What Teenagers Want to Watch – How About MyNetworkTV Mobile?

Authored by Jay Baage on September 15, 2006 - 9:58am.

With all these new media options out there, it might come as a surprise that teenagers are watching a lot more TV so far this year, as compared to last year. Ratings are up 14% in the age group 12-17. What are they watching? On the networks, Fox was first with a 2.3 rating, with shows such as The O. C. and Prison Break. Next was NBC with a 1.6, while ABC was third with a 1.4 for the week that ended Sept. 10. The top three cable shows were: 1. "Flavor of Love 2" (VH1); 2. "WWE Entertainment" (USA); and 3. "Laguna Beach" (MTV).

What do we gather from this? Indeed the teen audience is spending more time online at sites like MySpace and YouTube, but they are multitasking. Television, both network and cable, is still a very important medium to them.

Since Fox is the number one network with teenagers right now, and is also in control of their favorite website MySpace, we would think that Fox’s owner News Corp would bring teenage appeal to its new television network MyNetworkTV.

MyNetworkTV, which recently debuted, is taking a fresh approach to programming. Their prime time is inspired by telenovelas, a form of daily soaps that are so popular in Latin America, and many other regions of the western world, that they have been called the TV equivalent of soccer. But neither teens nor a large chunk of any other age group tuned in for MyNetworkTV’s debut the other week, which launched with shows like "Fashion House," featuring Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, and "Desire," starring Sofia Milos.

I don’t think that tuning in every weeknight for 13 weeks for a telenovela is the problem, as some critics indicate. American viewers have been heavy consumers of television for years - teenagers accept this as normal and respond by multitasking and timeshifting programming.

There are other reasons that ratings from the week of Sept. 4, were not great, especially considering that, outside of Fox, the competition was predominantly repeats. Demographically, Desire averaged a 0.4 rating among adults 18-49 and a 0.5 among adults 25-54, with Fashion House at a 0.5 in both demos.

The problem is that I think that viewers just don't get MyNetworkTV's programming approach.

Fox needs to put some major PR & marketing muscle behing MyNetworkTV and take a whole new approach to attracting viewers, especially young ones. The possibilities are endless. For example, I think that telenovelas is one of the TV genres that would most easily translate into popular mobile TV and video. The consumer can enjoy them like a book on the subway. Whereas a movie is really made to be watched in one sitting, telenovelas can be stopped and picked up at any time. There is a constancy in both character and setting that explains a good part of the genre’s success through the years. With so little change, and little in the way of back stories, it's all the much easier to jump into. It doesn't demand the attention spans of shows with long, winding storylines, and you don’t need a major sound system or a large screen to enjoy it.

Now excuse me, while I catch up on my favorite mobinovela.

Related Links:
http://www.mynetworktv.com