Apparently the median age for TV viewers is at an all-time high. Variety reports that according to a study posted by Steve Sternberg of Magna Global, the live median age of TV viewers is 50-years-old That number is based on people who watch the five major networks without a DVR. Factoring in DVR usage, the average only drops a year for all of the networks except CW and Univision. Variety stated, “For the just-completed 2007-08 TV season, CBS was oldest in live viewing with a median age of 54. ABC clocked in at 50, followed by NBC (49), Fox (44), CW (34) and Univision (34).”
It’s no real shock that CBS has the oldest viewers and equally unsurprising that How I Met Your Mother is one of the few shows that actually draws in a moderately younger crowd (median age: 45) on that network. So what are all the young people doing while the older folks are off watching Cold Case and Ghost Whisperer? Are they outside playing? Chasing a hoop down a dirt road or something? Possible but unlikely. If I had to guess what the average person between the ages of 14 and 30 were doing at this very moment, I’d say they might be updating their Facebook profile, playing video games, chatting online or on their cell phone, or talking about how amazing The Dark Knight is going to be on any given entertainment-themed message board. Ah, the internet. It’s like TV’s cooler cousin, giving kids and young adults even more incentive to stay inside.
So, do younger people not watch TV anymore? Of course they do. Sure, we’ve got DVRs, though as the study showed, that didn’t seem to make a significant difference in the average age of viewers. But as you’re probably aware, there are other (legal) ways to watch our favorite TV shows these days. Hulu.com has a pretty nice selection of shows to watch for free (if you’re in the U.S.). Or you can purchase and download shows through iTunes or Amazon Unbox. Then of course you have TV on DVD. I recently marathoned through all three seasons of Arrested Development and I won’t even admit how many times I’ve watched Buffy on DVD when I couldn’t find anything good to watch on TV.
So while the study is interesting, it’s not really all that surprising. TV is changing. The networks seem to be aware of that as they’re using the internet more and more to reach out to their viewers. For example, NBC is set to premiere a new crop of Office webisodes later this month. I doubt that TV will ever be phased out completely (at least not in my lifetime) but it seems pretty obvious that gathering around the TV set (do people even say “set” anymore in reference to TV’s?) at 8:00 p.m. for the start of primetime is becoming a thing of the past.
