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04/12/2007: "Is Television Advertising on Last Legs? A Look Into DRTV and the Box In the Front Room."

More people are turning to the Web to watch television shows and movies, thanks to sites like YouTube and Apple's iTunes store.

Recent surveys and studies prove that television viewing is down by a tremendous amount --- especially among young people. People are turning out television commercials and infomercials. They are turning to things they want to watch on the Internet. And YouTube is especially hot.

What that means to you as an advertiser and marketer is that you need to turn your attention away from television and look at putting your ad dollars on the Internet and direct mail and radio. Yes, radio is still very hot and very effective. These are venues that are still working.

According to eMarketer, online video is expected to be a $775 million ad business this year.

Young people especially are keen on watching and creating their own online videos. Where in years past young people turned to the television set, they now log on to the Web for their entertainment and information.

But it's not just young people. Everyone seems to be getting their news and information and, yes, their entertainment on the Web. As Bill Gates predicted, the Internet is really the next big thing and it is what will kill television.

There are pockets of people who will continue to watch television on a regular basis. One example are the elderly. Trouble is, this group is out of it's spending years and usually on a fixed, very small, income. So they're not a group that advertisers are especially interested in.

Television, of course, is not dead. And it will no doubt be around for a very long time. But people can watch television online now. ABC, for example, just launched its new Full Episode Player. CBS recently launched "Innertube", their broadband channel for viewing their TV shows online.

People can watch what they want, when they want. They can opt into or out of advertising. And more people now watch news online than on the box. Internet radio, once a stepchild of the net, is now hot. I know that on the weekends I don't even turn on the television set. I listen to Shoutcast Internet radio. I have the PC hooked up to the stereo and it's really great listening.

So should you stop advertising on television? Not necessarily. But most advertisers are rethinking their budget allocations and putting far less money into television. I think that's probably a very smart, very profitable idea.

The Web Video Explosion: Implications for the DRTV industry.