Podcasting the death knell for HD Radio; TV losing its grasp

Traditional media in its digital and analog formats are losing their lifeforce – all good things, I suppose. Identities and mediums have a shelf life and online media is putting older formats in the old media home.

First, Stephen Hill claims HD Radio is DOA and podcasting is to blame.

"System thought leaders and power players are finally united in the realization that digital delivery will happen most powerfully online and will do a far better job of supporting the underlying public service mission of the industry. They are now actively working on a comprehensive plan to do it by aggregating both infrastructure and content to support emerging composite business models," says Hill.

The convergence of media and the changing of channels reshuffles the deck. Reaching an intended demographic becomes more challenging. McKinsey is reporting that TV is losing its power and reach. From AdAge:

That shocking statistic, delivered to the company's Fortune 100 clients in a report on media proliferation, assumes a 15% decrease in buying power driving by cost-per-thousand rate increases; a 23% decline in ads viewed due to switching off; a 9% loss of attention to ads due to increased multitasking and a 37% decrease in message impact due to saturation. (snip)

According to Forrester Research's most recent North American Consumer Technology Adoption Study, people ages 18 to 26 spend more time online than watching TV and are adopting new technology faster than any other generation. Because of that, they tend to be more receptive to blog, podcast and mobile-web ads.

Reinforcing the difficulty in capturing the attention of the youth demographic, the LA Times describes how 12-24-year olds are simply underwhelmed. No wonder MTV gave up on videos they're like three minutes long, man.

While TV’s clarity and simplicity, which may seem like elegance to some and a dinosaur to others, will retain viewers for some time – especially those over 30, it appears like revenues for online venues should continue to climb at an accelerated pace.

Do you know how to translate your brand online?

Thanks to honorary field agent Cory for the Stephen Hill article.