(Image: Shutterstock/BrAt82)

There’s a really interesting piece in the The i Paper from Adam Sherwin on the prospect of turning off the Freeview signal and an interview with Sarah Cronin-Stanley the co owner of Talking Pictures TV Ltd – you can read the article here

It feels like another example of legacy broadcasters making decisions that risk undermining one of their biggest strengths.

At Mostly Media, we see every day that the 65+ audience is thriving on Freeview. Those channels consistently deliver larger audiences than many of their Sky equivalents, making them incredibly valuable for our clients, not just for reach, but for driving incremental sales. The demographic with the highest disposable income is, after all, the grey market (not sexy I know, but they have bundles of cash to spend!)

Not everyone wants—or needs—to pay for subscription TV.

And let’s be honest, most businesses aren’t selling exclusively to 16–44 year olds, living in cities, playing padel and drinking oat milk lattes.

Of course, viewing habits are changing, and the industry has to evolve. But I do wonder how much of this change is being driven by genuine consumer demand, and how much is being forced through because it suits the commercial interests of broadcasters and platforms.

Linear TV will continue to evolve, but accelerating its decline before audiences are ready doesn’t feel like serving viewers. It feels like serving the businesses that want to replace the revenue it still generates.

Credit: Stu Smith, MD