Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Headlines about TV viewership have not been particularly positive. Common themes lately have been: “TV ratings plummeting,”  “NFL viewership in decline,”“Millennials unplug from TV,” or “Cord-cutting, cord-shaving growing.” Then there’s a big favorite lately: “TV can’t deliver reach like it used to.”

While there’s some truth in all of these ideas, they don’t tell the whole story of TV viewership today.

First, overall TV viewership is not falling off a cliff. After four-plus decades of extraordinary growth, there is no question that the average amount of time Americans spend watching old-fashioned TV plateaued over the past few years and has now begun to decline. However, this overall decline is in the very small single digits annually....TV has not lost overall reach. In fact, its overall ad-reach capacity has never been greater.

What’s changed is that TV audiences have fragmented their viewing across hundreds of different channels and all of the dayparts,  and most major brands keep making the same buys. They’re chasing the few shows with bigger ratings without trying to understand how to scientifically and efficiently re-aggregate the fragmented audiences. Doing so is hard work and takes time and investment, all in short supply in media buying ...

TV And Cable Networks Are Increasing Their TV Everywhere Offerings (IHS)

Research firm IHS recently surveyed the current state of TV everywhere at the four major US TV Networks as well as at their premium cable network subsidiaries. IHS found that NBCUniversal is leading the pack in providing consumers access to TV content on smartphones and tablets, with 15 of its 18 channels having a TV Everywhere feature.

IHS also found that TV Everywhere is starting to expand beyond simply iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. High-growth platforms include Smart and connected TVs as well as video game consoles like Xbox....

Ever since the commercial Internet emerged, content has been at the center.  Bill Gates, quite famously, declared that content is king and called it the “killer app” of the Internet age.  Inspired, media executives and internet entrepreneurs alike sought to marry content and distribution to create the perfect business model.

The problem is, as I’ve noted before, that content is crap.  Nobody walks out of a great movie and says, “Wow! That was some great content.”  Nobody listens to content on their way to work in the morning.  We never call anything we like “content,” the term is a mere fantasy in the minds of business planners.

That, in essence, is why despite the predictions of digital pundits, the TV industry has continued to prosper.  Through a series of disruptions—cable, DVD and now streaming video—programing has continued to evolve.  Now, with the cable business model starting to unravel, we can expect an explosion of creative energy that will usher in a new golden age of TV....