The networks have more reason than ever before to cringe, as viewerships on even some of their best shows like Heroes are slipping.
Seems the viewers are packing it up and going with cable instead.
A comparison of Nielsen ratings figures for broadcast and cable networks suggests that broadcast’s loss is cable’s gain. As several recent industry reports have indicated, primetime ratings among the major networks are down by double-digit percentages this season. However, the website TVbytheNumbers.com points out that cable networks have been showing strong gains. “Some of these gains, for the news channels,” it observed, “can be attributed to the election season and the financial crisis, but most are due to the long term trend of viewers shifting from broadcast to cable.” The website noted that while most of the leading cable channels have shown significant audience growth — Nick at Nite is up 32 percent and Espn, 10.5 percent — not all have. It pointed out, for example, that Disney channel is down 11 percent from last year.
It’s a bad sign for network TV, already beleaguered by a poorly understood and cumbersome digital TV switch that will for many viewers not only require a simple converter box as advertised, but also require entire new antenna arrays that can reach into hundreds of dollars. Advertisers were already leaving TV advertising in droves due to the economic crisis, but now the situation can only be described as much, much worse.
Network TV depends on viewers to keep it afloat. Viewership is how it appeals to advertisers, and offers them air time at prices accordingly. The more viewers a network loses, the less appeal it has to advertisers, who are already skeptical of network TV’s rate of return.
I find it interesting that the Disney Channel lost some viewers in this time frame, but not so much that typically older-skewing networks like ESPN and Nick At Nite gained. I’d lay even odds that a good chunk of that new audience is coming in from the broadcast because of the DTV switch.
You may not be too familiar with this–especially if you already have cable–but there’s a whole lot of mostly older country-dwellers (like my parents, for example) that went out to buy their converter boxes so they could continue to watch TV. THEN they DISCOVERED (because no one had mentioned this in any promotional literature OR television campaign) that their rabbit ear antennas inside the house were utterly insufficient to pull in digital TV signals when they lived thirty miles or more from the signal source. Checking around at the various electronic supply stores showed little in the way of affordable options to upgrade antennas (some of the antennas that would work were outside models that cost two hundred dollars or more) so a lot of households are probably getting to think that now may be a good time to look into a dish. Hence the big uptick in Nick At Nite as aging viewers rediscover their old favorites and the fellas discover the joy of ESPN after work. I’m not being sexist here–ESPN has female viewers too, and plenty of them–but I think we can all agree the bulk of it is male.
I can’t begin to explain the Disney Channel’s loss. Except maybe Hannah Montana. That show gets on my nerves.
Popularity: 2% [?]
