TV Viewership Down 2.5 Million
From the AP.
NEW YORK (AP) - Maybe
they're outside in the garden. They could be playing softball. Or perhaps
they're just plain bored. In TV's worst spring in recent memory, a startling
number of Americans drifted away from television the past two months: More
than 2.5 million fewer people were watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox than at
the same time last year, statistics show.
Everyone has a theory to explain the plummeting ratings: early Daylight
Savings Time, more reruns, bad shows, more shows being recorded or
downloaded or streamed.
Scariest of all for the networks, however, is the idea that many people
are now making their own television schedules. The industry isn't fully
equipped to keep track of them, and as a result the networks are scrambling
to hold on to the nearly $8.8 billion they collected during last spring's
ad-buying season.
"This may be the spring where we see a radical shift in the way the
culture thinks of watching TV," said Sarah Bunting, co-founder of the Web
site Television Without Pity.
The viewer plunge couldn't have come at a worse time for the
networks—next week they will showcase their fall schedules to advertisers in
the annual "up front" presentations.
The networks argue that viewership is changing, not necessarily
declining. Some advertisers respond that they are no longer willing to pay
full price up front to reach viewers that may not tune in later.
This fall, both sides will be watching what happens with families like
Tony Cort's. During prime-time, Cort, his wife and four kids tend to scatter
to computers or other activities in different parts of their New Jersey
home. (Not during "American Idol" or "Lost," though.) They're definitely
watching less TV, said Cort, who runs a Web site for martial arts
aficionados.
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