The monumental shift in media

Advertisers have caught on of course, and are now pouring money into online fuelled by their desire to do more with less. Banner and pop-up-ads, promotional e-mails, virtual marketplaces, YouTube commercials and other social media are amongst their more economic approaches. YouTube alone boasts over 1 billion unique visitors every month to their site attaining over 6 billion hours of video watched each month. That’s almost an hour for every person on Earth.The Internet allows marketers to track their ROI and zero in on their most productive market segments and consumer behaviour patterns. 

The way we used to watch TV

The way we watch TV today - across several screens while multitasking

Digital continues to grow with advances in technology and viewer behaviour. Digital video options, smartphones and tablets, has given consumers something they never had before with traditional television – a choice. Close to 40% of YouTube consumption now comes from mobile.

On the other hand, marketers must not exclude TV from their media strategies. Fact is, people are watching more TV today than ever before because now TV is available across multiple platforms, ensuring that television continues its journey to becoming stronger than it has ever been. 

Viewers might not be sitting in front of an actual TV to watch television, but with a huge increase in online viewership, it’s clear that we are watching a lot of television. It’s just online now. In essence, we are witnessing a parallel shift today in how a new viewing platform can act as an additional and even more powerful medium for an older one. 

Now, almost everyone seems to be getting their television show fix on-the-go. On buses, in taxis, on the subway (MTR, MRT) there are endless numbers of people catching up on their favourite TV shows streaming in from Japan, the USA, Korea, Taiwan, India and more. In fact, nearly three quarters of internet users across Asia-Pacific are watching TV everyday and over 25% of them are watching videos online.

Today, television as a technology is taking steps to ensure its continued relevance. TV viewers are increasingly choosing to watch streamed rather than linear content, as they have more control over what they watch and when they watch it. With huge numbers of us clamouring over internationally popular shows like Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, it’s clear that television is still doing just fine.

Try having friends or family over to watch a movie or a sporting event, and your best bet is still a large TV screen. They sure aren’t going to sit around a 14-inch laptop screen and share earbuds to do so. We’re changing our viewing habits and our use of the newest media technology, but television still has a central place in our mediascape.

Sadly, there’s no good news for print. Newspapers and magazines will continue to see their shares fall. 

Mike Fromowitz
www.ethnicitymatters.com