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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

New TV Season, And Fewer Viewers

Pay-TV subscriber losses, and younger viewers watching online, spell trouble

As a college student, Jordan Geddis took cable TV for granted. MTV, Comedy Central, and ESPN were just part of the dorm tab at Syracuse University. Even when she moved off campus, Geddis split the bill with roommates. Now, on her own in a tough economy, the 25-year-old General Dynamics (GD) engineer in Groton, Conn., no longer pays. “When I had cable I followed a couple shows, but the rest was garbage to me,” Geddis says. “Online I can watch the few programs I actually care about.”

With more young adults tuning out this TV season, the industry is confronting a generation of viewers who say they won’t pay the typical $75 monthly cable or satellite bill. Nielsen (NLSN), whose TV ratings influence ad rates, in May cut the estimated number of U.S. TV households by 1 percent, to 114.7 million, the first drop since 1990. College towns such as Boston, Madison, Wisc., and Austin, Tex., posted some of the biggest declines, suggesting some fans of Family Guy are watching on Hulu Plus or Netflix (NFLX) for $7.99 a month, a fraction of a cable bill.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

TV is for the addle minded
unless of course your tuned into FOX news than your a total Zombie
try turning off the TV and reading
it makes the day longer and more restful
I gave up TV three years ago and got active
lost 30lbs and enjoy the peace and quiet and get a lot more done and have explored a lot more interesting things
I am sure that is an unimaginable proposition for some
but try it
TV is a stupid waste of time
tune out
tune in to your own life and interests

Anonymous said...

You can't be to intelligent if you're a liberal.

Anonymous said...

People are tired of all the commercials.
Especially the ones who blast you out of the room when they come on!
About the time a show starts getting good, here we go with 5 or 6 minutes of commercials.
By the time they're over in a lot of cases, I've found something else to be interested in.
I haven't watched a 30 minute tv show in years because it's a total waste of my time to take a 1/2 hour out of my schedule and see about 15 minutes of a show.
I've never been big on reading books but I love to sew and make crafts. I also love to cook and decorate so there's plenty for me to do. I don't need tv when it comes right down to it. Especially when the weather is nice and I can garden outside!