I was listening to Talking Politics over the weekend while they were discussing the societal effects of the aging population and the fact that the "baby boomers" of the 1940s and 50s are now at or approaching retirement age. You've probably heard the statistics before, but there'll soon be more old people, holding more of the country's wealth than at any time before.

They live longer, are much more active than they were even 20 years ago, and are a powerful force in the economy. Because of the times they've lived through, they have high expectations of quality of life, and not only are they more likely to vote, they're more likely to change who they vote for than other groups, making them key to election campaigns. So I wondered: "how will all this affect TV output in years to come?"

TV tends to have a "young" feeling about it much of the time. I'm not talking about kids' TV, which is obviously intended to be young, but rather that dramas, with some notable exceptions, concentrate on young (or at most middle-aged) concerns, special interest programmes ignore the elderly and any programming that is reliant on advertising revenue always has to chase after the magic youth demographic.

But is that a realistic approach in the world to which we're heading, where there are more people over 50 than there are under 20? Where the "grey pound" concentration of wealth into those people who retire with the luxury of final-salary pensions and no mortgage means it's this demographic that has the greatest disposable income. And where clearly, being retired, the oldies have more time on their hands and therefore more time to watch the telly.

Will they even be watching the telly, though? For our parents' (or grandparents') generation, vegetating in front of the gogglebox was pretty much all that was open to them. But remember I said this baby boomer generation is more active for longer. How many times have you heard that 60 is the new 40? So rather than staying at home watching day time, they're out gardening, water-skiing or hot air ballooning. They're fit, relatively well-off and with time on their hands. TV will be the last thing on their minds.

A third alternative is that actually, when it comes to entertainment, there's not that much difference between the ages. OK older people may not be into NutsTV or base jumping, but for more traditional output such as drama, quiz shows and documentaries surely all that matters is that it's entertaining, not how old the people are in it?

What do you think?