TV Racked by Defection of Young Males

The television industry was shaken last October when the ratings from Nielsen Media Research showed that a huge part of a highly prized slice of the American population was watching less television. As the fall TV season began, viewership among men from 18 to 34 fell 12% compared with the year before, Nielsen reported. And for the youngest group of adult men, those 18 to 24, the decline was a steeper 20%. Leisure Pursuits of Today's Young Man [nytimes.com]

And of course this trend is changing the nature of entertainment itself. The prevalence of pornography online has helped to turn porn stars like Jenna Jameson and topics like masturbation into mainstream conversation among young adults. What seemed raw and bold in "Portnoy's Complaint" in the 1960s became fodder in the 1990s for sit-coms like "Friends" and hit movies like "There's Something About Mary." And many TV ads are looking more and more like Web sites, complete with pop-up menus and JavaScript rollovers.

But the bottom line is that the television industry, battered first by inroads from cable and satellite providers, then DVDs, now has to worry about the Internet taking its prime viewers -- those most demanded by advertisers -- away. A "30 share" used to be the norm on network television. Now not even the most popular reality series (whether "Survivor Tahiti" or "American Idol") can come close. The times they are indeed a changing, my friend.

 Posted by glenn