What are some of the things linear broadcasting and cable networks are doing to attract and keep viewers? How have these efforts helped them compete with SVOD services? In 3 – 5 years, what do you expect the TV industry to look like and what role will broadcast/cable/streaming play? Limit: 11 responses
Ashley Shankar Part 1
ReplyDeleteThere are some ways linear broadcasting and cable networks can attract and keep viewers during this pandemic and “streaming wars”. As a result, these efforts have helped broadcasting and cable networks to compete with SVOD services. In 3-5 years, I expect the TV industry to look a little differently for broadcast, cable and streaming services.
In the article, "100 Most-Watched TV Shows of 2019-20: Winners and Losers", it states “Fox’s strategy [...] has been to rethink what it is to be a broadcast network in an age where it’s tough to be a broadcast network. And thanks to sports, and ‘The Masked Singer’ — which the network owns and produces — it’s been a solid season. This is Fox’s first 18-49 No. 1 finish in eight years, and it’s the only major English-language network to be up year-over-year in the demo and total viewers.” This is important because as a linear broadcast channel, Fox has created entertaining and original content such as, “The Masked Singer”. Since this content is original to Fox, viewers can only watch it through Fox. This is important for broadcasting and cable networks because having original content only for their network will help keep viewers returning for more and attract more viewers through popularity.
The article also states, “ESPN’s Michael Jordan docuseries ‘The Last Dance.’ That gave ESPN two series in the top five, easily making it cable’s dominant force on the chart. A consolation prize, perhaps, for ESPN right now, given how it’s struggling to figure out how to program a sports network in a country with no sports.” This is important because during these times people are looking for “normality” from times before the pandemic. I think ESPN was clever to show its Micheal Jordan docuseries during a time when there were no sports. Therefore, it helped viewers make up for the sports they had to give up for the pandemic. This helped keep viewers attracted with its original content that became popular among other viewers similar to Fox producing “The Masked Singer”.
Ashley Shankar part 2
DeleteIn the article, “Why 'Sex and the City' Is Coming Back (and on HBO Max)”, it states, “Think of it this way: Netflix got subscribers in the door by offering library titles like The Office and Friends as well as a plethora of movies. Original series like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black helped the service appeal to new audiences. The race for well-known properties with built-in brand awareness helps keep current subscribers and draw new ones. HBO Max and NBCUniversal's recently launched streamer, Peacock, is mirroring the same strategy by offering library titles (The Office moved to Peacock this year after NBCUniversal paid $500 million to regain rights to the show it originally produced) and leaning into its well-known properties.” This is important because it shows how original content is necessary for viewership especially against SVOD services. As the saying goes, “content is king”, broadcasting and cable networks need their original content, just like “Sex in the City” “The Office” etc. to attract their viewers. Without original content, there is no uniqueness or necessity for the provider. Having the original content is what can help broadcasting and cable networks compete with SVOD services who don’t always have original content.
The article, “3 Predictions for TV in the Next 10 Years”, states, “This change in the way people consume content has put pressure on traditional television providers to reconsider the way they offer channels. Customers are calling for "unbundling," and the opportunity to choose and pay for only the channels that they want.” I believe that the TV industry will shift away from broadcast or cable and become similar to streaming services. This is because there already are “streaming wars” that have shifted the need away from broadcast or cable to streaming which can be more affordable, convenient and personalized.
Lastly, the article also states, “In this scenario, rather than having three-minute commercial spots during a 30-minute television program, TV programming may change to one where a consumer must have a monthly subscription and then view targeted banner ads.” This is an important change since I believe the TV industry will soon become similar to streaming services. Currently, ads are a large part of the experience when viewing content through broadcast and cable. With the shift towards a streaming service style, I believe the commercial/ ad times will be cut down much smaller in the future to fit the viewers' preferences.
Works Cited
Goldberg, Lesley. “Why 'Sex and the City' Is Coming Back (and on HBO Max).” The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Jan. 2021, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/why-sex-and-the-city-is-coming-back-and-on-hbo-max.
Schneider, Michael. “100 Most-Watched TV Shows of 2019-20: Winners and Losers.” Variety, Variety, 21 May 2020, variety.com/2020/tv/news/most-popular-tv-shows-highest-rated-2019-2020-season-masked-singer-last-dance-1234612885/.
