Our Attention Spans Are Still Long

While we push more and more for the 140 character Twitter nation, an equal amount of research is telling us consumers -- regardless of age group -- are seeing long-form content. Both Hulu and iTunes are doing brisk business in the unedited hour and half-hour traditional episode content.

It makes sense. YouTube is fun for about 30 seconds of cute kitty cat stuff, but what we really want to sit down with is traditional fare.

There is more on this from the NAB's super session on generational viewing habits, but the take-away is dedicated users -- read, your college fans -- like the full coach's show more than the cut-ups. Recruits, maybe different, but for now, consider looking into that traditional time frame of 30 minutes for your on-line productions -- even though you don't have the lock-in of broadcast TV's 28:30.

Part of the key is mobile TV. HDTV and digital might of killed off every old Sony Watchman and portable camping b&w 4x3 unit, but that didn't stop us from wanting to have over-the-air in our hands. It comes through the smart phone -- as one presenter, Ed Moran, noted in the pre-event press in NAB Daily:

"The other day waiting for some friends at a resturant, I pulled out my iPhone and watched the first 10 minutes of an old Star Trek episode."

Or, as my director of new media did, walk around the building keeping up with the Masters.