Future: A new prime time

Future: A new prime time By John Borland Staff Writer, CNET News.com December 11, 2003, 4:00 AM PT As the fall TV season kicked off this year, media companies got an unwelcome surprise: According to an influential ratings report, key parts of prime-time audiences--young men in particular--seemed to be deserting in unprecedented numbers. Media moguls, loath to concede that such an important group of viewers was being drawn to other entertainment media, immediately blamed bad data and programming miscues. But analysts pointed to a far more troubling culprit in the form of growing competition from newer technologies such as the Internet, DVDs and video game consoles. "What is frustrating to everybody is the big question: If they are not watching prime-time TV, what are they doing?" said Jack Loftus, senior vice president for Nielsen Media Research, the influential company that produces weekly ratings for the television industry. Even before the fall in ratings, the growing popularity of digital entertainment devices forced traditional media industries to experiment with . Increasingly, for instance, companies are inserting advertising messages directly into TV programming instead of during breaks in the action, which can easily be bypassed by digital recording devices. But the new generation of media resists any blanket solution the TV industry might come up with. Unlike previous shifts in mass media--such as the graduation from radio to television--today's evolution in household entertainment involves a plethora of technologies that, in combination, take viewers away from broadcast and cable networks. DVD sales are exploding, broadband Internet connections are , and electronic game sales rival movie box office receipts. Games companies are planning consoles that tie together all these digital trends, converging diverse home entertainment features into a single box

Future: A new prime time

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