According to a recent survey by global tech provider, ASUS, among 18-to-34 year olds in the US, TV as the primary medium for entertainment is down from 40% to 21%. At the same time, those who cannot live without their smartphones is up from 22% to 50%.
This telling trend is set to spur change all over the globe, including South Africa. Sifiso Nhlapo, Marketing Specialist of ASUS South Africa, believes that South Africa’s millennials are already moving away from traditional channels of entertainment. This places more pressure on TV channels to fight against future obsolescence.
Changing media landscape
The stats reflect a changing media landscape with 91% of South African internet users owning a smartphone, while 81% access the World Wide Web primarily through their smartphones. The Cosmopolitan Millennials Survey indicated that 93% of this new generation use smartphones and are active across a number of online platforms: 59% Facebook; 55% WhatsApp; 27% Twitter; 26% YouTube; 25% Instagram; 21% Pinterest.
“Smart mobile devices mean that information is available almost instantaneously. Tech savvy Millennials now only have to press a few keys to be updated on what they care about and brands they are loyal to. Streaming from devices has also allowed them to see their favourite artists from around the world live. The ease with which Millennials are able to access information has meant that they are becoming increasingly less dependent on mediums such as TV and radio. As such, scheduled programming will continue to struggle to match the speed needed to satisfy Millennials and their generational successors,” says Nhlapo.
Competing devices
In South Africa, mobile devices are competing side by side with traditional media forms, such as TV. The 2014 AMPS Report suggests that from 2009 mobile phones overtook television and radio to be the most prevalent mass media in the country. “TV has to maintain its relevance in a world that is fast-moving. At present, moving content onto smaller more mobile devices is one way TV looks to ride the trend, with the DSTV drifter being one such example.”
Device innovation has also meant that entertainment through a mobile device is easier to watch and equal in experience to “watching the telly,” with launches such as the ZenFone 2 etc hitting South African shores. However, the future of TV must be viewed through the lens of a changing generation. “I think the need for traditional forms will slowly fade, although broadcasters will need to seek new and mobile methods to attracting audiences. In the meantime the traditional form of entertainment continues to exist (for a somewhat unknown period) within the age of instant gratification,” concludes Nhlapo.