PWC study: Older audiences will sustain traditional media amidst accelerating change
June 26th, 2008
Traditional media will be sustained by the strong growth of 50-plus audiences while younger demographic groups move quickly to mobile and new digital formats, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers study. The report forecasts a continued “global broadband boom” and strong growth in mobile, digital cinemas and high definition DVD formats. But PWC also sees “established and traditional business segments” continuing to dominate revenues, except in the music industry. Here’s where older audiences fit in:
Meanwhile, consumers over the age of 50 are creating a balance in the industry by devoting significant amounts of attention to the more traditional media of their generation as the Net Generation drives growth in digital and mobile entertainment. In every region of the world except EMEA, the 50+ population will see double digit growth rates and globally, this population will increase from 1.1 billion to 1.25 billion, a 13.1% rise through 2012. This growth will help sustain traditional formats even as this generation becomes increasingly interested in the platforms embraced by their children and grandchildren.
What’s interesting here is that most traditional media continues to run away from valuable older audiences. In the newspaper industry, innovation is focused exclusively on attracting young audiences to ink-on-paper products via breezy free subway tabloids and flashy graphics. When will publishers figure out that there’s a good 30-year future serving older audiences that can sustain them while they move through the painful economic transition to digital media?
July 24th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I’m often marveled about this too. Where it shows up to me is in my business, which is marketing for progressive nonprofit organizations.
The senior people in my client organizations are mostly Boomers who are eager to get their organizations covered by the traditional media. Their younger staff members could care less and are interested in Web 2.0, podcasts, blogging and all of the other digital options. But the “take away” for me is this: the people who are the decision makers rely on print media, along with some TV. That’s likely to be the case for some time.