Dude, where’s my audience?

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Katie Cincotta
July 26, 2007
LiveWire

 Photo: Penny StephensAdvertisement

Gen Y is switching off the radio, telly and stereo and turning to the internet for, well, just about everything.

Digital natives, they call them. Raised on the revolution of broadband, mobiles, MP3s and the user-generated content explosion, young audiences are fast tuning out of traditional media.

TV viewing audiences have fallen by almost 6 per cent in the past five years, with a dramatic 17 per cent drop for 16-39-year-olds, according to TV ratings group OzTAM.

Other research by Roy Morgan shows that TV isn’t the only traditional player to suffer – Gen Y is spurning newspapers, magazines, radio and cinema in favour of the internet. But time spent online by 14-25-year-old “heavy internet users” doubled from 18 per cent in 2002 to 36 per cent in 2007.

Head of digital marketing agency Hothouse Interactive Simon van Wyk says audiences are skipping the traditional habits of free-to-air TV, live radio and CDs in favour of content they can access any time, anywhere – courtesy of the internet.”

Media has changed. It used to mean channels Nine, Seven and Ten. Now media means your own website,” he says.

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