TV News Catching On to the Web Thingy

A few weeks after CNN began offering free video streams on their website, CBS has started to do the same. All this to rev up a struggling TV news viewership base in which viewers are slowly dying, literally.

"Our audience on the Web is 10 to 15 years younger than our TV audience" for news, says Larry Kramer, president of CBS's digital-media operations. Visitors to ABC News's long-established Web site have a median age of 45, nine years younger than ABC News's median TV audience, according to Nielsen/NetRatings and research by the network, which is owned by Walt Disney.

Not only is the Web more widely used by young people, but on-demand videos also are more convenient for people who aren't home in time for the 6:30 p.m. news program. Time-pressed Americans also are increasingly less willing to sit through a half-hour program waiting for the one story they are interested in, says Jeff Marshall, who oversees digital-media buying for Publicis Groupe's Starcom USA.

With this in mind, "the advertisers we are going to are different," says CBS's Mr. Kramer, including electronics manufacturers and fast-food chains. On the CBS Evening News TV broadcast, pharmaceutical companies predominate, making up seven of the 10 biggest advertisers in the 11 months to April. These included Novartis, Merck and Pfizer, whose drugs often treat chronic conditions common in older people, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Cable networks such as CNN and Fox News already have a more diverse mix of advertisers than broadcast news, including more auto makers, for instance. Even so, CNN hopes its Web effort will bring in advertisers, such as movie studios, that traditionally seek younger audiences. CNN is in discussions with 70 to 80 marketers about online ad deals, says Greg D'Alba, CNN's chief operating officer. He says "it's early days, but with a heck of a lot of promise."

Source: Wall Street Journal