I promise I tried to find SOMETHING sports to write about this morning. Alas. I can’t hate-fuck the Phillies with my fingers, so I’ll just bring you this bit from NBC 10 vice president of news Anzio Williams, who spoke to Philly.com about his station coming in number one in the 11 p.m. newscast in the 25-54 demo, beating Action News for the first time since 2004. Here’s Williams talking about millennial viewing habits:

“We know that a lot of folks don’t have TVs,” he said. “I talk to a lot of folks, 30 and under, who don’t have a TV in the house.”

That’s why, he said, “we have to be in this social media space…so that when they do turn on that TV, they already have a brand relationship.”

I actually like the NBC 10 news broadcasts. My wife grew up in an NBC household watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from New York – which was a big point of contention around the holidays and almost cost us our marriage – and endured long enough to switch me over from ABC and Action News. So I’ll admit that NBC 10’s local newscasts, as far as local newscasts go, are pretty good.

HOWEVER, this quote from Williams, without further context, is really stupid.

First off, he seems to be concluding that young people who don’t have TVs will eventually get one. I’m pretty sure most people sans boob tube don’t have them because they don’t want or need them, not because they just haven’t gotten around to getting one yet. More likely– when young people say they don’t have TVs, they usually mean they don’t get cable. Most people have a large screen on which they watch video content. The notion that #millennials who currently don’t watch local news will eventually start doing so is laughable. Newsflash, news VP: THEY’RE NOT TURNING ON THE TV. Like sports networks and ESPN, local news needs to figure out a way to monetize outside of their traditional broadcast. Most of the local stations – NBC 10 included – do a great job of making content available online. But if they’re going to survive in the long-term, that content has to be self-supporting. They can’t just wait for young people to come around on that whole TV thing.