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More Evidence: Broadcast TV on the Critical List. On-Demand Grows.

F

FredLeonard

Guest
From your linked article:

"Media executives have been placing pressure on Nielsen to change its ratings to account for more of the digital audience as their live ratings continue to fall."

So obviously broadcasters aren't bothered by this.

Viewers like the shows. Broadcasters make money from ads in the shows. So when people watch isn't the issue.

As for old people, no surprise. We've already said that there aren't a lot of regular series on TV aiming for over-50 audience. So they watch re-runs and movies.
 
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From your linked article:

"Media executives have been placing pressure on Nielsen to change its ratings to account for more of the digital audience as their live ratings continue to fall."

So obviously broadcasters aren't bothered by this.

Viewers like the shows. Broadcasters make money from ads in the shows. So when people watch isn't the issue.
To this point, Nielsen has only counted viewership if the ad load online is exactly the same as the ad load live, though the news about them rating Netflix and Amazon suggests that may be changing. In any case, people watching online may be good for the shows (if they can get away from being beholden to a system designed for the constraints of linear television), but it's not necessarily good for the platform they air on.

As for old people, no surprise. We've already said that there aren't a lot of regular series on TV aiming for over-50 audience. So they watch re-runs and movies.

Until this year, I think most of the studies that actually looked into it rather than making assumptions seemed to suggest cord-cutting was actually more popular with older people than the younger people everyone thinks is driving it.
 
Until this year, I think most of the studies that actually looked into it rather than making assumptions seemed to suggest cord-cutting was actually more popular with older people than the younger people everyone thinks is driving it.

I had always heard there were two categories of people who were cutting the cord:

-Families who had to reduce the budget due to the Recession, job loss or other bills taking precedence.

-Older couples on fixed incomes who were choosing between eating, paying the rent or cable.

There was another which was not as large and those were like me....nothing much interesting to watch on cable and what I did want to see I can find online or from other sources (DVD's etc.). My son got cable TV as part of a bundle when he hooked up his ISP but is going to dump it when the sub runs out. He never watches it.

The lack of programming directed at the 55+ demo is accurate. Most of the older people I know watch sports, live productions (news, specials, etc.) or they watch the diginets which currently air their old favorites from past decades. Right now for instance I am enjoying GRIT which is full of old Westerns most of which I had never seen from the back seat of the old Packard. TVland-type programming is popular on others (Green Acres, Jeannie, McHale's Navy, Addams Family etc.). Most of those are still better than today's current crap even if all the actors are long gone. Those used to be the reason I subscribed to cable TV but now they are mostly OTA so cable is just for the computer now.
 
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Those used to be the reason I subscribed to cable TV but now they are mostly OTA so cable is just for the computer now.

Plus there's a rise in digital networks that some OTA stations are carrying as sub-channels. A few of them are built on old network reruns. Perfect for older cord cutters.
 
The few people I know who dumped cable did so for economic reasons.

The amount of programming from cable they enjoyed, versus the high costs -- along with questionable price jumps from the cable companies -- led them to internet, on demand only TV programming (mainly movies), or OTA TV.

The economy is still miserable for many. They're looking at the bottom line.
 
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