Mike and Morley

The launch of "Pivot" and plans to launch other millennial-oriented cable networks, such as "Revolt and Fusion," is the strongest signal yet that the traditional TV networks have lost their way in trying to appeal to America’s largest and most diverse generation (born 1982-2003). The new channels are trying to connect to millennials by capturing the generation’s “change the world for the better” attitude or simply their music or ethnic identity, all of which are better ideas than the type of programming broadcast networks have deployed in a failed attempt to win eyeballs from a generation with a notoriously fickle attention span. Broadcast networks better find the answer soon or they are likely to end up becoming what CBS President Leslie Moonves called “bastard television,” the progeny no one wishes to acknowledge.

The fundamental disconnect between network TV and its potential millennial viewers is not the usual suspect, technology. Yes, millennials are devoted to social media and have none of the love of broadcast television that Boomers acquired in their youth, or even the type of affinity Xers have for cable TV that started when they were teenagers demanding, “I want my MTV.” According to leading communications research and consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates, Xers and Boomers will engage in 8.4 and 7.2 non-TV activities  during prime-time hours, while millennials will engage in 10.4 activities. Millennials are much more likely to go online, visit a social network, listen to or play music, play games or just socialize out of the house and away from the TV box when networks most want them to pay attention to their programming. But those behaviors are an indication of how poor the programming is, not the root cause of the problem.

httpv://youtu.be/i9QIZHr0tmw

There are too many cynical members of Generation X who don’t begin to understand millennials, if they even try, making programming decisions for the networks that are being greenlighted by even more clueless Boomers. The result are network bombs like the American version of “Kath & Kim,” the ill-fated “My Generation,” and the most recent ratings victim, “How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life).” These programs suffered from casting popular Gen X actors, who didn’t know how to behave as millennials, in plots that substituted stereotypes from Generation X’s youth for character development and were as out of touch with the current experiences of millennials as smart phones are from clamshell cell phones.

Millennials are an optimistic, collaborative generation that believe in social rules and try and live by them. Teenage smoking rates are now the lowest ever recorded. From 1993 to 2010, the gun homicide rate in America declined 65% for those ages 12 to 17, the largest percentage decrease among all age groups. Yet older generations in charge of creating programs designed to appeal to this age group continue to broadcast stories about kids flaunting the rules, getting in trouble with the law, and engaging in the types of behavior that X-ers and Boomers did when they were young. But that is not the way millennials live.

There are of course some bright spots in this dark landscape, such as much of the Disney Family Channel’s programming, or shows like “Modern Family” and “Parenthood” that are very good at capturing intergenerational differences, even if their portrayal of millennials still has a whiff of Generation X in it. But these exceptions merely prove the general rule that without a greater understanding of the unique characteristics of the millennial generation, network television can expect its ratings to go the way of Gen X-oriented networks like Fox, leading to a future where, to quote NBC Entertainment’s Chairman, “flat is the new up.” Or worse.

Millennials (born between 1982-2003), need to share their experiences constantly. This behavior – responsible for the explosive growth in social media since the first Millennials became teenagers – presents a unique challenge to the television industry and the one-to-many broadcast technology on which it is based. Since this generation will dominate the key 18-49 TV ratings demographic for the rest of this decade and beyond, finding a solution to this technological puzzle will determine whether television is able to retain its popularity as the preeminent source for entertainment or whether it fades, as radio has, into a medium relegated to niche applications and limited markets.
In order to be successful with Millennials, television will need to become more like the concerts and theme parks that provide Millennials with the type of social experience the generation craves. By creating a space that Millennials can enjoy immediately and personally with those who join them at the event, as well as while tweeting about it on their smart phones to hundreds more of their friends and followers, concert promoters such as Live Nation and theme park owners like Disney have found a way to maximize the revenue generated from the content that they fully control in such venues.

Sports and final episodes of reality or drama programs are currently the closest television programming comes to this type of widely shared event. Without much promotional support initially, the notion of encouraging fan participation through live reactions via social media has become increasingly commonplace. The potential of this approach was demonstrated by the chart-busting ratings received by NBC’s broadcast of the London Olympics, which fully embraced social media in its coverage of the Games. But that is just the beginning of what networks will need to do to make all their programs “Event TV.”

Not surprisingly, the most cutting-edge deployments of this new strategy are coming from those distributors, such as Netflix and YouTube, which are completely disconnected from the tether of broadcast technology. By encouraging such social uses of highly polished productions as “binge TV” viewing or audience determination of plot development, these non-traditional buyers of video content are offering new ways to connect with Millennials.

But the keys to this magical money kingdom are actually held by companies not currently thought of as natural partners by those in the television industry.  Google, Facebook, and other social media providers, along with device distributors such as Apple and Amazon, are seeking to lock their customers into the use of their proprietary cloud services. The ultimate goal of these companies in creating branded “personal content clouds” is to offer an entertainment experience where  each person’s music, movies, television shows, books, video clips, photographs and more can be mixed and mashed up to create a concert or amusement park ride tailored to each customer’s individual preferences are shared in real time with whoever they like. The first “traditional” television network which recognizes the potential of this new form of entertainment by partnering with one of the major players in personal databases and bringing that network’s programming into the cloud service provider’s  “theme park” will gain a first-mover advantage in this new marketplace.

The determination of Millennials to share everything is creating a world where social media will drive broadcast media. Even though television executives have traditionally been reluctant to give up their control over content, it’s time for them to recognize reality and partner with those who will control a new world of entertainment in the Millennial era.

Originally published
at Brief