We all know that “video killed the radio stars”, don’t we? This may sound a bit dramatic in a song, but in reality these kinds of situations are almost trivial and happen quite often. Every time a newer/superior technology is developed it replaces something older. Following the same pattern television has become the leading medium for entertainment and information, overtaking that place from radio and the other existing media. Not to say that radio and the press have become obsolete (after all these media have huge followings), but none of them could compete with the power of television broadcasting.

And now, this cycle repeats itself once again. After being the dominant force on the market for three decades, TV companies have finally found a worthy competition in the Internet and online media. And as we said above, the newer technology usually replaces the older ones.

Still, television has always had dominance in the living room, where a lot of the family activities take place. Usually the interior of the living room is dominated by a big screen TV and computers are nowhere to be found there. But with the development and the advancements of mobile technologies, television is starting to lose the battle even in its most impenetrable fortress. We conducted a survey on the subject and the results show that the consumers’ taste is slowly shifting away from the TV sets. Here are some of the most interesting numbers.

67 percent of men and 63 percent of women surf the Internet while watching TV. The most popular online activities are social networking, mobile gambling, shopping and… porn. 15-21 year olds are by far the biggest consumers of the internet, whilst watching TV, with almost 75 percent using social media sites such as Facebook. Women also visit social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as 42 percent admitted social networking, while watching TV. Another 45% shopped online. Social networking aside, men’s favourite distraction from television is mobile gambling – nearly one third admitted to play online pokies or bet on sporting events. But perhaps the most curious results from the survey show that 14 percent of men admitted to watching adult content while watching TV.

Now, wasn’t television that kept porn industry thriving for decades? Except for adult movies projections in theatres (which is a niche service anyway), television was the only medium where people could watch adult films. And that collaboration has been beneficial for the both sides. Yet, now a certain (and not small) percentage of people uses porn as a distraction from television.

This is a strong indication that television no longer has monopoly over information and entertainment. People can find what they need using other channels and they are actually doing it. Also, the habits and the behavior of the modern consumer are quite different today. Today people see as entertainment things like social networking and gambling – things that our TV sets can’t provide. Our phones and tablets, on the other hand, can. Mobile gambling is quickly gaining huge popularity and the mobile apps of Facebook and Twitter have hundreds of millions of downloads.

Programme makers and advertisers are in a difficult situation, trying to grab people’s attention, which is inevitably shifting to newer and cooler toys. The industry has already been shaken by Video on Demand services, such as Netflix and Hulu, and digital video recorders (DVRs) and the new challeng may prove to be just too much for TV companies.

The shift in consumer’s behaviour can be dangerous to family life as well. Television has been condemned as anti-family by many, but it has the ability to bring people together in a common experience – whether to watch a sports event or beloved TV show. The new types of entertainment don’t work that way and can be quite addictive – especially mobile gambling and the social networks.

Despite these growing concerns, only 6% claimed that these habits had a detrimental impact on their family life. Time will tell whether this trends upwards in the future.


The complete results of the survey follow:

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