New research confirms the belief that the large shift of men 18-34 from television to the Internet is true. BIGresearch’s latest Simultaneous Media Usage Survey of 13,000 men confirmed Nielsen’s claim that the drop in television rating was due to shift in media usage from television to the Internet and other electronic media.
The survey found from August 2002 to October 2003, television viewership dropped 8.8 percent for men 18-24 and 12.2 percent for men 25-34. During the same period of time, BIGresearch found Internet usage among men 18-34 shot up about 7 percent and video game usage rose 5 percent.
It’s time for network executives to stop squabbling and realize their long cherished model is changing. Television won’t die but it will become something vastly different from what it is today. Execs can either roll with the changes and survive or continue to be stubborn and end up strolling the sidewalks with “Hire me” sandwich boards.
