Shocker: Most People Still Watch TV on Actual TVs

Good news broadcast networks, according to to a study from the Leichtman Research Group, 98% of television programs are still viewed on TV screens. Personally, I would have thought the number would be a lot lower. There is so much media attention put on the internet and how it's changing the way we are entertained, so it was shocking to find out that most people are choosing to watch TV the traditional way rather than just streaming it directly onto their computers.

While this study is definitely good news for broadcast networks and their advertisers, I think the problem that should be the most frightening for them isn't streaming content on the internet, but is audience fragmentation. With the number of niche cable networks that popped up in the last 10 years, the major networks should be less worried about how the viewers watch their shows than if they're watching them at all.

And then once they get people to actually tune in to watch a show live, how do the networks get them to sit through the commercials? In Sunday's New York Times, Alex Mindlin reported that "hit shows have most-missed ads". The reasoning behind this statement seems, at least to me, somewhat obvious: people watching hit-shows (by hit-show I mean critically-acclaimed, not the shows that the most people are watching) are much more invested in the story and want to skip the commercials to find out what happens next; whereas, people are just watching a show because there is nothing better on are much more likely to sit through the commercials. If it were me I would be much more eager to skip the commercials if I were watching 30 Rock than if I were watching Two and a Half Men.

NBC is trying a new strategy where they put actors in ads that air during their particular show. For example, "they put Tina Fey in American Express commercials, so you end up thinking it’s part of the show” (Mindlin). Honestly, viewers are not that stupid (or at least I hope they aren't that stupid). I'm not going to confuse an advertisement with the television show I'm watching. I think advertisers need to start realizing that the audience is a lot smarter than they think we are, and begin creating ads that acknowledge that.