Television + Internet = ?

Television + Internet = ?

Synthesis

Synthesis has been a successful invention technique for a long time. At some point, someone thought of taking the pencil and the eraser and putting them together on one stick. Another innovator combined women's stockings and panties to create pantyhose. Soon we will have the television set and the Internet (Intellivision).

One of these is basically an entertainment medium, the other essentially informational. One is viewed from a relative distance, the other close up. One is passively consumed, the other actively. One evokes more emotional responses, the other more intellectual. What will happen when they both come out of the same box, from the same distance, in the same room and conceivably at the same time?

Consuming a new medium

Will television enhance the production value and public appetite for Internet ads or will the Internet devalue television commercials? Will the Internet increase the public interaction with television commercials or will television make online consumers more remote? These will become critical questions for marketers in the next few years. It is worthwhile to begin exploration now.

Getting crowded

We do know that one of the things the two media have in common is that they expose their users to about the same number of commercials each day ( TV-95, Internet-85). The similarities end there. TV viewers spend a little over fours hours a day with the tube. Internet users spend from 15-30 minutes. So this would indicate that the Internet is much more cluttered with commercials than television. Since advertisers already decry commercial clutter on TV as it is now, what will happen when the two media are blended? How will viewers control their expectations regarding clutter? Will a simple A/B switch be enough to regulate the flow of commercial messaging?

Same differences

The two media primarily appeal to two distinctly different types o people. TV's index of usage among the young (18-34) is 36, the Internet is 145. Among older people (55+), TV's index is 187, the Internet is 37. The same flip-flop exists with regard t income. Among the wealthier segment ($75k+) TV indexes 71, the Internet rates a 163. Among the lower half of the income strata ($40k and below), TV gets a 120 and the Internet 44. So, their appeals are quite different. Now, put them in the same box with one remote control device and let's see what happens to generational differences of opinion in a home or even divorce rates. The one good bit of news is that heavy Internet users peak at Late News, Fringe and Night hours, when TV ratings are lowest. Maybe Intervision will just change sleeping patterns.

The medium is both messages

What about content? What will the new viewer of the dual-purpose box expect? We know that historically and currently TV viewers gravitate to the set for entertainment. Internet users split about a third, a third, a third. They want to email and receive, read and download information, and chat and shop. None of these latter functions are currently served by the mother set.

So we see a conflict brewing. The conflict will be first among viewers to decide who will dominate the new box and when. The other battlefront will be in the advertising community to try to decipher how to use a synthesized medium in a new and effective way to sell their products. Both are going to take a new kind of expertise.