Television Is To Remain Relevant Somehow

The dreaded upfront has come to a close and it looks as though television is here to stay. Everyone was predicting meager sales for the networks, but will wonders never cease? It looks like the total is going to come in around $9.3 billion across the big 5 networks, which is around 2.2 percent over last year. Despite declining audience numbers ( 5%-10%) and some shifts in how ratings are calculated, it seems people are still watching television. Sort of.

And this is where current ratings game gets tricky. Okay, raise your hands if you own a TIVO and skip over the ad spots? Raise your hand if you’re downloading your favorite Heroes episodes from a bittorrent client thus not having to deal with the ads at all? Other than that, Nielsen can say whatever they want, but the numbers are dodgy. We do believe that a great commercial can make an impact. Spots can also help keep a brand alive and in the face of consumers. However, we’d like to see some billions end up in trackable media. Like now.