Online video sites are seeing huge jumps in traffic from the US this fall and speculation is that the writer's strike is driving the surge. YouTube's numbers are up and new comer, Crackle, has seen it's numbers double since the strike began. "That is greater growth than you would normally see in such a short period and the strike could be a possible factor," Nielsen analyst Alex Burmaster is quoted as saying in this BBC article. Other things to consider are a 9% increase in high-speed connections at home in the US, where 54% of adults report having high-speed. I'm thinking that the Television networks had better take notice, as TV has already fallen out of favour with the younger crowd. I'd estimate that my teens already spend much more time on the PC than they do watching television, while it's generally on it usually is only background noise... their attention is primarily on the computer monitor. A prolonged strike may do irreversible harm to what is suspect are already dwindling ratings within the under 30 demographic.
