Thursday, February 4, 2010

Prediction #8: The Decline and Fall of TV Networks...Won't Happen in 2010...

But networks are definitely on the decline. Case in point: "The Jay Leno Show" vs. "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien." In the end, NBC has been shedding viewers, and no change of hosts or programs may bring them back. It's not as though those viewers were sticking around for drama at 10 p.m. on other networks. Most likely they were turning to cable programs or on-demand offerings, TiVo, Hulu.com or the Internet.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

They have been declining for many years. Atleast since the mid to late 80's.
It's interesting to see how the press has been so focused on Leno as the villian in the Conan-Leno deal. The reality is that Conans 11:30-12:30 ratings were about half of what Leno's were. Probably NBC figured that Conan would bring in a significant amount of younger viewers and I don't think that that happened either.

The driving factor for the Conan Exodus is that the affiliate stations ratings were tanking from 10-11p. Revenenues were down and they had to resolve it quickly plus Conan's 11:30-12:30 numbers were half of Leno's.
The Leno 10-11p mistake will be wipped away when we all watch the Olympics.
I just feel bad for the station reps who have to run all of those makegoods to offset the dismal ratings.
Let me know if you would like to learn more about creating non traditional income for your nonprofit clients.
MC
mcenergyllc@gmail.com

Unknown said...

They have been declining for many years. Atleast since the mid to late 80's.
It's interesting to see how the press has been so focused on Leno as the villian in the Conan-Leno deal. The reality is that Conans 11:30-12:30 ratings were about half of what Leno's were. Probably NBC figured that Conan would bring in a significant amount of younger viewers and I don't think that that happened either.

The driving factor for the Conan Exodus is that the affiliate stations ratings were tanking from 10-11p. Revenenues were down and they had to resolve it quickly plus Conan's 11:30-12:30 numbers were half of Leno's.
The Leno 10-11p mistake will be wipped away when we all watch the Olympics.
I just feel bad for the station reps who have to run all of those makegoods to offset the dismal ratings.
Let me know if you would like to learn more about creating non traditional income for your nonprofit clients.
MC
mcenergyllc@gmail.com

Unknown said...

I agree with you. Just happy that I'm not in the broadcasting biz!
It will be interesting to see what kind of numbers the network delivers during the Olympics.
I love watching the winter games!

Norman Birnbach said...

The economics of network TV is part of the problem. Cable stations are able to put on very interesting dramas for less than the networks, drawing fewer viewers, and still do okay.

But you're right: viewership has been declining for decades. Neither the Super Bowl nor the Oscars pull in as many viewers as they once did.

The reason: too many other choices, including TiVo and Hulu.com.

Now the networks have to hope that 3-D TV will be a game-changer. It may be, but 3-D content is going to be much more expensive to produce, and some content won't be better just because it's 3-D.

Thanks for your comments.