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Linear TV - 'Irreversible' decline

I have not been able to on Paramount Plus but there are so fewer commercials than broadcast tv I don’t mind.
I wonder how long the commercial load will remain lower than broadcast TV? After all, broadcast TV also used to have far, far fewer commercials than it does now. In prime time, commercial loads have roughly doubled since the early eighties.
 
Bob Iger says Disney streaming is profitable. Likes his place in linear TV now:


CEO Bob Iger remained positive on Wednesday’s call with investors when it came to the linear TV business, echoing similar comments made in November’s earnings call.

“They are not a burden at all. They are actually an asset,” Iger said Wednesday, noting that Disney is programming and funding the networks so they can feed into streaming. “We actually feel good about the hand that we have and the manner in which we’re managing both the linear and streaming businesses across the board,” Iger said.
 
Elsewhere on this board is a rumor that ABC is going to drop WFAA and put an o&o of its own in Dallas/Fort Worth. Someone suggested that ABC and Tegna make a swap; ABC gets WFAA and Tegna gets WTVD and KFSN. Don't count on it. One, ABC does not want to drop WTVD, which is in a market (Raleigh/Durham) that's still growing; two, Bob Iger seems to see the writing on the wall on linear TV. I don't see any of the other networks looking for new o&os either. Much as I would like to see WFAA as an ABC o&o and make Dallas the sixth market where ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC all have o&os, there is no way I think that's going to happen.

I wonder if Fox and the CW are the future of linear network television, with their very limited schedules. Could the traditional Big Three cut back to an 8-10 primetime Mon-Sat and a 7-10 primetime Sun? Eliminate all daytime programming. network news, and late-night shows? Thoughts?

And one other sort-of-off-topic question: Why have the networks (other than Fox and CBS when it had the CW channel), never pursued Atlanta? WSB as an ABC o&o would seem to be a plus for the Alphabet Network; WXIA maybe a little less so for NBC. I don't think now that Channel 2 will ever be an ABC o&o nor will 11 Alive become an NBC one, but it does make me wonder how the networks have largely passed over the "New York of the South."
 
I believe it has been publicly implored before a few years back about NBC giving up the 10pm programming slot back to the affiliates and in turn they would compete with the FOX stations among other indies or CW's in airing newscasts in that time slot.
 
To be very blunt, I would expect ABC, CBS and NBC to pull up their stakes and leave broadcasting entirely for streaming, especially to rid themselves of their owned-stations (which are now a liability, for obvious reasons). Should that happen, then the current house of cards that is linear television will come crashing down.
 
Yet another show about violent cops on the edge, or yet another show designed to shock rather than entertain (that squid thing!) doesn't really get a look in with me.
Ditto-- I've been enjoying that 60s Addams Family comedy (B/W, originally from ABC) on DVD, and I've gotten more out of that one than practically any other thing that purports to be a comedy will ever do for me.
 
Elsewhere on this board is a rumor that ABC is going to drop WFAA and put an o&o of its own in Dallas/Fort Worth. Someone suggested that ABC and Tegna make a swap; ABC gets WFAA and Tegna gets WTVD and KFSN. Don't count on it. One, ABC does not want to drop WTVD, which is in a market (Raleigh/Durham) that's still growing; two, Bob Iger seems to see the writing on the wall on linear TV. I don't see any of the other networks looking for new o&os either. Much as I would like to see WFAA as an ABC o&o and make Dallas the sixth market where ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC all have o&os, there is no way I think that's going to happen.
Yeah, there's that rumor floating around, but there's no reason to believe it is true. ABC hasn't added a new O&O in several decades, so why would they start now, when the entire network TV business is in serious decline?
 
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