TV is changing...

This week's guest post comes from Mike Colling, Managing Director at MC&C...

Last week I was invited to give a future gazing presentation on 'Convergent Evolution and The Growth of TV' or 'What's next for Media?'

It's not all about online. Print may be dying but TV isn't dead (in fact it's thriving). As I'm sure we all know, conventional TV viewing is going from strength to strength.

In 2000 the average UK adult watched 3.7 hours of TV a day. Now that we spend another 2 hours a day watching online as well, our viewing takes up 4 hours of our day.

This is partially driven by the fact that we all have access to much more TV - more stations, more hours and the blessed convenience of Sky+ and TiVo.

But it's also driven by the fact that we humans prefer the passive consumption of audio/visual to print, and it's that pressure that's driving convergent evolution. 

Confession time - in my youth I was a zoologist, so I bring that heritage to my view of the media world.

Convergent evolution is when evolutionary forces change two distinct species so they resemble one another (because their new form is the most efficient way for them to thrive and survive).

So I see convergent evolution at play in media - with what once were distinct media channels beginning to resemble and mimic TV.

Here's a magazine example: HEAT 

And here's a poster example: POSTER

Both of them taking on the guise of TV.

This is a key trend I expect to continue to accelerate. TV will become more widely distributed and more media channels will change to look like TV. Already 45% of internet traffic is video, and that is expected to hit 90% by 2014.

This brings great advantages - we'll see much better engagement and response rates from the places and times we've succeeded in before.

However, it does bring creative challenges - a conventional 30" spot or 90" DRTV ad won't work on a poster and it will challenge response - what do you ask the viewer of an ad on a tablet on a train to do? And as far as measurement challenges go - how do you build your ROI case?

But challenges aside, this is exciting.

Evolutionary forces bring new species. It looks like TV, consumers think it's TV, but it's not quite the same. I love change, don't you?
www.mcand.co.uk