Considering population growth. The advent of 2+ TVs inside homes, 100s of channels, it is not surprising that TV Overall Audience is up.

However, Ars Technica reports:

This situation led to an unintentionally amusing audience question at a New York conference last week on the future of television. An audience member was confused about how viewership could be up but ad revenue could be significantly reduced; top network execs patiently explained that just having eyeballs wasn't much good in a major economic downturn. If advertisers don't have the budget to buy, it doesn't matter if your network reaches two billion people a night. (The lesson could also be applied to any web startup concentrating only on eyeballs, as though users automatically equal revenue.)

arstechnica.com

Ummmm... did a "TOP" TV executive really say "that just having eyeballs wasn't much good in a major economic downturn." Please, if this logic comes from "top executives" no wonder media companies are struggling. The fact is MORE TV programming is being watched, but LESS people are watching YOUR show. Its been like this for a bloody decade! The present economic downturn has little to do with it.

The top TV program today would never have cracked the top 30 in the 1980s or much of the 90s.

The trick is not waiting for the "economy to improve'. The market has changed we need to learn how to capture MORE money from a SMALLER audience.