It’s a pressing topic with Nine’s recent debt negotiations and Ten’s falling share price. However, I believe that people should not necessarily be too quick to move away from the format.

For one there are some good deals to be had at the moment, but also, Think TV has released some excellent stats to show how the platform is driving results for advertisers in the new media landscape.

In the recent Deloitte survey of more than 2,000 Australian consumers TV was by far the most popular choice for entertainment with 63% – followed by the internet at 47% and listening to music at 30%. Not only is TV still ranked as the number 1 choice for entertainment, but it is becoming more prevalent in the social interactions we perform.

A recent survey of Australian social media users has shown 1 in 3 use social media while watching television

What’s more, 33% are using social media to talk about TV.

While Social TV is most prevalent among teenagers (57%), it is also popular with adults. 34% of 20-29 year olds and 40% of 30-39 year olds are connecting with huge online communities to discuss what they are watching.

Here is a staggering statistic…

40% of prime time tweets are about TV

People have always talked about what they watch on TV. In the digital era, the watercooler effect of TV still exists, it’s just moved online.

On top of that, 7 in 10 (68% of respondents) nominated TV advertising as having the greatest influence on their decisions to purchase goods and services.

Some would argue that time-shifted viewing allows most people to skip through the ads anyway, but despite the take up of TV recording devices, time-shifted viewing still only accounts for 5% of TV usage. Live TV still dominates, accounting for about 95% of all commercial free-to-air TV viewing.

Despite all this…

We still encounter some resistance to TV as an advertising medium

I am still trying to work out why TV is looked down upon by many advertisers. It’s understandable that a lot of the industry types, particularly those who work in digital agencies would be against TV, but we sometimes get this from clients too.

Possibly it’s because 1 in 4 Australians watch network catch-up TV online. Or because who-knows-how-many-people download direct TV from the US.

This is a huge issue facing the media industry and one that I didn’t really want to tackle in this post. Personally, I realise that a lot of people (maybe even most people) download the TV shows they really must see. It’s a fragmented new media world. I’m regularly saying, that if you want to target everyone you can’t only use one form of media.

However, here’s something to consider…

14 Million people tune in to free TV each and every day

• Free TV is in 99% of Australian homes
• Two-thirds of Australian households have 2 or more TVs
• More than 6 in 10 Australians watch TV between 8pm-10pm every day

This goes almost completely against what most people in new media are saying and would indicate that commercial television is still the antidote to fragmentation.

I believe it’s up to the networks now to improve their experience for social media users. By embracing social media integration they may actually increase their popularity with advertisers.

Statistics: Think TV – Nielsen, OzTAM, Deloitte