Ties Between Tv, Internet To Grow, Tv Audience To Further Fragment

A couple of seemingly innocuous changes promise to markedly and permanently alter the face of television, says a University of Alabama mass communications expert.

According to Dr. Jennings Bryant, director of the Institute for Communication Research in UA’s College of Communication and Information Sciences, the first dramatic change will be the increasing tie-ins between television and the Internet. From sports programming to children’s programming, viewers are increasingly being enticed to keep one eye on the television screen and the other on the computer screen.

“A plethora of more advanced options have been developed, and 2001 should be the year of the engaged sports fan,” Bryant continued. “I say engaged because the average visitor to ESPNgo.com during a sportscast takes far fewer viewing breaks than viewers who watch the games with both eyes on the television screen, and they report being far more involved with the teams and the sports contest. This year will also see the business model of this convergence of TV and Web begin to catch up with spectator involvement. Increasingly, outlandish fan paraphernalia picked up by a network camera, a windbreaker just like the coach is wearing ­ and the like ­ can be ordered online with a click of the mouse. Experts predict that online spending associated with sportscasts will reach $3 billion by 2003.”

Bryant says children’s programmers are equally committed to reaping the rewards of media convergence. A number of techniques for enticing children and their parents to migrate to the program’s Web site during and after television viewing are being tested, with the goal of moving children from the program into interactive games, puzzles and adventures in which the child interacts with favorite characters online, forsaking other programs. “A couple of children’s programmers this year will take the radical route of attempting to entice child viewers to migrate from the television program to books, of all things,” said Bryant. “Of course, books that can be ordered online, and involve the television characters will be just dandy. Why this emphasis on convergence of TV and Web programming? To foster engagement, because engaged viewers are loyal viewers and loyal purchasers of program collateral materials.”

The second potentially insidious trend in television programming involves the increasing fragmentation of television audiences by the networks, Bryant predicts. “Because NBC, Fox and UPN have had considerable success with ‘edgy’ content in attracting young or specialized audiences, they are committing big-time to continue such program initiatives. If Fox continues to attract the teens, NBC draws young unmarrieds, and UPN garners the ‘Smackdown!’ crowd, it becomes harder and harder to gather the entire family around television’s cool fire,” Bryant said. “This leaves ABC, CBS and WB to program to families and provide the bulk of more general-appeal, first-run programming. Combine this trend with the increasing abandonment by ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox of ethnic viewers (picked up by UPN and WB), and television becomes a strip mall rather than a family-friendly department store.”