Will TV audiences return after summer?

Each year, for some bizaar reason understood only by free to air TV executives, the TV stations go into a ‘non-ratings’ period.  Over the summer, audiences aren’t officially ‘rated’ or tracked. As a result, the free to air brigade fill our airwaves with B quality content.  Think: Hogan’s Heroes repeats.

Consider this: the top 10 shows in Australia are currently attracting as few as 700,000 viewers nationally compared with over two million for Packed to the Rafters last month (during ratings season).  This is a decrease of almost 3 fold.

This scheduling insult to TV audiences may have been acceptable in an age without choice.  But the internet has changed this. Consumers now have serious amounts of choice.

Hulu.com is leading the charge.  Hulu hosts more than 1,000 shows with over 130 content providers – not only NBC and Fox, but Sony Pictures Television, MGM Studios, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures and PBS. The site also offers full-length films.

Hulu’s unique visitors for October was 24 million according to ComScore. On average, a visitor watches 10 videos on Hulu each month. These are impressive numbers indeed.  While not yet available in Australia, the impact of the Hulu model will be felt strongly within the TV industry.

Executives can no longer take for granted a return of eyeballs once the summer period is over.

While they may come back this summer, sooner or later there will be a dramatic moment where the free to air numbers fall of a cliff.  At that point, the convergence of your TV device with your PC will come together at a rate of knots.

Until then, I’m off to catch some Hogan’s Heroes on TV.  “Hoo-oo-gan!!”