Tarver, Evan. “3 Predictions for TV in the Next 10 Years.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 29 Aug. 2020, www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/021816/3-predictions-tv-next-10-years.asp.
Brendan McDonald
ReplyDeleteCable networks and other linear format broadcasts have been seeing a lot of customers moving to streaming services in the past few years. Naturally, these companies want to retain as many customers as possible. One of the key ways they can keep people interested is by having more restricted shows that are easiest to watch on their live broadcast. Obviously, one of the biggest contributors to live broadcast viewership is sports. Since people are most interested in sports when they are live, a linear format works quite well. According to Deadline: Sunday Night Football on NBC pulls in 20.09 million viewers, while Thursday Night Football on FOX brings in over 15 million viewers. This seems to be fittingly paired with weekly released serialized dramas. Shows like NCIS, FBI, Blue Bloods, and Chicago Fire each gain over 10 million viewers (Patten). While serialized shows can be more easily implemented onto streaming compared to sports (again, big preference to watching them live), it’s obvious that their live showings are still pulling in big numbers, easily enough to warrant keeping them live on the air. However, I think it is important to note that this has been a unique year for both SVOD and linear format media with the presence of COVID. While streaming has seen an increase, so too have linear broadcasts. Looking at the stats for various news channels from Deadline, we can see that Fox News had an increase of 45%, MSNBC had an increase of 24%, and CNN saw an increase of 85% (Johnson). The reason I think why it’s hard to say if linear broadcast strategies have worked is because of the increase in broadcast news interest over the past year. Broadcast news has remained relatively unchanged, yet it saw some of the greatest increase. I think that the COVID pandemic, along with a boiling hot political environment, created a massive demand for news. I cannot say for sure, but I believe we will start seeing very different types of viewership when the pandemic ends, in news, sports, and entertainment shows. Once we get 3-5 years down the line, I think we are going to see a much weaker shell of what we currently see in linear broadcast media. As mentioned in Variety: “[A]s AMC soon learned, consumers began thinking of “Breaking Bad” as a Netflix show — and Netflix was using acquired library content to quickly change viewer habits. Last year, the streamer launched more original programming than the entire cable TV industry had a decade earlier.” People have come to trust groups like Netflix as a valid source for new content, and may no longer feel reliant on networks to produce shows that show up on streaming later on. This doesn’t mean that these companies will go away, it just means that their linear presence will likely be diminished, as companies like NBC start to put new series on their own streaming platforms as opposed to giving a live broadcast.
Patten, D. (2020, May 15). 2019-20 TV Season Ratings Rankings: Fox Wins Demo CBS First In Viewers. Deadline; Deadline. https://deadline.com/2020/05/tv-ratings-2019-2020-final-rankings-masked-singer-sunday-night-football-fox-cbs-1202935271/
Johnson, T. (2020, December 24). Cable TV News Ratings 2020: Big Gains In Viewership During Tumultuous 2020. Deadline; Deadline. https://deadline.com/2020/12/ratings-cable-news-networks-2020-1234660751/
Schneider, M. (2020, July 21). Inside Cable TV’s Decline Amid the Rise of Streaming & Cord-Cutting. Variety; Variety. https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/cable-tv-decline-streaming-cord-cutting-1234710007/
No one would have thought that cable would have an amazing year in 2020, in 2019. All the signs were pointing to cables' demise and fall from grace as it used to be the most popular way to watch your favorite shows and sporting events. Covid-19 changed the incoming year that cable was about to have, with 24/7 coverage of the incoming election and constant updates on covid-19. Cable news had a great year because of it and their numbers actually went up, for example, “In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 644,000 viewers, a boost of 65%, while CNN more than doubled its audience, up 104% to 521,000. MSNBC increased 29% to 361,000.” (Johnson, Deadline) having had a 65% increase in viewership is a huge feat and should not go unnoticed. Cable news wasn’t the only success in 2020 though, TLC also had a huge year and broke their own records for numbers. This might be because they have comfort shows, sort of like comfort foods, that people can just keep watching without stopping. For example, TLC “did the unthinkable in 2020: It posted its most-watched year in primetime in the history of the network. That just doesn’t happen anymore. And yet, it did for TLC, which ranks No. 1 among cable networks in the key female demos including women 25-54, women 18-49 and women 18-34.” (Schneider, Variety) This is amazing for a network where most wins are just flat lining in a year. 90 Day Fiance became their most watched primetime show in the history of the network, also creating a lot of spinoffs. Me TV is also up 7% in viewership, this channel usually just plays reruns of old shows that aren’t on any streaming service. There seems to be a niche for old westerns in the 50 and up age that not many streaming services are able to get. To me, this is the future of cable. Reruns are always going to be huge for a lot of networks, especially when a cable show doesn’t make it to streaming or hasn’t hit the streaming service yet. Take Modern Family for example, the only place people could see Modern Family were networks on cable and you didn’t get to choose the episode. In the next 3 to 5 years I see streaming growing and cable declining since that has been the trend for a couple years now (taking out the account of the pandemic) Streaming has the most going for it since you can pick and choose what you want to see and it has thousands upon thousands of options. The Time Warner CEO said it best, “It’s not that the streamers had superior programming, they had superior technology.” (Sherman, CNBC) The content will always be good on cable, but with more options and less ads + free reign, SVOD will win this battle within the next 10 years.
