A new Nielsen Media Research Report shows that television’s popularity is increasing despite new alternative entrances to the market including the Apple iPod, cell phones, and streaming video. The suprising finding of this study was that teenage girls (12-17) showed the largest increase in per day viewing at 6% more than 2004-2005. Increases amongst the teenage girls were particularily high during the early morning hours of 6:00am - 9:00am and peaked at 11:30pm - 2:00am. Goes to show you that our culture is changing and many people’s days are getting longer than ever for our youth.

Business Week brought up a good point by probing the question “What’s really new about this Fall’s television lineup?” Struggling networks need to ask themselves not what they are doing wrong but what they should be researching. I’m sure if I was a programming executive for NBC, I would be looking at this latest report from Nielsen.

Teens are up at the wee hours of 11:30pm - 2:00am watching shows like Family Guy, Futurama, and the Adult Swim lineup on the Cartoon Network which air shows between these hours. Young girls also show keen interest in shows like Grey’s Anatomy, an adult soap opera with teen appeal (aka, dreamy guys). My network advice? Add more satirical animated shows in the early morning or late at night around your local news spots to boost ratings for this increasing market while seeking out new sponsors for young girls looking for smart animated shows or teen-like soap shows. Laguna Beach anyone?