From Hollywood Reporter:
Every season premiere Thursday night drew a lower rating than last fall, as returning favorites such as ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” CBS’ “Survivor” and NBC’s “The Office” tripped across the board.
The path away from broadcast television’s ability to deliver massive audience is firmly underfoot. With the exception of massive tentpole events, a la the Superbowl and the Olympics, the audiences are fragmenting into a million little niches.
Within 10 years all of the big five broadcasters will be commanding the same ad rates as cable nets, and the the bigger online only shops will be clearing what cable nets get now.
We already see it on the CW. It gets numbers that are absymal for over the air, but respectable for cable. This trend will continue. Especially after the digital broadcast transition.
From Slashdot:
“‘Even if all goes smoothly, next February’s digital television shift is likely to generate hundreds of thousands of complaints from television viewers around the country. A major problem during a test run in Wilmington, N.C., was the inability of over-the-air viewers to receive new digital signals, according to figures collected after the test.’”
This is just going to drive more people to cable, satellite, and the net.
2 Comments
September 28, 2008 at 3:05 pm
It makes sense, I rarely if ever watch tv on an actual tv. If I want to see a show I watch it on line, it’s easier and I can pause it with out paying extra for that as a feature.
The only reasons I use my television set are to play video games or to watch a movie.
October 6, 2008 at 8:42 pm
If things stay the same I agree with you but if digital TV some how, some way creates a new marketplace that didn’t exist before and if major media outlets can figure a way to stop net neutrality they have a chance of shutting down their death by a thousand cuts and closing the door for independent content creators.
Other than that, broadcast TV could create more “event” programming that will aggregate massive audiences with higher rating and higher advertiser values.
And VHS could make a come back as well.