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TV Viewers' Average Age Hits 50
Ant writes "Variety reports on a recent study that says TV viewership's median age is outside the 18-49 years demographic: "The broadcast networks have grown older than ever — if they were a person, they wouldn't even be a part of TV's target demo anymore." These totals exclude DVR users, and apparently the oldest since they started tracking it. Of course you know what the means ... TV is for old people! The internet has confirmed it.
and the Celtics, or $(your_fav_sports_team) and $(your_fav_russian_ladies_tennis_player). Oh, and Weeds on SHO.
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
These totals exclude DVR users
That sums it all up. The younger generation have quickly adapted and taken advantage of time shifting and DVRs. The older generation is less likely to use new technology for watching television. Therefore, the studies are now skewed towards the higher age. Even my three year old knows to fast forward through commercials on our HTPC.
I don't watch much TV either, but I do find I would rather watch something like "House" over the crap on MTV now-a-days. Although, the cable channels like Discovery actually win out in the end.
Most "TV" consumed in my house is first encoded to a disk drive, then watched in as close to 44 minutes per hour as possible.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
unless your wirelessly watching that tv show on your cell phone.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Given that the trailing edge of the baby boom turns 48 this year, I would have to guess that this statistic is a result of the demographic bulge. So the reason that these numbers are starting to skew higher is that there is now a higher percentage of the general population over 50.
In other words, move along there's nothing to see here.
Why doesn't Slashdot ever get slashdotted?
An interesting point -- but who created the internet and home computers for you?
Yep -- we are all now in our 50's and up.
But we didn't grow up on TV either -- the first TV in our family was used to watch the moon landing in '69. But there was no "cable"; we could only receive three stations. Wasn't worth watching, most of the time (except for exceptional events, like the moon landing).
The previous generation (take my mother-in-law - she's in her '70s) didn't see a TV until their late twenties/early thirties -- it certainly isn't a formative part.
Still, census disagrees with me a bit -- TV penetration in households in the USA was nearly complete by 1960 (I guess our family was a hold-out):
http://www.tvb.org/rcentral/mediatrendstrack/tvbasics/02_TVHouseholds.asp
It may be that viewers born 1960 (and before) to 1970 (ei. those who did NOT start with cable) view TV programs as an "event" rather than as disposable entertainment, which may drive that demographic to watch first airings.
(Ob: Now get off my lawn, you damn kids!)
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
Actually, I was tuned in to MTV for the very first broadcast and for nearly a year it really was extremely cool. There were so few music videos back then, MTV was desperate and would play anything anyone sent in. New, old, mainstream, underground; it was a real free-for-all type of broadcast, largely formula free and totally unpredictable. Sadly, it just didn't stay that way very long.
Caveat Utilitor
What? My mother is approaching 70. She uses the internet, email, has a digital camera, a cell phone, drives a car, etc.
Your notion of old is very young.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Then came the Dark Times, when the DJs became bigger celebrities than the musicians (at least in their own minds.) And about then we graduated, so it was all over anyway.
John
Quite right. Maybe they're like my parents, who just get network TV on rabbit ears. Once I brought up the subject of satellite TV. My mom said "That'll be the day, when I pay for TV!"
In a way, I admire that. In another way, I like watching "Mythbusters."
Dark Reflection
I was.
It (MTV) wasn't.
Except for Weird Al videos. I'll give you that one :-)
You consider the ability to socialize a luxury? That is a bit of a stretch.
You want to know who you are talking to? Fine. I'm not a boomer, but I'm probably older than you. I grew up well below the poverty level, so I know exactly what things are needful. I've also worked with older folks, so I know what special needs some of them have.
You might think of the internet as just your personal playground, but for us grownups (and no, I'm not a boomer, not that old yet) it's a tool that can provide many things that are necessities, not luxuries. (If it provides a few luxuries too, all the better.)
While online dating may be a luxury for you (to use your weakest counterpoint), for someone who would otherwise not be able to meet people, it can be a life saver. People do die of loneliness. No, that's not a medical term, but it's true the same way it's true that people die of old age.
