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Cable TV viewing numbers show drastic audience decline

michael hagerty

michael hagerty

From Neilsen's "Big Data+Metrics" via the Ankler.

Essential pullquote:


The following is from Sept. 22 thru Sept. 28, and just centers on live/same-day audiences (no delayed viewing).

PRIMETIME AUDIENCE AVERAGES
​

NEWS NETWORKS

  • FOX NEWS: 2.45M
  • MSNBC: 853k
  • CNN: 538k
SPORTS . . . meaning ESPN:

  • ESPN: 2.7M
  • FS1’s average was 62k 🫣
ALL OTHER CABLE NETWORKS AVERAGING AT LEAST 400K VIEWERS IN PRIME:

  • HGTV: 492k (49k are under 50 years old)
ALL OTHER CABLE NETWORKS AVERAGING AT LEAST 350K VIEWERS IN PRIME:

  • FOOD: 383k
  • HALLMARK: 378k
  • TLC: 367k


    SO:
    ​

    In a world with about 60M folks subscribed to / getting most name-brand cable TV networks as part of the TV bundles they pay for each month — only 1 general entertainment network had over 400k viewers on a given night . . . and 4 general entertainment cable TV networks had more than 350k viewers total during the last week of September.
    • That’s about 0.6% of people paying for cable TV watching one of the top 4-rated non-sports or news networks on a given night.
      • Of that, the vast, vast majority of those people are over 50, and mostly over 55.
    • AND: Remember, the median age for those 3 big cable news networks getting all of the viewers is in the upper 60s.
Click to expand...

Full story here:

theankler.com

☀️Cable TV Now Basically Down to 5 Networks

NETFLIX orders more 'Peaky' / Nikki Glaser goes HULU / 'Kill Bill' gets theatrical event
theankler.com theankler.com
 
Isn't cable pretty much only just for hospitals and hotel rooms these days. I don't know of a single person who still has cable in their home.
 
True and also the parent companies of those cable networks made it a priority to protect their respective apps. MSNBC/MSNow they are heading to Versant and they recently had a deal with Sky News in the Uk for their news gathering segments. Some segments of MSNOW will be found on SkyNews app once NBC News cuts its ties to MSNBC/MSNow.

deadline.com

MSNBC Taps Sky News For International Reports As Comcast Spinoff Nears

MSNBC announced an agreement with Comcast-owned Sky News to bring the latest international coverage to U.S. audiences. MSNBC has been building up its own newsroom as it prepares to be spun off from Comcast along with other cable channels into a new company, Versant. Rebranded as MS NOW, the...
deadline.com deadline.com

It’s like the time the when there was a study of who is watching Disney Channel decline from 2 million to 100k because of Disney itself had a huge campaign to promote Disney+, ESPN and Hulu as the Disney Bundle apps.
Likewise MTV and VH1 had similar numbers of decline for the same reasons tied to Paramount protecting and promoting the Paramount+ app.
 
Those numbers still seem low. I always question how the measurements are calculated. 1 person = 1000 viewers. If these numbers were so low why are we still dealing with 1000s of useless cable channels.
 
KilowattKat said:
Isn't cable pretty much only just for hospitals and hotel rooms these days. I don't know of a single person who still has cable in their home.
Click to expand...
The lineups of each channel are hours on end of one single show, then onto another "block" of one single show. About the only exception is Toonami on Adult Swim which still has individual 30 minute shows late Saturday night...outside of that its "block" programming.
 
KilowattKat said:
Isn't cable pretty much only just for hospitals and hotel rooms these days. I don't know of a single
Click to expand...


KilowattKat said:
person who still has cable in their home.
Click to expand...

KilowattKat said:
Isn't cable pretty much only just for hospitals and hotel rooms these days. I don't know of a single person who still has cable in their home.
Click to expand...

We still have it (Cox) at my house primarily because my sister and nephew sometimes use it. But my sister also has some Amazon Firesticks if she wants to watch any movies. And, I have to say that while we have managed to keep our cable charge per month low, it has come at a personal price for my nephew. He wanted to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks on cable TV but the only way to receive that channel would be to pay an extra $100 and get some additional channels that nobody wanted to watch. I think that cable companies *really* need to rethink their current business model.
 
KilowattKat said:
Isn't cable pretty much only just for hospitals and hotel rooms these days. I don't know of a single person who still has cable in their home.
Click to expand...

I kept it because I was in news and it was the easiest, quickest way to watch breaking news via multiple channels---especially local stations.

As soon as MSNBC (are they really gonna keep the MS NOW name?) breaks off from NBC and no longer feels the need to feed Comcast, I'm betting they'll have a streaming product, and then I can cut the cord, though I guess I'll need Peacock for SNL and Seth Meyers and Paramount+ for what's left of Colbert, 60 Minutes, The Daily Show and Elsbeth.

