by Jean-Yves Le Moine, published on 22.09.2009

One of the great problems of television today is the ageing of its audience. Some of its detractors even say that it will die off with the last viewers. Of course, many young people still watch a lot of television, too much some parents might think, but it’s a proven fact that those we call “digital natives” are increasingly leaving it behind. Similarly, the under 40 group doesn’t look at it the same way they did a few years ago..

For TV broadcasters, the best, if not the only way, to adapt to these new uses so far, is to offer catch up TV! But this offer alone is a very partial answer to the disaffection of the youth.

Transmedia can be an important opportunity for the future of television. Internet and mobile phones are the most ubiquitous platforms for media consumption in youth usage.

A transmedia universe has several entranceways. The web and mobile entrances, the Internet’s participative culture, all are likely to get young people to get interested in a transmedia universe. If they are hooked into this universe, this can be a way of bringing them back to television for important episodes of the ongoing transmedia story.

Of course, many young people want to have access to these images whenever they want, wherever they want and VOD seems to be the adequate model for that. But the de-linearization of a transmedia story can also include some mandatory meeting points in front of the Television, real events that can again, gather large audience numbers in front of the TV screen. One example would be series where the fans wouldn’t miss the series’ last episode for anything in the world.

The transmedia concept, with fans circulating between media in the same universe, could be perceived as an editorial way of creating a unifying event in front of the TV.