Are broadcasters the new publishers?

I was on a panel yesterday at Osbourne & Clarke's annual Interactive Entertainment event, a very cosy thing stuffed with CEO types, so lots of strategic talk. Chatham House rules too, so lots of honesty, which made it superb.

At one point in the discussion I threw up the stat that TV is ageing - average age 57 or so - and that this is a bad thing for TV. Nicholas Lovell shot back that the average age of a gamer is - something like? - 43, and on we went. I didn't have the speedy-brain moment to dig into why this is important, however: while the average age of a tv-watcher is 57, the mode is probably only about 55. Most telly is watched by over-55s, and by an extraordinary amount: 35+h plus a week, compared to sub-15 for under 16s. Plus the 55+ group is numerous, and the under-16s less so. Skew.

For games, the opposite in consumption pattern is probably true. I say probably, because I'd love to see data here, but we do know that committed gaming tends to be done by the young, and/or by folks at lunchtime/ weekends, and the retired. Employed people and parents have less time to play, and their profile is thusly a bit different. At a guess, I would say while the average age of a gamer is 43, the time-spent will be the flip of TV: most gameplay by hours per week is done by younger audiences.

It's for this reason that broadcasters should always be interested in games: if they lose out reaching their younger audiences, will those people care about them as they get older? If they have a public service remit to reach target audiences with relevant material, in younger folks games are as relevant - if not often more so - than TV.

Comments

[Kim Pallister]

according to the ESA, average gamer is 37.
http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp

It's not perfect data, and specific to US, but it's better than most.

That's a nice round 20 years different than your 57 age. However, whether it's 14 years or 20 years, that's a non-trivial shift either way. Advertisers taking note would, well, take note.

BTW, according to this it's 51 (not 57) in the US at least for the major broadcast networks:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/16/broadcast-tv-audience-agi_n_683009.html

[Kim Pallister]

ooh... more interesting:

>For games, the opposite in consumption pattern is probably true. I say probably, because I'd love to see data here, but we do know that committed gaming tends to be done by the young

Those ESA reports actually show the average gamer age moving along w time:
2006: 33
2007: 35
2008: 35
2009 (report link broken)
2010: 37

Now, small sample to be sure, and one theory says "non-gamers getting older, and gamers following in behind", but if you think about it, the average age in this case should just increment by one EVERY TWO YEARS.

Elsewhere I've heard claims suggesting that younger folk are gaming less, as they watching TV less, and are instead interacting w facebook, etc, as entertainment. But I have yet to see data supporting this.

[Tony]

Where did you get the 57 stat for TV viewers? is that UK? meant to ask you but got distract by the SBDs being released in front of me by a distinguished member of the UK's games industry.

Kim makes an interesting point with the TV to Games to Facebook - in that every generation picks up new tech quicker and with more enthusiasm that the previous one (Im sticking with CB radio) I wonder if there is a tech exhaustion index - at which age are we more likely to switch off from new tech and stick to what we know...