Although, if the acquisition of Warners goes through, the Paramount+ stuff will all be on HBO Max.
 
Where I live, which is in Cox Cable territory, the cheapest basic cable TV package is $71.00 per month Even with monthly streamer fees climbing, I get more bang for the buck paying monthly subscription fees.

Netflix - $22

Peacock - was 6.99, now free with Walmart + membership 14.99, also includes free Paramount +

HBO Max - $9.99

Amazon Prime Video - included with 14.99 Amazon Prime membership

Tubi and Pluto - FREE

Samsung TV plus - FREE

Broadcast TV - FREE with rabbit ears attached to my big screen TV

Will probably be adding Hulu and Disney + (unsure of their monthly). But I believe I get a discount through Verizon

Sine I would have Amazon and Walmart + regardless, not including those fees

TOTAL - currently $32.00, as compared to this:


COX CABLE TV SERVICE IN San Diego, CA​

Contour TV
With Cox Contour, stream your favorite shows and movies, as well as live TV and sports. Choose the San Diego cable TV plan that’s right for your news and entertainment needs.
details

$71/mo​

 
KilowattKat said:
Where I live, which is in Cox Cable territory, the cheapest basic cable TV package is $71.00 per month Even with monthly streamer fees climbing, I get more bang for the buck paying monthly subscription fees.

Netflix - $22

Peacock - was 6.99, now free with Walmart + membership 14.99, also includes free Paramount +

HBO Max - $9.99

Amazon Prime Video - included with 14.99 Amazon Prime membership

Tubi and Pluto - FREE

Samsung TV plus - FREE

Broadcast TV - FREE with rabbit ears attached to my big screen TV

Will probably be adding Hulu and Disney + (unsure of their monthly). But I believe I get a discount through Verizon

Sine I would have Amazon and Walmart + regardless, not including those fees

TOTAL - currently $32.00, as compared to this:


COX CABLE TV SERVICE IN San Diego, CA​

Contour TV
With Cox Contour, stream your favorite shows and movies, as well as live TV and sports. Choose the San Diego cable TV plan that’s right for your news and entertainment needs.
details

$71/mo​

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's pricey.

We're spoiled rotten (probably me more than my wife), so the platforms need to be ad-free.

That's $16.99 for Peacock Premium Plus and $12.99 a month for Paramount+ Premium.

For now, though, the cable bill (it's Comcast/xfinity for Sacramento) isn't killing me. If MS NOW has its own 24-7 streaming app and Paramount+ gets folded into HBO Max, that'll be the time I pull the trigger.

By the way: If you go through Disney+, you can get Disney+/Hulu/HBO Max all in one bundle. Ad-free, it's $29.99 (breakdown: Disney+ without ads: $11.02, Hulu without ads: $9.02 and HBO Max without ads: $11.75. All told: $29.99/mo. Less if you're cool with ads.

Before that bundle (which I picked up when the new season of Only Murders in the Building started last month), I was paying $16.99 for HBO Max without ads alone. So it's a good deal.

I added AppleTV+ back into the mix now that The Morning Show is back, but I use an Apple One subscription, folding it in with Apple Music and extra storage, so it only costs about $10 a month on top of Music/storage.

Netflix is gonna come back, too, as the new season of The Diplomat drops this month. Looks like I can get that for $17.99 a month if I'm okay with 1080p HD instead of 4K, which for The Diplomat, will be fine.

The only one I don't have to worry about is Amazon Prime, which has been gone (along with the Washington Post and Whole Foods) since Bezos enshrined himself on my FTG list.
 
michael hagerty said:
Yeah, it's pricey.

We're spoiled rotten (probably me more than my wife), so the platforms need to be ad-free.

That's $16.99 for Peacock Premium Plus and $12.99 a month for Paramount+ Premium.

For now, though, the cable bill (it's Comcast/xfinity for Sacramento) isn't killing me. If MS NOW has its own 24-7 streaming app and Paramount+ gets folded into HBO Max, that'll be the time I pull the trigger.

By the way: If you go through Disney+, you can get Disney+/Hulu/HBO Max all in one bundle. Ad-free, it's $29.99 (breakdown: Disney+ without ads: $11.02, Hulu without ads: $9.02 and HBO Max without ads: $11.75. All told: $29.99/mo. Less if you're cool with ads.

Before that bundle (which I picked up when the new season of Only Murders in the Building started last month), I was paying $16.99 for HBO Max without ads alone. So it's a good deal.

I added AppleTV+ back into the mix now that The Morning Show is back, but I use an Apple One subscription, folding it in with Apple Music and extra storage, so it only costs about $10 a month on top of Music/storage.

Netflix is gonna come back, too, as the new season of The Diplomat drops this month. Looks like I can get that for $17.99 a month if I'm okay with 1080p HD instead of 4K, which for The Diplomat, will be fine.

