We have in theory only added on more medium to all of this in the past 10 years – the net. TV, Radio, WOM, Outdoor, Cinema have all existed. Just like the Internet bubble is again now growing ( with a harder , tougher shell ) convergence is coming back......
Demographics
If we take the continuation of the single person household le person ( by 2010 this will represent the largest household type ) and the choice now being channel based rather than time based only from the broadcast days - I believe contributes more realistically as to why we no longer get 20 million people viewing Coronation Street - rather than the fact 50 more channels exist ( also take into consideration Ethnic population grows 54% compared with 4% for the UK – again is Yorkshire life in a public house really what people from differing backgrounds interested in. )
Certain events such as the World Cup produce that the correct content gives you the numbers – the event requires it be worthwhile.
Immediacy adds relevance
Elections are on the wane in terms of turnout however people through the use of Blogs are showing they still wish to be engaged in the democratic process, express their views and contribute through demonstrations , so why the poor turn out ? - the format of the ballot is alien to a large proportion of the population. The thought of having to ‘ schedule ‘ your support and be attending the voting booth, of using a medium such as mail which requires the most simple boundary of a stamp – why not move voting online – see the results rocket the other way.
People today are watching more television albeit over a more diversely spread set of channels, without the use of technology you are of course going to spend more money trying to reach this ‘ dislocated ‘ group of people
In the past 3 basic channels ( with shorter viewing windows – I recall broadcast finishing at 11 pm – I’m not exactly old either ! ) and 15 TV companies in the UK alone. This condensation of viewable time funnelled people in – the funnel is now wider , however technology will act as the lasso brining it all together.
Convergence
If we took their individual programming schedules of those 15 regions , combined with ‘ viewable time ‘ , then we mapped the programming we would indeed see the view that would be regarded as ‘ fragmented ‘ in the true sense of the word.
The adage from David Ogilvy about which part advertising does not work is born from this.
Scrap heap challenge
Today they ( the broadcasters – a term which is due for the scrap heap really soon ) have in effect flipped the TV schedule onto one side , and built depth into each of the previous vertical sectors – spawning specialist channel – the depth we see today.
Convergence a word pulled from the scrap heap however describes technologies job into consolidating all of these outlets of content back into 1 channel.
