TVloop Blog

Related to the last post here at the TVLoop Blog concerning teen TV-watching behavior, I just saw some research results from Panagea Media over at ADOTAS indicating that TV also continues to be at the forefront of driving teen brand awareness.  According to the research:

77 percent of teens and tweens rely on friends to find out cool new brands, followed by seeing those brands in the store, 71 percent, or on a TV commercial, 51 percent.

So word of mouth continues to be the primary method of driving teen consumption, which I doubt differs too much from adult behavior, but it’s interesting to see that TV is still relatively high on the list at 51%.  So once again, all of this talk about the death knell of television among this demographic is greatly exaggerated.  One of the more interesting points of the research is the piece about social networks.  Only 24% of teens/tweens surveyed said that they find out about new brands on social networks such as Facebook or MySpace, and only 29% said they were a “fan” of a brand on one of the sites.  I really thought both of those numbers would be higher if for no other reason than the amount of time teens spend on social networking sites.

So what does this mean for online advertisers and publishers?  Well for starters, I would love to see the breakout between teens and tweens.  Depending on the upper age range they targeted for the study, the differences could be quite large.  The thought process of a 17 year old differs significantly from that of a 12 year old.  As a result, their behaviors both online and off will be very different.  Whatever the case, I see the low percentage of users being influenced by social network advertising as an opportunity to get better at it.  Given the amount of time that this age demographic spends online, there’s no reason that social sites shouldn’t be first or second when it comes to driving consumer behavior.  The big question is whether that’s better done through word-of-mouth and sharing info, or through more traditional components such as display ads and brand sponsorships.  The answer is likely somewhere in the middle with a bit of a skew towards word-of-mouth.  Lots of progress has been made on this within the last year and I look forward to seeing how the industry continues to evolve.

Yet another report is out further debunking the claim that broadcast television is dead for the teen market segment.  In fact, according to the post over at NewTeeVee, the Nielsen report claims that teens watch online video less than their older, adult counterparts.

So as reported in a previous post here at the TVLoop Blog, the common theme around blogs and in the press the last several months have focused on the death of broadcast TV as more teens moved to online video.  In reality, 92% of teens watch TV while only 3% watch TV online.  That huge disparity doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon.

As previously reported here and across the blogosphere, the reports of the demise of broadcast TV have been greatly exaggerated.  Time again, US consumers have demonstrated that they prefer to watch broadcast TV when they can.  That doesn’t mean there’s not a place for Hulu, YouTube, and the like, but when given the option most Americans would rather watch their favorite shows on their 42″ plasma.  And who can blame them?

One opinion that is often reported as fact is that teens prefer to watch TV online.  That couldn’t be further from the truth according to the latest study from independent analyst Bruce Leichtman.  According to the study which was summarized on The Live Feed blog, only 8% of teens from the study watch re-purposed TV shows online.  That compares to the 24% and 20% that watch news clips and user-generated video respectively.  So while many people assume that teens are leading the charge for adoption of online TV, it doesn’t appear that they’re yet ready to pick up that flag.

The net of all this is that  Nielsen ratings are probably much more accurate than some shows (yes I’m talking to you Dollhouse) would care to admit.  If the real online TV audience is as small as it appears to be, the argument that “real fans are watching online” becomes much less realistic.

We’re excited to announce the launch of a new application for Facebook today - Daily TV. The app is a video portal that serves up all of your favorite full-length episodes and clips from Hulu in an easy-to-use interface. I may be a little biased, but the interface and visual design rocks.

It’s a flawless experience with a super easy way to find all of your favorite shows. And true to any good Facebook application, you can share all of it with your friends by posting videos and ratings to your live stream. And last but not least, you can also see what all of your friends are watching on Daily TV.  Check it out and let us know what you think.

It looks like ABC listens to the fans after all. The word is now out that Scrubs is being renewed by ABC for a “Transitional” 9th Season. Many of the main cast members (Zach Braff included) have signed on to the first six episodes, as a way to transition to the new show. Also in the works is a change in format, from single camera to multi-camera. This may indicate a more ensemble-style flavor to future episodes, as does the lack of any main cast member signing on for a full season.

From the fans perspective, this seems like good news. On the one hand, we have previously seen the users of Addicted to Scrubs heavily favor a new season. On the other, lowering the impact of a finale that was called “perfect” by many may not sit well with the faithful.

So is ABC making the right move? Rather than deciding for ourselves, we’ll let the fans have the last word:

Ampa - “If they do decide to continue Scrubs in some way I think it would have to be sort of a spin-off because yeah, JD was the focus for most of the show. At the same time all the characters around him developed into people we enjoy watching.”

U-Gene - “What is the point of the show if three of the main characters leave and one of them is what the show is based around?”

Joe - “Season 8 wasn’t all that great, but it was still nice to have. I would probably feel the same way about a spin off. Nothing will ever replace the earlier season of scrubs, but i would tune in to catch up with sacred heart. Also, I really liked the ending of the finale. If that is how it ends, it did the show justice.”