A Wall Street Journal article Thursday reported that not only is regular television viewership dropping, so is the delayed watching of programs on a digital video recorder.
Fox TV has notched a 25 percent drop in live viewership this year and a similar drop in delayed viewing on DVR. ABC's live viewing is down 12 percent, delayed viewing is down 7 percent.
Ratings leader CBS' viewership is down 12 percent - DVR use for the network is down 10 percent.
Only the network in last place in the ratings - NBC - has shown gains in both audiences.
Television executives have argued for the last few years that the reason live viewership has been dropping is that more and more people watch the shows on a delayed basis. That argument seems to go that just as many people are watching - just doing it when they want to, not on the networks' schedule.
These figures seem to put the lie to that theory.
Bob Iger, chief executive officer of Disney (owner of ABC), blames the decline on the lack of new breakout shows - "buzzworthy," as he put it. Others blame the presidential debates and the NFL dominating nighttime programming.
For whatever reason, viewership of the traditional broadcast networks is down. It would be nice to think that it is because families are starting to read more - but that is probably unrealistic.
A more probable cause of the decline is online usage is soaring. Social sites are abuzz 24 hours a day.
It seems that a lot of people have decided their own comings and goings are more "buzzworthy" than anything on television.
* Editorials reflect the opinion of the publisher.
