"Zero TV": a New Designation, and a Sign of Doom for Broadcasters

A friend of mine posted this article on Facebook about a new designation by the A.C.Nielsen company, one noted in their March 2013 report, that five percent of all U.S. homes either don't have a television set or don't use a cable, antenna, or satellite dish to receive transmissions.  While some in the industry are not certain that the number of "Zero TV" homes will increase, I'm absolutely certain it will.  And this spells the end for those who broadcast in traditional manners.

Content providers -- the media conglomerates making programs -- will continue to seek their audiences on their mobile devices.  But your old-fashioned tv station with the homey news anchors and amusing sports and weather anchors?  Adapt or die.  Those signals have to get on line.  As people have become quite comfortable with on-demand access to programming content, they don't feel the desperate need to watch a favorite show; they'll wait til it's available via netflix or amazon -- or, increasingly, via content providers' apps or directly online.  It makes a lot of sense for, say, NBC, to make recent episodes of SNL available through their Hulu site, since they can still force you to watch commercials. The networks don't have to worry; they are part of giant conglomerates that have their fingers in the broadband pie.  (NBC is owned by Comcast; Time Warner may no longer be a part of AOL but as a broadband provider they are still relevant.)   But local stations affiliated with networks may not have the luxury of broadcasting the network content on-line the way they do over the regular airwaves. 

That said, over one hundred stations do send their signals on line; this is super important because the viewer is much more mobile than ever before.  Advertisers will still commit to the local stations because it's easy enough to run ads across a computer screen as well as on mobile devices.  (It may be the case that stations will charge a fee to consumers to avoid ads, the way many mobile apps like Pandora radio do.)  Stations also need to be active in the social media, getting audiences to follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook.  

Of course, such mobility begs the question: is what broadcasters are doing now, by engaging in online platforms to send their signals, really broadcasting?