With more young adults tuning out this TV season, the industry is confronting a generation of viewers who say they won’t pay the typical $75 monthly cable or satellite bill. Nielsen (NLSN), whose TV ratings influence ad rates, in May cut the estimated number of U.S. TV households by 1 percent, to 114.7 million, the first drop since 1990. College towns such as Boston, Madison, Wisc., and Austin, Tex., posted some of the biggest declines.
It’s also because of the growing appetite for Internet-delivered TV programming among younger viewers. To many of them, there’s no difference between watching Gossip Girl online or on the tube, says David F. Poltrack, chief research officer at CBS (CBS). College-age audiences are relying more on laptops than TVs to watch favorite shows...
When students watch sports, however, increasingly they gather in common rooms with TVs, Poltrack says.
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