Doubt the power of TV at your own risk

[Commentary] According to Nielsen—the company that spends millions of dollars each year to examine the actual television viewing habits of the American public—98 percent of people’s video time is spent with traditional television. That means on a TV set with their remote control. Not on their laptop, not on their smartphone, not on their tablet—on a television set.

This comes from actual measured viewing behavior, not from a poll. What people are actually doing is enhancing their television with more video content on a broader slate of platforms. Nielsen described Americans as “voracious video viewers” who crave “constant content” in their latest Cross-Platform Report. What we are seeing is that there are three motivating factors for a campaign to spend money on TV advertising—reach, time spent with the medium, and impact of the message. In each case, television is far and away the dominant force. Ignoring the unrivalled power of television to reach the voting audience would be a strategic mistake of epic proportions.

[Steve Lanzano is the president and CEO of TVB.]