ReplyDeleteJohnson, Ted. “Cable News Networks See Big Gains In Viewership During Tumultuous 2020.” Deadline, Deadline, 29 Dec. 2020, deadline.com/2020/12/ratings-cable-news-networks-2020-1234660751/.
DeleteSchneider, Michael. “Year in Review: Most-Watched Television Networks - Ranking 2020's Winners and Losers.” Variety, Variety, 28 Dec. 2020, variety.com/2020/tv/news/network-ratings-2020-top-channels-fox-news-cnn-msnbc-cbs-1234866801/.
Sherman, Alex. “Media Executives Are Finally Accepting the Decline of Cable TV as They Plot a New Path Forward.” CNBC, CNBC, 27 Oct. 2020, www.cnbc.com/2020/10/24/big-media-companies-reorganize-for-world-of-50-million-tv-subscribers.html.
Jack Higgins
ReplyDeleteThroughout recent years, linear broadcasting and cable networks have been threatened by the rapid growth of SVOD services. These streaming platforms have been dominating viewership for new content as well as older properties that originally aired on linear broadcasting. These threats have challenged cable networks to find ways to attract and keep viewers.
One of the readings for this week came from Nielsen, which analyzed which programs were still seeing success in the realm of television. The article begins by acknowledging how strange this year was with the pandemic impacting all forms of media. Production was stopped or delayed for many television series which does not make it easy to engage new viewers. However, the Nielsen article did point to two specific areas were linear broadcasting still had hope, “Sports and news remain the two genres that command massive live viewership. That’s not to say that consumers won’t watch other programming when it airs live, but consumers do tend to be more selective when it comes to watching other genres as they air” (Nielsen). News and Sports seem to be the two types of programs where viewers are still attracted to linear broadcasting and cable. Nielsen’s data from 2020 also showed that in terms of a single telecast event, sports dominated the top ten. Specifically, post-season football dominated the top viewed telecasts of the year. This shows an opportunity for cable and linear television to remain relevant with the competition of SVOD.
Sports also showed promise in areas other than live football broadcasts. ESPN found ways to attract viewership despite the lack of live sports during the pandemic. An article from Variety explained how they remained relevant in a year that had the odds stacked against them “Look at what made a last-minute jump to No. 5 on this year’s 18-49 list: ESPN’s Michael Jordan docuseries ‘The Last Dance.’ That gave ESPN two series in the top five, easily making it cable’s dominant force on the chart” (Schneider). The success of “The Last Dance” shows how sports content can be relevant outside of live coverage of games. Seeing that it was within the top five of the year’s 18-49 list shows the potential for future docuseries or other content straying from just live coverage of games.
Another advantage that cable has over streaming platforms is the channel format. Cable and satellite providers have large channel lineups that many people are familiar with. An article written by Joe Supan explains the edge that cable has over streaming, “Across the board, cable TV packages offer better channel lineups than live TV streaming services. While both YouTube TV and fuboTV are missing a handful of channels in the top 25, the only ones the cable providers don’t have are HBO and Showtime – premium networks that can be added on for an extra fee” (Supan).
