Nielsen just released their latest Three Screen Report.
It shows that people are now watching two more hours of television at home per month than they were last year. People now spend 158 hours a month in front of the boob tube.
In contrast, video viewing on the Internet stands at a little over three hours a month, just 10 minutes higher than a year ago. Mobile viewing is flat at three and a half hours.
Is it just coincidental that television had a strong first quarter? Spot television revenue was up 21%. Compare that to radio’s 6% growth in local and national business.
Television continues to focus on the product and producing shows that viewers want to watch. It continually develops new programs.
Television strikes out from time to time, but at least it understands that it has to swing the bat to get a hit.
Contrast that with radio. Radio is obsessed by Internet threats, new media alternatives, and new technologies, and yet cuts costs. While radio worries about threats that are decades away, it bleeds talent and innovation.
Last August we noted that while radio would survive the recession, it wasn’t clear that radio could survive the recovery. Speaking of the irony of fighting threats while cutting costs we wrote:
To hit their numbers, stations have already cut programming and marketing budgets to the bone. They've already eliminated most promotional dollars. Stations already voice-track and simulcast morning shows. If business does not pick up, what is left to cut?
What happens if all these threats to radio go away, yet revenues don't return? Maybe then the industry will have to admit that a great deal of radio's troubles were caused by its own actions. Perhaps then radio will finally admit that punishing our listeners for our own mistakes have put radio in a deep hole.
Anemic single digit revenue growth suggests that our concerns expressed last Fall were justified.
As radio whistles past the graveyard counting on HD and iPhone apps to save it, the clock is ticking for the industry to realize that only unique compelling content, not new delivery systems, will save broadcast radio.
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