Poniewozik, James with Jeanne McDonald (2004) “What do guys want” TIME, May 31, p.69-70.

Commercial television is in a quandary. Males in their teens to thirties who have a great deal of discretionary income are moving from free TV to cable and video games. Males like sex and violence. Free TV can’t give it to them without offending the FCC. On the other hand, without the draw of sex and conflict, males head elsewhere. Last year, there was a drop off of 13% in this age category of males. That is millions of dollars in ad revenue.

To attract males, the following seems to work:

Contact sports: boxing, football, WWF wrestling.
Scantily clad females in modeling shows
Talk shows with sex related topics
Stories that deal with sexual escapades.
Race car and race car driving.
Videos with music emphasizing females as sex objects
Reality shows with sex or violent conflict

There are males who like other than that listed above. However, they are the minority.

Females generally control the remote, so shows that attract both sexes like the now defunct FRIENDS are a mainstay for commercial television. However, to get to the middle ground of keeping both sexes will be a huge challenge.

Losing males is only part of the story. Commercial television continues to lose to cable. Finding a general audience in a deeply divided country is illusive and may mean that commercial may turn to “safe” cable formats of a whole night of reality shows, and another night of relatively new movies.

Another night may mean all sit-coms followed by a night of rock concerts. It is a new ball game for corporations that were born in the days of radio and turned to television in the early 50’s. The general family show meant to attract a wide audience is now on cable and is considered a niche market.

Global has become local and local has become personal. There is 57 channels and nothin’ is on said the Boss. He might be right.