For so many years, the consumer was really controlled by the companies they bought goods and services from. Little by little, the consumer has taken that control back. Broadcast television is the most recent industry to experience that shift.
In the book Rethink I emphasize the importance of staying in touch with what your customers really value, which has become harder and harder in a lot of industries as it becomes easier for customers to find alternative products and services that meet their specific needs.
I am not an expert in television, but it seems like every year or two there is an article about a show that is a huge hit that wasn’t originally a huge hit, and because today the networks give shows such a short period of time to succeed or fail, many of the biggest hits of the past wouldn’t have survived the current scrutiny because it took longer for them to build their audience. Specifically I remember this to be true for the comedy series “Everybody Loves Raymond” which ran for many seasons after a very slow start.
The odd thing about television is that historically it has been one of the most prescriptive experiences out there. Until fairly recently, the networks decided what we would watch and when we would watch it. It became the battle of the networks, where it was widely accepted that a lot of people watch television on Thursday and Sunday nights, so the best shows would air then and the networks would vie for your viewership. This was somewhat mocked in the spooky show “The Outer Limits” when the voiceover would come on saying:
| “ | There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to… The Outer Limits. — Opening narration – The Control Voice – 1960s |
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So when I read the article “Later Viewings of Shows on DVRs Brigthens Ratings” by Bill Carter in The New York Times, it struck me that the tables have completely turned and now the customer has taken control of the television. While Tivo was the pioneer in the space, now the typical cable operator allows you to use the menu to select recent shows that have aired at their regular time, and you can watch them when you want to, and it’s pretty thorough. I happen to like the new show “The Good Wife” and I have been watching it using this service.
What the networks have realized is that instead of measuring the success of a show based on the viewing of when it airs, they now need to wait a week or more to see how many people watch the show. As the article points out, this new measure of success puts a very different lens on the success of some shows.
That’s what’s getting so complicated for so many industries, as consumer patterns and behaviors shift, organizations have to be very careful about using the same old measuring stick to interpret customer satisfaction. I think this trend will continue in broadcast television, but I also think we will see the emergence of new, volatile, and immature ways of measuring these shifts because it’s all so new.
OK, it’s Tuesday morning at 11:10, I am going to watch the newest episode of “Two and a Half Men”
-Ric
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