Traditional TV -- Not Dead Yet

Digital media developments last week seemed to support those industry observers predicting the eventual demise of traditional television.

But a closer look shows a more mixed picture.

First, the bad news. There are now fewer television sets in U.S. households than at any time since 1992, according to a recent Nielsen survey. Much of the 1.2 million drop in TV set ownership in 2011 to 115.9 million units is attributed younger, urban consumers watching more videos on PCs than TVs, according to Nielsen.

Then, HBO — cable’s leading pay TV service — became the latest and arguably highest-profile network to offer their valuable content through new media platforms such as  iPads, iPhones and Android-based smart phones. Through “HBO Go,” the network’s expanded distribution platform strategy, fans of The Sopranos, The Wire, and Sex and The City can now enjoy those shows while at the laundry mat or at the library without the benefit of a television.

Finally, distributors of this past Saturday’s Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley pay-per-view boxing match decided to bring the fight to the web, streaming the event live online for the same $54.95 price tag as the traditional TV PPV telecast. Fight promoter Top Rank believed that the web offering – a first for a marquee PPV boxing match — would pull in coveted young consumers hanging out in college dorm rooms and who are already watching most of their favorite shows on their computers.

But all of last week’s news wasn’t bad. For pay-TV services, the outlook was bright: Pay-TV subscriptions grew in the first quarter — the second straight such quarter — after a decline overall in 2010.

Even the more negative developments don’t exactly signal the apocalypse for traditional television viewing.

Some industry observers attribute the drop in household TV sets more to the poor economy and the digital broadcast transition than to young viewers watching Conan on their laptops.

True Blood fans still have to subscribe to the linear HBO cable service – and their pay-TV provider has to have a multi-platform distribution deal in place with the programmer – to be able to watch the vampire thriller on their iPad 2s.

And a majority of the 1 million viewers who were projected to buy Saturday’s lackluster Pacquiao-Mosley fight likely chose to watch every punch on their 45-inch, big-screen HD TV sets, rather than on their 15-inch computer screens.

There is a continual and gradual shifting of video content viewing habits among a segment of the population. But for now, the shift represents more of a rumble than a cataclysmic earthquake.