The Lowest TV Ratings EVER

That's right... the fourth of July week was the lowest TV ratings ever.

Now, July is always slow, but, these levels are the lowest in recorded history. Some in the industry, of course are saying it's a blip. Others, though, blame poor content.

My thought is, could it be a minor harbinger of the "Long Tail?"

What is the Long Tail? It's the idea that there is a very large market in niche publications; publications that don't sell millions, but thousands - and through online channels, its' extremely profitable as opposed to retail where you need to make X dollars on every square foot of space you have.

I have to be honest, I am now buying print-on-demand and books online more and more because I find that the Borders and the Barnes and Nobles do not carry the material that I am looking for at the depth I am looking for. I love the bookstore experience; but save for best-sellers, my expertise has graduated beyond almost material that is available in my field and in most non-fiction pursuits.

Also, for me personally, I don't listen to the radio as much or watch TV as much - there are a few IPTV shows that I do listen or watch now that replaced previous content; especially radio. I now only listen to the terrestrial radio for NPR/WDET Morning/Evening (and I used to listen to WWJ, but now, I can find much better traffic at local.live.com as WWJ continually misses backups and traffic problems; and this site gives me real-time, accurate traffic), but I listen to KFI Tech Guy in Los Angeles, and NPR New York, and BBC World Service (as far as talk goes), all online.

The content quality is better online; it's just as easy for me to get the content; so why not listen to exactly what I want to and experiment with all kinds of content that I would never have the ability to? (To boot, the ads are not intrusive and actually, I find myself taking action on those ads more than over-the-air radio).

p.s.- Also, according to Nielsen, podcasting is more popular than blogging. Seems like that media evolution is getting traction, eh?