Television Advertising that Works: An Analysis of Commercials fro ...

For example, comparing the media industry from the 1980s until 2004 shows the number of commercial TV stations has gone up 92%, the average number of cable channels has increased 836%, cable penetration has increased 130%, and home-computer penetration has increased 1,220%. All of these new alternatives fragment audiences for media content providers. Audience fragmentation is not confined solely to traditional media but also comes from the Internet, where younger audiences spend more of their time (Feldstein, 2005). Ad Age’s 2006 Fact Pack reported a study conducted by eMarketer concluding that out of 283.4 million people in the U.S. ages 3+: 38.1% were not online yet, 24.8% were dialup Internet users, and 37.1% were broadband users. The same study predicts the number of nonusers and dialup users will convert to broadband use and will contribute to increasing broadband penetration an additional 11% by the year 2008. Broadband penetration is important to note due to its capacity to deliver video content.

Even with the growth of traditional and alternative media choices, television has hope in this audience-fragmented marketplace because of one element: content loyalty.