Why The Internet Won’t Kill Television
By Anna Johnson on February 16th, 2009A recent article by New York Times journalist, Randall Stross, highlights the resilience of television in the face of the declining popularity of print media, as the Internet attracts more and more users.
Randall Stross says that while people are spending a record amount of time online, they are also watching record amounts of television, albeit across many more channels.
Quoting data from research company, Nielsen, Stross says that in the quarter ended September 30, 2008 the typical American watched 142 hours of television monthly, up about five hours from the same quarter the previous year. Internet use averaged more than 27 hours monthly, an increase of an hour and a half.
So why does television continue attracting eyeballs, whilst people seem to be abandoning books, magazines and other print media for the Internet?
Randall Stross says it’s because people are increasingly becoming ‘screen’ media consumers rather than ‘print’ media consumers.
More and more people are looking for more video options and that’s why they are using the Internet… but not at the expense of television. Rather they are foregoing print for the video wonders to be found online.
Stross writes:
“Consumers are increasingly avoiding newspapers — and books, too — because the text mode is now used so infrequently that it can feel like a burden. People are showing a clear preference for a fully formed video experience that comes ready to play on a screen, requiring nothing but our passive attention.”
The argument that people are going online to embrace video and escape text has some merit… but let’s see some statistics first.
Last year a study by the Pew Internet Project revealed that the most popular daily activities performed by U.S. Internet users were using search engines and using email, followed by checking the weather, researching a hobby, surfing the Internet for fun, and visiting social networking sites.
Presumably some of these activities involved watching online video, and there’s no question that online video consumption is increasing, but let’s not discount the other major appeals of using the Internet: interacting with people, looking for information, and buying stuff.
A lot of this is ‘text’ based and I suspect a lot of people wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Internet is the epitome of a ‘multi-medium’ and there will always be a place for text, audio and video.
Sure it may become the new home to television (I definitely see this on the horizon) but if that happens, and by definition, watching online video becomes the most popular Internet activity, that still doesn’t negate the other reasons for the Internet’s popularity.
Sources: Randall Stross, “Why Television Still Shines in a World of Screens,” The New York Times, February 7, 2009, Anna Johnson, “Search and Email Most Popular Daily Activities Online,” Kikabink News, August 8, 2009
