Watch TV92%Use the Internet55%Listen to music (not radio)48%Play video games45%Listen to the radio40%Watch a DVD28%Use a cell phone10%SOURCE: Tween Media Usage, Solutions Research Group/YTV

TV is proving to be irreplaceable: YTV

Broadcast | February 14, 2007

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