

We have never before watched so much media, but the trend is now to watch à la carte:- I watch what I want when I want and not what and when it is imposed on me. Audiences are diminishing because of the increased division of viewing.

Throughout Europe, viewers are faced with a plethora of TV channels. It also hints at related, newer economic models. This drop in viewing could just be an anecdote that will be told in better times, but in reality it reveals a change in viewer habits which is well underway. For decades, the televised evening news has been THE meeting point for the vast majority of French families. In France the largest commercial television channel TF1 is getting stressed:- the well established 8 o clock news show which has always been a national institution, has dropped below the symbolic bar of 30% of the market share of viewers. Why you ask? Because it does what the TV does and 100 times more. European TV viewers are leaving their traditional TV set in droves and heading straight for the PC.
