We recently posted on the inevitability of disruption, making special note of the challenge to traditional broadcast media companies. Now comes word that Johnson&Johnson is holding it’s $500 million annual ad budget and Coca Cola it’s $190 million budget out of the television network upfront buys.

According to AdAge, 83% of marketers present at a March 2005 forum said they wished the upfront ad buys (with the discounts tied to buying far in advance) were moved to the calendar-year rather than the traditional May sweeps season (with the attendant puffing up of network programming to inflate ratings and ad pricing). Not many have felt they could take the risk of being frozen out of the channels they rely on for exposing their products.

The move by these two heavyweights signals another breach in the wall of traditional controls.

In a related note, Bolt Media reports that only one in four 12-34 year-old Americans can name all four broadcast networks. Favorite free time activities:

surfing the internet — 84%

hanging out with friends — 76%

watching movies — 71%

watching television — 69%

(five most watched outlets: Fox, Comedy Central, ABC, MTV, Cartoon Network)

Tying it all together, Bolt President Lou Kerner said: "We’re finally at an inflection point where advertisers are tired of spending more and more and getting less and less, particularly as it relates to youth. You’re going to see a much broader embracement of the Internet as a distribution mechanism to get their shows out there."

Now . . . What can the rest of us learn from this . . .?