Despite the argument made by him, I believe it won’t be enough to take away viewership from SVODs. In the upcoming years, I believe SVODs will dominate in terms of original series and shows, while cable will be looked at for news and live sport broadcasts.
Schneider, Michael. "100 Most-Watched TV Shows of 2019-20: Winners and Losers." Variety 21 May 2020,
Supan, Joe. “Cable vs. Streaming: Which is best for bringing you the channels you want?” AllConnect 6 February 2020.
"Tops of 2020: Television," Nielsen.com 14 Dec. 2021,
Roberto Casillas
ReplyDeletePart 1
It’s no secret that we’ve entered an era where linear T.V. will soon become outdated and even obsolete. Executives in the big cable and T.V. companies now this, so they are beginning to utilize strategies that compete with the overwhelming number of streaming platforms while at the same time starting to move a lot of their own content to digital platforms.
With that being said, 2020 was a big year for major T.V. networks, ratings were up across the board, but the question is why? What strategies were this companies able to implement?
Fox was the most watched channel all across T.V. in America last year. It can’t be argued that one of the reasons for that is luck. Fox was able to host the Super Bowl and Fox News is still the most watched news channel in the U.S.; however, that’s not the only reason for its success.
According to the article “100 Most-Watched TV Shows of 2019-20: Winners and Losers,” there’s a method that Fox is trying to implement, “Fox’s strategy, now that it has uncoupled from 20th Century Fox assets, has been to rethink what it is to be a broadcast network in an age where it’s tough to be a broadcast network” (Schneider) Fox is adapting to the times, and how did they do it, relying on sports and original content. The masked singer was a big success for the network, with that success, Fox was able to squeeze every last drop of juice that show had, creating a spinoff even. This worked for them because it was the most watched show on T.V. during a time where everybody was staying at home because of the pandemic. The production of the show wasn’t as expensive as some of the original content that is being produced by HBO or Netflix, but it still managed to be very successful.
News networks were huge winners as well, “The major news networks are touting big ratings gains in 2020, after the coronavirus crisis and the presidential election drove viewers in record numbers to their lineups” (Johnson). News networks were able to capitalize over a tumultuous 2020 that saw the arrival of a global pandemic and a presidential election. The 24/7 coverage offered audiences a live glimpse at what was going on, especially in a presidential election that dragged out for almost an entire week. Fox News, MSNBC and CNN all had an over 20% increase in ratings during 2020, with CNN’s being the greater one (85%), while Fox News was still the most watched news network (Johnson).
Roberto Casillas
DeletePart 2
But what is the future like for T.V.? I think that T.V. will eventually move into digital. Cable networks will begin setting up their streaming services the way NBC is doing it with Peacock. Content will be on demand and slowly companies will begin to distance themselves from live television. I also believe content will be more personalized, people won’t have to buy a bundle of channels if they want to watch HBO, they will be able to just have the channels they intend to watch. However, if I had to summarize my feelings about the future of T.V., I’ll just quote a Forbes article, “What’s the future of T.V.?” because I think it hits the nail in the head, “we’re well on our way to the future of TV. With changes in viewer preferences and new technology, especially driven by the growth of streaming services, TV will soon be nearly unrecognizable from what it was just a few decades ago” (Morgan). The days where families used to bundle up in the couch to watch live, network T.V. are a thing of yesterday.
Work Cited
Johnson, Ted. “Cable News Networks See Big Gains In Viewership During Tumultuous 2020.”
Deadline, Deadline, 29 Dec. 2020, deadline.com/2020/12/ratings-cable-news-networks-2020-1234660751/.
Morgan, Blake. “What's The Future Of TV?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 9 Dec. 2020,
www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/11/02/whats-coming-in-the-future-of-tv/?sh=20575e61fd1e.
Schneider, Michael. “100 Most-Watched TV Shows of 2019-20: Winners and Losers.” Variety,
Variety, 21 May 2020, variety.com/2020/tv/news/most-popular-tv-shows-highest-rated-2019-2020-season-masked-singer-last-dance-1234612885/.
Emma Frisbie
ReplyDeletePart 1
In a pandemic world, streaming seems to rule television. But, linear and cable networks are still watched by millions of viewers. According to a Variety article by Michael Schneider, Cable news, Univision, TLC, and classic TV networks made it out of 2020 stronger than ever. In three-five years, I have no doubt the TV industry will look different.
