Are We Seeing the Last Generation to Buy Television Sets?

Sound radical? Well, I would have thought so too not long ago, but now I’m not so sure.

When I jumped into the Internet game in the mid-90’s, I was convinced right away that the Web would have a profound impact on communications, but that it would take a long time time for a lot to change. Little did I know how much would change and how fast that change would come.

By the turn of the century the talk about print publications starting to disappear was no longer a prediction, but a reality. The first publications started dropping soon after and then last year NY Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr., hinted that he wasn’t sure the NY Times would be available in print for more than five more years. Now, that’s not to say the NY Times or any of the other national news organization is going out of business, but rather the distribution of its content will change and the business model will be very different than what it is today.

Now, I’m starting to see the same trends that impact print starting to happen with TV viewing, and I don’t mean the latest declining TV viewership stats. What I mean is I’m starting to see a shift in the next generation’s usage of televisions. They are still watching TV and other video programming, of course, but increasingly so on their laptops and not always on the giant high definition TV screens manufacturers want us to keep buying. I’m not sure I would see the day when teenagers walk out of a room with a 50-inch plasma and go into another room to watch a movie on a 17-inch monitor, but it happens more than you know.

I absolutely can see a tipping point down the road when sales of TVs start to decline, just like the decline of readership of daily newspapers and books. Perhaps it takes place when more than half of the current baby boom generation is no longer around, but mark my words I think the time will come when TV boxes could be obsolete.

Mike Spataro