When 46% Of The CBS TV Audience Watch Their Shows Online, You Know The World Is Changing

I’m sort of a statistics geek. I love hearing crazy things like 46% of CBS‘ TV audience watch the network’s shows online. That was the big headline from MediaWeek on Monday with their news item, CBS: 46% of TV Audience Watch Network’s Shows Online.

Here’s what they claim is going on:

"According to a new report issued by CBS Interactive, less than half of the network’s online audience (46 percent) primarily views their favorite shows online, and most say that the wide availability of these shows across the Internet does not impact their TV viewing. In fact, 35 percent of the nearly 50,000 streamers survey by researcher Magid Media Labs on behalf of CBS reported that they are more likely to view shows on the network as a result of having been exposed to content on the Web."

If I’m reading this right, the Web is not stealing audience away from TV, but rather helping them to build it. I would think that this is exactly what a strong integrated mass media play should do.

"Online viewing also appears to be driving down CBS’ new median age. While the network draws the oldest average audience on TV—54, according to a recent report issued by Magna Global USA—the median age of CBS’ streaming audience is 38, according to Magid."

So, on top of this, they’re also opening up their consumer base to more and more people (of a younger demographic) while supporting the common battle-cry of new media people (like me) that by opening up their content and making it more readily available to those who want it (when they want it on their own terms) is growing their ratings both online and on-air.