How are linear and cable TV competing with streaming services? According to an article from Deadline, “Fox News will finish the year again at top of the news channels in primetime, with an average of 3.6 million viewers, up 45%” (Johnson). Original series' have played a massive role in the success of Linear TV and streaming alike. But, it’s also something that has kept Linear channels, like Fox, afloat. Fox has “The Masked Singer,” NBC has “This Is Us,” TLC has “90 Day Fiancé”, and ABC has “Grey’s Anatomy”. Aside from the live sports aspect, all these channels have popular original series. A Variety article, “100 Most-Watched TV Shows of 2019-20: Winners and Losers” reports, “The Masked Singer” got 4,138,000 viewers aged 18-49, right behind ESPN’s “NFL Monday Night Football” (Schneider).
Something important to remember is that shows like “The Masked Singer” can only be viewed on Fox. The key is keeping originals available only on Fox. In the article “100 Most-Watched TV Shows of 2019-20: Winners and Losers" it says, “And thanks to sports, and “The Masked Singer” — which the network owns and produces — it’s been a solid season” (Schneider). Networks, like Fox, that continue to own, produce, and keep their content accessible only through their network are going to fare better than those who do not.
Networks that also have live sports often depend on them heavily. NBC, Fox, and ESPN all have high spots for top-rated shows, all of them live sports. Sports are the reason stations like these can stay afloat and compete with streaming services. In “100 Most-Watched TV Shows of 2019-20: Winners and Losers”, the program with the highest amount of viewers went to “NFL Sunday Night Football” on NBC with 19,993,000 viewers. In second, “NCIS” on CBS, in third, “NFL Thursday Night Football and in fourth, “NFL Monday Night Football”. This goes to show the influence that sports have on a network’s success.
Emma Frisbie
Deletepart 2
Although, this is why the pandemic proved to be so detrimental to these types of networks. With sports put on hold, their main source of viewership was taken away, leaving the original series to carry the team. The article “With So Many Streaming Services, What Really Sets Them Apart?” from Wired states, “It matters less, then, that Netflix’s overwhelming amount of original content doesn’t maintain a single thematic identity in the way that HBO’s antiheroes or NBC’s single-camera workplace comedies did over the past two decades” (Coates). Netflix and other streaming platforms can set themselves apart from Linear TV due to the variety of original content.
Original content is what sells on streaming platforms and linear TV alike. Take NBC’s “The Office”, all the seasons were available on Netflix with a basic subscription. According to “Tops of 2020: Nielson Streaming Unwrapped”, it was also the most-streamed acquired series of 2020. But, now it’s back “home” on NBC’s Peacock, where only the first two seasons are available. If linear networks can keep their content exclusively on their stations and platforms they’ll have a better chance at success.
In the next three-five years, I think linear and cable tv will still be around. Yes, streaming services offer what seems like an unlimited amount of original content. But, they are missing the key to linear networks, live sports. This, combined with original content, could be a valuable asset to linear networks in the future streaming wars.
Works Cited
Coates, Tyler. “With So Many Streaming Services, What Really Sets Them Apart?” Wired, Conde Nast, 9 Mar. 2020, www.wired.com/story/streaming-services-brand-identity/.
Johnson, Ted. “Cable News Networks See Big Gains In Viewership During Tumultuous 2020.” Deadline, Deadline, 29 Dec. 2020, deadline.com/2020/12/ratings-cable-news-networks-2020-1234660751/.
Media. “Tops of 2020: Nielsen Streaming Unwrapped.” Nielsen, 1 Dec. 2021, www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2021/tops-of-2020-nielsen-streaming-unwrapped/.
Schneider, Michael. “100 Most-Watched TV Shows of 2019-20: Winners and Losers.” Variety, Variety, 21 May 2020, variety.com/2020/tv/news/most-popular-tv-shows-highest-rated-2019-2020-season-masked-singer-last-dance-1234612885/.
Schneider, Michael. “Year in Review: Most-Watched Television Networks - Ranking 2020's Winners and Losers.” Variety, Variety, 28 Dec. 2020, variety.com/2020/tv/news/network-ratings-2020-top-channels-fox-news-cnn-msnbc-cbs-1234866801/.