Generation Y has already upset plenty of media businesses with its unconventional consuming habits. Another sector may be about to get smacked—cable and satellite television. Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC, made that call in his dinner speech for a group of chief marketing officers last night. The dinner was part of a conference in Chicago sponsored by Bloomberg Businessweek.
People in their 20s and younger no longer buy print newspapers, music CDs, land-line phones or watches, Cole noted. (I don’t think they listen to over-the-air radio, either.) Now, Cole said his research has detected that they’re not signing up for cable or satellite TV like prior generations. Instead, they’re watching video on laptops or even their cell phones.
Cole also predicted that most newspapers have just five more years before they’re killed by the Internet. (Cue up Ziggy Stardust.) A handful will survive: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Washington Post. Women’s magazines will live on, too, since readers buy them as much for the ads as the editorial content. He didn’t give odds for us.
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