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Is Anyone Watching TV?

By: Janet Kalandranis

It’s no surprise that most consumers are getting their news fix from other sources than print. That daily morning paper has turned into a multimedia affair that is more accessible and is timelier than a nightly print run. But what does this mean to other information channels? Are these media able to surpass the effects of technology and accessible information and still stay relevant for the population? Or is the shift in information gathering affecting media across the board?

The topic around news gathering has always been the decline in print. It’s not as relevant and not as sought-after as it was ten or even five years ago. Consumers want instant access to information that is available where they are, at any point in time. But now new research has shown a decline in consumers who watch news via TV. That affects every market, every channel, and every news program. In the 1990s, 68% of people were watching the news on TV; today, that has dropped to only 55%. Why? Because technology has provided a faster, more accessible way for consumers to get the information they want, when they want it, and how they want it. And the younger the population is more likely than the over-50 crowd to be forgoing the TV for news in preference of some digital media.

This shift in news gathering affects all brands. It’s a shift in PR that used to solely focus on the big win — TV, and a shift in media buys that were mainly scattered across TV. Brands need to understand more fully who their target audiences are and where they go to get the information they need. This does depend on age and education. A brand can no longer assume that what was successful last year will prove the same in the upcoming years. There is much more data needed to understand where messages should be and where customers are going to receive them. There’s no one-size-fits-all.

Of course, TV is still the top news source, but this deep decline in the last couple of decades is proving that change is coming, or already has. And brands need to take this information back to the boardroom and understand how it affects them. Customers aren’t going to seek out a brand’s information but instead they want the brand to be where they are when they need it. And yes, this may mean TV is out of the picture.