I think TV online is really catching on. Especially with virtually any show available in high quality streaming.

I'm not basing that on anything I've heard. I'd just assume as they are everywhere. I'm actually quite surprised how many people still haven't heard of hulu.com

I think you pretty much nailed all the reasons, there's so much choice now in both what you watch and how you watch it that it's just not as much of an event.

If I had to choose, I'd say Tivo and the DVDs are tops, though

online and busy lives.

people work mroe hours than they use to.

DVD and online. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't watch every show live because I like a lot of shows and that inevitably means that two or more will be on at the same time. I'm more apt to wait with new shows, especially ones with poor ratings that may get canned before any resolution is reached. There's nothing more frustrating than that when it comes to TV.

This also explains why CBS' old skewing shows do so well. Old people aren't downloading, are staying home a lot more and thus aren't intentionally TIVOing stuff. Plus it helps to not have seasonal arcs where you have to watch every week, the fact that you can just jump right into an NCIS episode if you happen to be watching tv that night makes it a pleasing choice. That's also why their holdovers do so well, it's the ol' I'm comfortable, I might as well watch this show too, while younger tv viewers have their tv schedules and must-watch shows planned beforehand, and with seasonal arc shows if you're not into it, you're not gonna keep watching.

Online is the best thing ever. It is Tivo for non-tivo owners.

I didn't have a tv for a semester and I watched EVERYTHING online. It was so easy and convenient that I still watch a lot of my shows online instead because it doesn't interrupt my studies.

The sucky thing about online, assuming you're not going to illegally download shows, is that some aren't posted in a timely fashion. House is the prime example. The Big Bang Theory isn't even posted at all, which totally sucks since it was last season.

well I don't watch Big Bang Theory, and House is terrible so yeah...

NBC and ABC are great at online postings. I think that it why they saw such big drops in ratings.

House is terrible!??!!!

Sorry, but you're all wrong. Online has a negligible effect on ratings. Even DVR isn't as big a problem as people like to pretend it is.

The vast majority of illegal downloading and streaming is foreigners who wouldn't be counted in the ratings anyway. Legal downloading and streaming is tracked by the networks. If any single episode ever had one million extra viewers legally online, the press releases would be endless. There have never been any press releases like that. Because there just isn't enough watching online. Does the 18-34 demo tend to use it much more than other demos? Yes, but still not enough to account for any real percentage of the ratings that have been lost.

As for DVR, there was a study done recently that showed that 30% of DVR owners account for over 70% of DVR usage. Yes, DVRs make a dent in the ratings, but not nearly as much as people like to claim. If they did, the live+7 ratings would be much closer to what you all would expect the ratings to be than they actually are.

The reason broadcast ratings are dropping is cable, plain and simple. Sorry if this isn't the answer you want to hear, X, but it's the truth. The audience is NOT leaving TV altogether. The market share is just moving to cable. You can see this by looking at the shares when you look at the ratings. The shares are dropping as much as the ratings. If the reasons for the ratings dropping were people turning off their TVs, the shares would remain the same. People still have their TVs on during primetime, just not on any broadcast net.

jujubee likes to make the people cry.

jujubee is a bitch.

jujubee is so wrong. X FOR PREZ!!

Yes thats about it. The reason being is TV ratings have been on a steady decline for well over a decade and that was before DVD/DVR etc. So Cable is the No.1 reason, but as DVD and DVR and Internet have come along, they too have contributed to the decline.

so both Jujubee and X are correct.

Personally I dont watch any show on TV anymore. I just cant be home enough in the evenings to watch a show regularily. If I like a show i'll get on DVD. Likewise I still like watching older shows on DVD.

One final thing - TV show quality isnt as good as it was 15, 10 or even 5 years ago.

I think you underestimate illegal downloading. Sure, it's mainly foreigners, but by far not only. I think it makes a big dent. One accounting for the big decreases? No. But it cannot be neglected as a factor.

It's a multifactors-model. Cable + DVD + DVR + online donwloading (illegal because I agree about legal being not that big).

If you read ratings press releases from cable networks lately, they usually say 'x show increased 50% in total viewers and 18-49!' 'Record Ratings for the 3rd Quarter!' Even from say, The Hallmark Channel. So I would say Cable, then other media, then DVR.

Year over year, broadcast was down 3% in the first week of the season. Cable was up 13%. Any other factor is negligible.

If people were turning off their TVs during primetime, the average hours per household spent watching primetime would have sharply declined. But it's remained almost complete flat since 1990.

More importantly perhaps, is there anything network TV can do to slow the erosion down?

The Hills best rated episode (excluding repeats) is higher than Gossip Girl.

The Hills was hitting near 5 million if I remember correctly. GG is yet to cross 4 for any of its original episode.