With all the talk about programmatic ad buying, native advertising and mobile-first strategies, I was surprised to see a recent study that television is still the most effective advertising medium. OK, so the study was conducted by Turner Broadcasting (along with Horizon Media), but they partnered with MarketShare, a mega-detailed analytics company.

They measured critical key performance indicators, like sales and new accounts, and found that TV was the most efficient. In fact, TV has maintained its effectiveness at driving KPIs over the last five years, which is like 100 years in digital. Think about it, five years ago Netflix was basically a streaming service, there weren’t a ton of smart TVs and not everyone carried a tablet.

But that leads me to a question: Is the research skewed because of the changes in digital? While this research touted TV as, “The giant megaphone to get your message out,” I can’t help but think of my 20-year-old son “watching” TV with us as he stays glued to his phone, flipping through videos on Break.com. Sure, when we’re watching a movie, he’s totally focused on the 42-inch screen that sits in our humble living room. But you know what’s missing from movies? TV commercials.

Is the research skewed because of the number of older people still around? Those who grew up in front of the boob tube and have little consideration for the third screen? Will TV still be King of KPIs as this demographic fades away and is replaced by the 20-year-olds sitting in front of the TV not watching it? Like everything, change is inevitable. But at least for now, the good ol’ TV commercial still stands proud.