There’s Bugger All on TV … again.

We’re big supporters of Bob Hoffman at Madclarity. We love his distaste for bullshit. He works with facts … it probably comes from his science background … rare in advertising people.

He has long questioned the real effectiveness of Online advertising and especially Social advertising to build brands. But he has also highlighted the drops in TV audiences in the US.

In Australia it’s just as bad. Audiences have dropped by more than ten per cent over the past two years. An average peak time show on the three major stations now has an audience of less than 4 ratings.

Marketers have enjoyed a magic fifty or sixty years on TV. And the TV networks had a good time too. But now all efforts to produce great programming have just about disappeared. And marketers are left to spend their money on mostly rubbish programmes.

Over the past 15 years, as streaming has moved from teens illegally downloading to 70 year-olds watching quality drama Netflix, the traditional TV stations have responded with … well … nothing.

There have been a few tech advances. But, it’s still a pain in the arse to watch ‘free’ TV on the iPhone. I can watch Netflix by clicking on the app. Once. Watching a Channel Nine programme through Freeview requires three clicks just to get to the station’s bloody log-in.

But the real problem is quality. Netflix is producing and running some great series. Broadcast TV is the same as it was thirty years ago.

No … that’s not right … it’s much worse than it was thirty years ago.

Network executives may well privately bemoan the on-going disappearance of viewers, especially the younger ones, believing that it’s a tech thing and a trend thing. But what would you rather watch – Dance Boss, Dating Naked and Pointless … or Stranger Things, Breaking Bad and Ozark?

Maybe if there was something decent to watch on the Telly then people wouldn’t be running quite so fast for the Netflix button.

And if the TV network execs are worried about where the money has gone, just wait until Netflix starts taking ads.