All my friends (myself excluded), spend 80-90% of the time they could be watching TV, playing video games. Hell, my boss who is in his mid-thirties, and well educated, spends his would-be-watching-tv time playing video games too. Same with many of my co-workers.
And then there are people like me (read cheapskates), who only have extremely basic cable because it comes at next to nothing w/ cable modem service. Netflix on-demand, for like $9 a month, gives me a plethora of documentary programming, and some decent movies, fills in the gaps that free television websites (southparkstudios.com, adultswim.com), do not provide.
What I have been saying for the last couple years is that cable companies should allow people to pick 10 networks, and be able to watch any of the content at any time, and stream it over the internet. Hell, I'll even provide the computer, it is easy enough to hook one up to a television nowadays. Some cable companies do it now with set-top boxes, but WTF do I want Style Network, Lifetime Network, and 20 other shitty channels just to be able to get their "premium" tier of service (on-demand). At a cost of like $80 a month w/ a cable modem. I'd gladly pay half that for what I just mentioned.
Awwww, come on, people! This is the best comment in the thread! The first video played on MTV was "video killed the radio star".
Come on, mods!
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
Except for sports (which we use an antenna), nobody in my family has watched live TV for several years. We get Internet for our news (usually more in depth) and for TV shows we wait until the end of the season and then when the season's DVDs come out, read the reviews on Amazon and talk to friends.
Cost wise, over the course of the year, the season sets for a dozen shows (say $50 average each for sake of argument) is less than the cable/satellite options which have the specialty channels with CW, HBO, SHO & SciFi shows as well as the network shows. Having the DVDs allows very comfortable time-shifting and being able to re-watch of shows.
I know quite a few people do it this way (with some swapping of sets although with the recipient usually watching an episode or two and then buying a set for themselves if they like the show).
Maybe it's *my* demographic, but it works and the content owners are being paid for their product.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Hulu is actually a little smarter than that. Try running it with an ad blocker, and then without. If you run it without the adblocker, each ad runs for between 7 and 15 seconds. With an adblocker, you get a silent, black screen (with a reminder that it's ad-supported, and a "warning" to switch off your adblocker) for 20 seconds wherever an advert would have been. They're cunning enough to give people a reason to watch it with the adverts.
That, and thirty versions of CSI. Do they really expect us to watch that? The news is 30 minutes to spin, and they lied their asses to us during the Iraq War. If there are good shows, you can get them on the net. There's just no reason to watch TV anymore.
I'm 26 - recently moved out for the first time. I haven't bothered with a TV, as the one thing I actually adore on TV - House - I'd rather buy the DVD's.
If every show was of that quality... as it isn't, it's a waste of money. I'd rather pay for my ISP and have all the fun of the net.
i torrent because :
- some TV shows are not available in France.
- i want to watch them without poor voice acting.
- i want to understand why some tv show are a hit in France only ( really good voice acting can make a difference ).
- i can.
I haven't owned a tv for over a decade (I'm 42, so well into the age range that is supposed to like TV).
Its the advertising really. I can't stand it. The time I loved TV was in the seventies. Since then my use of tv has waned, and now died.
Now I buy series on dvd if I decide I like them. Usually this deciding is via encountering them on the internet.
In this way I got to watch five seasons of Stargate without ever having seen an episode before then. It was awesome, much more fun then suffering years of waiting and those damn adverts.
Also, the first time I saw Firefly, all the episodes were in the right order.
My son doesn't share my dislike of adverts, but even so he doesn't watch tv much. He uses his pc for entertainment, as I do.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
I only remember the stuff I liked and thus watched -- Aeon Flux, MTV's Oddities...
Don't forget Liquid Television, 120 Minutes, and the fact that on weekdays they showed episodes of Monty Python as well as The Young Ones, back when non-music shows were the exception and not the rule.
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
Gene Rodenberry had a number of things in his Star Trek utopia like no money, no racism, no inter-human wars. But most curious to me was no television, but Gene didnt explain why. Instead we find people entertaiing themselves in the first two Star Trek series by going to cafes, plays, concerts, playing cards and reading. Maybe he thought TV was pandered to the masses and was too low-brow.