Report: How Advertisers Can Benefit from the Decline of Traditional TV

written by: Richard Kastelein

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Published on Thursday, 05 May 2011 09:47

The media landscape has evolved rapidly over the past decade given the myriad options of new media and technology available to consumers. As these emerging platforms proliferate and gain adoption among consumers, marketers are struggling to understand how to effectively leverage this new media. Adding to marketers’ dilemma is the prevailing wisdom, being promulgated by many in Silicon Valley, that consumers are shifting their behaviors away from traditional forms of entertainment and communication. But, is this actually occurring?

Interpret, a leading entertainment, media and technology market research firm, today released its Interpretations report, "The Transmedia Embrace," which found while there is degradation in traditional TV consumption, there is also good news for traditional television.

The report reveals that consumers who watch only on television and not through digital options has decreased by more than 9 million consumers. Better news for programmers and advertisers, the study finds that consumers are using both traditional and digital options in their consumption of video programming. It's not an "either/or" consideration for advertisers, but rather a question of how best to optimize the use of both in concert. According to Interpret's New Media Measure™ study, this "hybrid" consumer is growing -- those who watch both traditional and digital TV has increased from 72.1 million to 75.3 million in the past year.

"Not only are they growing, but those who watch both traditional and digital TV are an extremely attractive group to advertisers – they are younger and have higher incomes, said Michael Dowling, CEO of Interpret. "Interestingly, they are also more active on social network websites compared to others, suggesting another platform for marketers to further strengthen and enhance their messaging."