New numbers from Nielsen Media Research show that the number of TV households in the U.S. has dropped.
Nielsen reports its preliminary estimate of the "TV Household Universe" is 114.7 million households, down from the previous year's 115.9 million. It cites the digital transition, the economy and the move of TV programming to the Internet as reasons for the downward shift.
Ultimately, it's a measure of a the dramatic shift that's hitting all media, electronic and otherwise. It's a diffusion of media outlets from traditional sources: print, radio and TV, to the endless frontier that we call the Internet.
Especially among younger media consumers – the first to drop land-line telephones altogether – there are other ways to "watch."
From laptops to smart phones to iPads, there are alternatives to a traditional TV.
While nothing beats a large-screen HD television, an increasing number of alternatives are part of the ongoing media evolution.
Changes for Sirius/XM subscribers: If you're a satellite radio listener, your channel lineup is different today as the subscription radio service shuffles things. You can get new channel lineups at the Web site.
On TV: It's official, CBS has named "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley as the replacement for the departing Katie Couric as anchor of the "CBS Evening News." A few years ago, that would have been huge news. These days, not so much.
- Tom Durian is the new morning co-anchor on Channel 58, joining Jennifer Tomazic from 5 to 7 a.m. weekdays. He comes from KHQ-TV in Spokane, Wash., where he was weekend anchor. Stephanie Brown moves to reporting for the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts.
- Channel 4 has picked up Rob Koebel as a new investigative reporter from WFTX-TV, the Fox affiliate in Fort Myers/Naples Fla. He was lead investigative reporter at the Journal Broadcast Group sister station. He starts May 13.
- CBS has snared the first interview with the president following Sunday's raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. It will be taped today, but won't air until Sunday's "60 Minutes."
- David Boreanz has tweeted that there will be a seventh season of Fox's "Bones." Fox has officially confirmed the news.
- Comedy Central is re-running two Osama Bin Laden-themed episodes of "South Park" at 8 tonight.
- Lifetime has ordered new seasons of "Army Wives" and "Drop Dead Diva." Also expect a "Project Runway All Stars" next season.
Chatting about radio: The Brew City Radio forum has shut down, ending years of online bickering between proponents of Milwaukee's two sports/talk stations. Most of the comments were uninformed and frequently childish, but every once in a while, somebody would actually drop news, such as a format change.
Frankly, such sites have become something of an anachronism, in the age of Facebook and Twitter. But there is a small group of people who apparently want to argue about radio.
One of the few serious participants in the site, sincere radio enthusiast Jeremy Andrews, has launched Milwaukee Media as an alternative. Let's hope he can keep the discussions on point.
There's also this Wisconsin radio discussion forum.
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
