Want to know how the media environment will look in 3 - 10 years? Look no further than my two, darling little snowflakes - my 6 year old and my 3 year old. They are in house experts on everything and are always willing to share their opinions on a variety of topics.
My two little special snowflakes and media experts
Case in point - what will happen to mass media as we know it today? I have been pondering this question for some time now, caught up in the details of Nielsen ratings, shifting demographics, Cost per Points, etc. I went back and forth on the death of mass media, but my views were about to crystallize over cartoons and pancakes.
One Saturday morning, I was able to step back from the details and the future became crystal clear - mass media as we know it and grew up with is dead - gone - finished!
My 6 & 3 year old showed me.
Here is the scenario:
I woke up especially early and completed some work that I had to do AND worked out - all before 8am. I was feeling productive, cooking pancakes, and waiting for the kids to wake up. In a Clark Griswold moment, I had visions of a family breakfast and Saturday morning cartoons while being sandwiched between my precious little ones on the family sofa. We ate the delicious pancakes and the excitement built to a fever pitch - time for cartoons.
We leapt onto the couch, and frankly, I was being the world’s best DAD. My son was excited, I even think my daughter hugged me. Then it all went terribly wrong.
I grabbed my universal, all in one remote (one of the best inventions of all time, if you ask me) and with the click of one button caused my entire living room to hum with excitement. I quickly surfed the channels until I found a cartoon, and settled back to bask in the glory of being super dad - if just for one hour.
Before my back could hit the sofa, my son looked at me with a shocked 6 year old face that screamed, “What in the hell is this?” Actually, coming out of his mouth (much to my wonderful wife’s credit) was “Dad, can we watch one of our shows?”
My daughter quickly followed up with “Dad, this isn’t TIVO. You are not doing it right, are you fooling?”
I gathered my wits, “NO, we are going to watch this cartoon. I LOVE it.”
“But dadd-y” (when daddy-y comes out, I know I am in trouble) “Your show isn’t even on.”
Quickly, I turned to the TV and a commercial was on.
“Yeah, daddy, your show went off,” trailed my daughter in a mocking voice. ”But, don’t worry, you can fast forward”
“Here I will show you,” as my 3 year old grabbed the remote and quickly navigated her way through the TIVO menu to start the newest episode of Dora.
“Now, now, children, I don’t want to watch TIVO, I want to watch the show that was on.”
Stunned SILENCE. AKWARD.
“Can we go outside now?” ”Yeah, can we?” Were the two statements heard as they ran towards their rooms to change out of their maple syrup stained PJs.
All that was left was the world’s best Dad, alone on a couch, cluching his all in one remote as the media world closed in on him.
And that in a nutshell is the future of television and mass media.
My children do not have appointment viewing. Their entire media consumption is on-demand - all the time. If they can’t watch EXACTLY what they want, EXACTLY when they want it, they will find something else to do. The thought of watching a live program with commercial breaks not able to be fast forwarded thru - completely foreign. The thought of gathering around a television at 8 pm to watch their favorite show - completely foreign.
How do media companies bridge the gap between how my demo consumes media and how my children consume media? I don’t know - but that is the BILLION dollar question.
However, everything I needed to know about the changes in the media industry and the changes in media consumption, I learned one Saturday morning after pancakes. That I do know.
Now where is my IPOD?
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