One replied:” It’s hard to judge the reason. It looks like a of perfect storm…. On the one hand, there is no question that there has been a steady erosion of the network’s position since the 80s, initially and for a long time because of cable TV.   Certainly, the HDD is changing habits - storing all episodes to watch in one go, not feeling that you have to see thing when it’s broadcast (and certainly this is true for fiction).   The opening up of the web(-video) and games has shifted audiences dramatically - even though one might argue that on an annual basis the average ‘tv viewing hours’ total is up - that’s not entirely true.   The tv is merely on, but most dramatically younger men are disappearing, critically, while the population is ageing.  But that’s not the only explanation, the issue currently is in part the conservatism and fear of the current generation of executives (who only want lookalikes) and the economy is preventing any marketing - so they market on the networks, but nobody’s watching the network so nobody knows to watch the network. When will we see the Twin Tower moment for television? Any ideas?” 

I will give you some flashes from a long long conversation…. these are quotes — sorry for some faul language!

TOP 10 QUOTES:

#1 Massive audience doesn’t equal massive content!
Mass Media is a medium used by the masses not to be mistaken as a medium filled with a mass of indestinctive content.
So problem number one is that Mass media is different than Media Mass!

#2 TV is going down; is it really going bad or is it just normalizing the big years?
I wonder wether TV is loosing or whetter  this is a correction of the TV-media monopoly. So is the 20% going down and down even further or is there a bottom of the ‘natural’ TV audience-share within the media/ time consumption mix. It will not go down to zero, my guess is that the frenzy is over now they will need to find the real plateau.

#3 The audience has a choice NOT to be couch-patato
I think one of the reasons is that people are watching more ‘targeted’ is the fact that we  live more hybrid, arythmic, asynchronic lives. What I mean is, ‘they’ don’t use TV anymore to be bored all evening… the time that TV was almost the only entertainer and that the content was ‘magic’ is over. Big Brother (or reality TV more broadly), broke the spell. People have choice, like the web & gaming which still do have the X-factor. The audience is more selective in what they watch (they deal with their spare time as if they run a micro-economy; Behavioural economics!) and therefor use more & more tools like Tivo to support their lifestyle.

#4 Big Brother (and others) broke the Magic-spell of TV
If you would make a graph of attention divided by time watched TV, television should be up enormously: less quantity more quality (they have chosen to watch the show which in marketing terms is extremely valuable: shopping good vs impuls buyt!). The question rises: is TV really loosing?! I think not. TV is in a phase of re-adjustment, not going down the drain. Big Brother (and others) brought normal people doing normal stuff on prime-time TV, every f*cking evening (twice) and putting normal people in control (they thought) via tele-voting. BB was not even a TV format anymore it blurred all boundaries of the mediascape. So BB (and others) broke down the elite walls of TV entertainment… it moved from mass audience to mass content. mass and more mass production. Nowadays an average TV programming consists of  10% of TV-programming in the offense and 90% of fill-me-up, low quality defensive programming. TV is therefor fading out as a HOT-medium and becoming a COLD-medium. Cold, meaning you decide when to watch what on TV (like the web is pull), while TV used to be hot, meaning you turn it on and than something appears which you digest (PUSH). Quantity is killing tv. Was Big Brothe/ Reality TV the Twin Tower effect of TV?

#5 Screw DRM, make it easy not difficult to stop illegal downloads
The viewers have other means and that is not about making things cheap or even free (illegal copying) it is about not wanting to be patronized by the network. I don’t want to wait a year to watch Lost series 5… I even need to be carefull on the web not te see/ hear any spoilers, therefor I download (since Amazon refuses to sell me the DVD before the EU release-date). Peer to peer illegal music sharing has decreased dramatically since Itunes made it so easy, because belief me, downloading movies is a freaking nightmare if you are not an expert (either it is low quality, or the end is missing, or no subtitles, or it is in spanish, or it appears to be porn). People want the stuff, yes even TV stuff. They go as far as, going illegal, all the hassle to get the content they want. That is amazin That is loyalty, that is engagement!

