Brazilians turn off the TV. Where are they? On the web.
In a decade, one in four Brazilians has switched from television to other forms of leisure or information. Due to its inclusive and freedom-oriented characteristics, the internet is the preferred location for this audience. And broadcasters, still stuck in outdated models, only contribute to this trend.
Heberth Xavier_247 - Maria das Graças Meneghel is a Brazilian TV presenter. She became famous by the nickname Xuxa. She was very successful with her show Xou da Xuxa in the second half of the 80s, when she was called "Queen" by the children's audience.
Sílvio de Abreu is a renowned author of Brazilian telenovelas. He became famous for the crime drama style and humor of his works, among which Guerra dos Sexos, Rainha da Sucata, and A Próxima Vítima stand out.
Of course, any Brazilian knows the two characters mentioned above. But there's something new about the enormous influence that broadcast television exerts on the minds of Brazilians. Xuxa's current program airs on Saturdays on the still-powerful Rede Globo and struggles with low ratings. Her boss forced her to change the director of TV Xuxa at the end of last year. The Queen (former?) even complained: "It's not just me who's losing audience, but Globo as a whole." Silvio de Abreu had success with Passione, a telenovela on the same channel last year. But nothing compares to his past successes. "Today, telenovelas don't interest people like they used to," he recently said.
Every day, more and more Brazilians are turning off the TV. They're switching to video games, DVDs, but mainly to the internet. Phenomena like YouTube are already posing a threat to major broadcasters. As Brasil 247 has already shown, the barriers to entry for content creators are much lower than on television – and 247 itself is an example of this in the news field. In the audiovisual sector, YouTube has allocated US$100 million to invest in content creators capable of generating an audience.
This year alone, free-to-air TV has lost 7% of televisions tuned in compared to last year - in 2011, between 7 am and midnight, 42,9% of televisions were tuned to some channel. Today, that percentage has fallen to 39,9%.
There is no reason to imagine that this decline will cease. In a decade, free-to-air TV has lost almost 25% of its audience – to understand even better, one in four of your friends has switched from TV to another type of entertainment. They probably went to what Ibope calls "OC" and "OA" (other channels and other devices).
The internet dominates among those who are 'OC' and 'OA'. This Tuesday, Ibope Online published a new survey on web usage in Brazil. There are already 80 million internet users in the country, spread across homes, offices, schools, internet cafes…
The new figure is from the last quarter of 2011 and shows a 2% increase compared to the previous three months. This means that, while you are reading this text, the number of internet users is certainly already higher – compared to 2009, for example, the growth was an impressive 19%.
Another fact: research by Forrester shows that Brazilians spend three times more time on the web than watching TV. On average, during the week, 23,8 hours are spent online, while only 6,2 hours are spent watching television.
There are a really large number of reasons that explain the decline of TV and its rapid, safe, and gradual replacement by the World Wide Web. One of them is highlighted by Ibope Online's own research. In two years, the number of internet users with access to speeds greater than 2 Mbps grew by more than 300%. These are people who have broadband and who, therefore, spend almost all their time plugged into the web.
There are other reasons that are just as, or even more, impactful: the improvement in living conditions in the country, with low unemployment and, above all, the emergence of a new consumer market. With more money in the hands of more people, the number of Brazilians in restaurants, cinemas, and on the internet potentially increases, whether on desktop computers, new tablets, or smartphones.
It's no coincidence that the world's internet champions are paying close attention to the Brazilian market. Orkut, which has seen better days here, still attracts around 35 million unique visitors per month. Mark Zuckerberg's champion Facebook has practically tripled its number of hits in a year, surpassing its rival Orkut, from Google, and is already approaching 40 million visitors per month.
There's another reason, a bit subjective but not entirely. Let's be honest: broadcast television programming is becoming increasingly repetitive. Comedy shows that offered some novelty in recent years, like Pânico and CQC, have an average audience rating of 10 points. Good for their networks, but almost nothing compared to the times when Os Trapalhões brought Brazilian families together on Sunday nights. Soap operas? Remakes are more common today (Guerra dos Sexos, by Sílvio de Abreu, is coming soon), revealing a desperate attempt to attract viewers. But they can't – nor could they – come close to the ratings of the past. As for Big Brother Brasil, with the same attractive women, the same muscular men, the guy dressed as a cowboy… – the formula still gets viewers, but it shows clear signs of wear and tear.
Even pay TV doesn't help much, since it's practically controlled by the same owners as the free-to-air channels. Perhaps for that very reason, fearing an even greater exodus from their prized possession, they still charge a high price, embedded in rather inflexible packages.
Television news programs, with very rare exceptions, follow the same pattern, with little plurality of opinions. This is the exact opposite of what happens with the internet and its healthy "ideological anarchy"...
Is it really surprising what's been happening with Brazilian free-to-air television?