The only one I don't have to worry about is Amazon Prime, which has been gone (along with the Washington Post and Whole Foods) since Bezos enshrined himself on my FTG list.
Click to expand...
I'm too cheap to go ad free. The key nowadays is to bundle these streaming services, and/or get an affiliation discount And I need to check what IIm paying now for HBO Max, which may have gone up to 12.99. Everyone it seems has been increasing the monthly fee.

Thanks for the info about the Hulu/Disney/HBO Max bundle. I'll most likely do that, since there is too much on Hulu and Disney that I'm missing out on. And would only add a small amount to my monthly total.
 
KilowattKat said:
I'm too cheap to go ad free.
Click to expand...

I just got way too used to shows that aren't structured for an interruption (pretty much everything from The Sopranos and Mad Men through Succession and Severance).

KilowattKat said:
Thanks for the info about the Hulu/Disney/HBO Max bundle. I'll most likely do that, since there is too much on Hulu and Disney that I'm missing out on. And would only add a small amount to my monthly total.
Click to expand...

It's a screaming deal.
 
I've never paid more than $19.99 for a one-year subscription to Peacock. I always take advantage of their Black Friday deal. This was my first streaming service and my hand was forced by NBC/U moving "Days" from NBC TV to Peacock only.

I've had Paramount+ for five months and I haven't paid a cent for it. The way I'm going, I will probably continue for free through year-end. I take advantage of various cashback and gift card deals with my credit cards.

There are ways to get the streaming services at great discounts though it can take a small amount of work to seek them out.
 
KilowattKat said:
I'm too cheap to go ad free. The key nowadays is to bundle these streaming services, and/or get an affiliation discount And I need to check what IIm paying now for HBO Max, which may have gone up to 12.99. Everyone it seems has been increasing the monthly fee.

Thanks for the info about the Hulu/Disney/HBO Max bundle. I'll most likely do that, since there is too much on Hulu and Disney that I'm missing out on. And would only add a small amount to my monthly total.
Click to expand...
I think that bundle recently went up to $33, but still a good deal.
 
ted chittenden said:
We still have it (Cox) at my house primarily because my sister and nephew sometimes use it. But my sister also has some Amazon Firesticks if she wants to watch any movies. And, I have to say that while we have managed to keep our cable charge per month low, it has come at a personal price for my nephew. He wanted to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks on cable TV but the only way to receive that channel would be to pay an extra $100 and get some additional channels that nobody wanted to watch. I think that cable companies *really* need to rethink their current business model.
Click to expand...
Woah I heard in past cases that Cable TV subscription fees were high because of the RSN's, Fox Sports, NBC Sports (Both National and Local sports networks), and ESPN.

But in the era of streaming there's get the MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL's season pass separately from the rest of the stuff one streams on average.
 
We just switched to DirecTV yesterday. COX was getting too expensive. We were paying almost $275/month for TV, landline, and internet. Mom looked at a cheaper cable package that was around 70 channels and most of the 70 channels are ones we're not interested in.

We got the cheapest DirecTV package declined the 5 RSN's - Yes, NESN, NBC Sports Boston, SNY, and MSG and that's around $115/month. I had to give up several channels I liked such as History Channel, Smithsonian Channel, Logo, Game Show Network, ME-TV, and Story Television. The latter 2 I can pick up with an antenna.

And now landline and internet from COX is $65/month. So that's cheaper than the $275 we had been paying.
 
MarcB said:
We just switched to DirecTV yesterday. COX was getting too expensive. We were paying almost $275/month for TV, landline, and internet. Mom looked at a cheaper cable package that was around 70 channels and most of the 70 channels are ones we're not interested in.

We got the cheapest DirecTV package declined the 5 RSN's - Yes, NESN, NBC Sports Boston, SNY, and MSG and that's around $115/month. I had to give up several channels I liked such as History Channel, Smithsonian Channel, Logo, Game Show Network, ME-TV, and Story Television. The latter 2 I can pick up with an antenna.

And now landline and internet from COX is $65/month. So that's cheaper than the $275 we had been paying.
Click to expand...
Just dump Cox altogether and get fiber. Cheaper and faster speeds.
 

www.bbc.co.uk

MTV to axe its music TV channels in the UK

The broadcaster will stop showing music videos in December, but its main channel will remain on air.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

www.rollingstone.com

MTV to Axe UK Music Channels at the End of the Year

MTV UK will stop showing rolling music videos when it shutters its five channels at the end of the year, according to reports.
www.rollingstone.com www.rollingstone.com

Paramount to shut down MTV channels in the UK at the end of the year. Some of this is Paramount protecting their flagship app Paramount+ app that’s the factor here and declining Cable TV audiences.
 


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