#6 TV is fucking it up themselves
TV tends to blaim a zillion externalities for the downfall. It is not technology, it is not a brand new generation. The TV downturn is a human created disaster to be compared with the Dutch disease or Resource Curse. The industry copied and copied and copied whatever was making the big money and did not use the money to diversify the product offering. TV turned from mass-audience in mass-uniform-offering.
TV-producers complaint that people don’t like TV anymore because they have new toys which are better, which can do more, offer more choice. I think that statement is false, people discovered via the new toys how bad television had become. The downfall is mainly an internal industry problem not taking the viewer and the role of creativity seriously. The whole media-elite took the easy-money and left the industry as billionairs, leaving am industry which marginalized itself. The industry created a mass of look-alike programs scaring away the viewers. TV bored the hell out of them. But hey, look on the bright side. If it is not ‘them’ (outside TV business), but ‘us’ (inside TV business) it means that there should be ways out of this mess =)))

#7 TV-networks are making it impossible for me to watch TV:
A. due to regional discrimination in release-dates,
B. By airing so much bullshit around good programs… making it impossible to watch for an entire evening
C. By breaking a good show on average (in NL) 6 times for commercials… interrupting my engagement.

#8 TV station are positioning themselves as a network as a place.
The web/ digital has eroded the phenomena of ‘place and space’. I don’t give a shit WHERE it is… it is aboit WHAT it is. I want people to help me in getting good entertainment. A tv station is a navigator. It helps me to select the best content for me from all the bad stuff which is out there… do they really think that I like YouTubing for my entertainment.
‘This program is brought to you by Heineken‘…. what a rubbish and foolish act… NO IT IS THE BRILLIANT SERVICE OF THE NETWORK/ BROADCASTER THAT BROUGHT YOU SURVIVOR NOT HEINEKEN… the network is selling out on its service-perception since it is viewing itself as a station. That was maybe true when 0-10 on the TV set were scarce and a wave in the ether was like media-real-estate. Making television is a service and should be rewarded as a service. I would even PAY for a good network (!) if it does less advertising and less rubbish. So please let me pay for Quality of Service! T

#9 Social Value vs Economic Value
The balance between the social value and the economic value of (TV) entertainment is ridiculous. TV is still agenda setting in a nation and it is driving other media (even the web for a large part) but to monetize it over 13×6 advertising slots is economically almost impossible. Therefor TV producers should get rid of Multi-media (airing your show on every possible medium, that is diluting the effect of the show), they should start focussing on cross-media (each medium has its role in the layers of the story) and in the end it should start to work on its creative DNA, what we call integrated media.

#10 Young people are always leaving?
Is that because they are young and is it a generational thing which we can extrapolate? Or will new generations adjust when they get a job, a wife, kids etc. It will remain question to be seen. I think kids don’t turn away from TV as such, they turn away from waste since they have the power and alternatives to choose… the have the energy to ‘be zappy’. TV has a solution.. we keep the content as such be we edit it down like MTV, every shot lasts a few seconds. While my kid is even bored with that. The form is nit the issue here!
It remains strange that if one clicks on a ‘puking girl-clip’ on YouTube it is rewarding (you choose, you got it… you won!) in comparison to watching tv, sitting on the couch, not really wanting anything and than suddenly getting a puking girl in one of the reality shows. Same content but you didn’t ask for it so it can never be rewarding, never. Only the ‘good’ stuff is rewarding because that is like shopping. You walk by all the shopping-windows and than you find something. Tthat is rewarding to find something you like after a long lasting search. TV by definition is only rewarding if we talk quality, not quantity. We like to tell the next day what we saw, what touched us in one way or the other… we don’t share how much we have been behind the tube? Internet in its turn,  is rewarding if it does what you say. Being surprised/ finding something on the web is less satisfying if you did not command it to, that is luck - no skills. So now we enter a dangerous area: What is quality TV? I don’t know… Is indeed the only measure of quality, popularity? What I do know is, that if a core idea which could be told in 5 minutes is extended to 10 minutes we might call it storytelling, suspense, drama, whatever… but when it is spun out over 50 minutes or even worse… it is more about quantity than quality. Than YOU (Mr. Network) are manipulating me and stealing my valuable time! So quality for me has more to do if I, as consumer, feel rewarded for having watched the television. Popularity makes it easy, but there are probably other options as well to define quality (not high-brow but low-brow quality!).

TV can play a crucial role in the digital -paradigm. Both the screen, the content AND even the industry. But only if they leave the ivory tower and join the emerging market for broad video-entertainment.