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control over its messages to consumers (and therefore the profits), Alloy’s newest frontier is
Web series. Its first, Private, had nearly 14 million hits. Further Web series, including the
current Wendy, have followed. This shift is important. According to Businessweek:
“On the Web, Alloy hopes to do what it can’t on television or in film: control the content,
the distribution, and the advertising sales, and thus the profits, for its shows. If all goes
according to plan, Alloy could be a digital studio and broadcaster in one. It could own the
teenage girl, and maybe even the holy grail of demographics, prized for its spendthrift,
trendsetting ways: the 18– to 34-year-old woman.” (Berfield, Susan. “Alloy Wants to Own
Teenage Girls,” Bloomberg Businessweek. October 14, 2010. Retrieved from:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010–10–14/alloy–wants–to–own–teenage–girls.)
• A 2015 study by Common Sense Media found that “on any given day in this country, tweens
(8– to 12-year-olds) spend an average of about six hours (5:55) and teens (13- to 18-year–
olds) spend about nine hours (8:56) with media—outside of school or homework—including
TV, video games, social media, the Internet, print, and music.” Here are some of the specific
findings:
• “Despite the variety of new media activities available to them, watching TV and listening
to music dominate young people’s media diets.” Among thirteen-to eighteen–year-olds, 67
percent listen to music every day, and more than half watch TV every day. Youths in the
United States spend, on average, about two and a half hours a day watching videos (TV,
DVD, online) and more than an hour a day playing electronic games. Older youth (thirteen-
to eighteen–year-olds) listen to music almost two hours per day and use social media more
than an hour per day. “Even among teens, social media use still lags behind traditional media
use.”