I know this isn't directly related to college sports, but considering how much of the current state of college athletics is dictated by media rights, how quickly things are changing, and some of the numbers in this article, it seems very relevant.

https://apnews.com/article/television-tv...wtab-en-us

Quote:Now MTV is a ghost. Its average prime-time audience of 256,000 people in 2023 was down from 807,000 in 2014, the Nielsen company said. One recent evening MTV aired reruns of “Ridiculousness” from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

The general interest USA Network’s nightly audience tumbled 69% in the same time span, and that was before January’s announcement that viewer-magnet “WWE Raw” was switching to Netflix.

Without favorites like “The Walking Dead” or “Better Call Saul,” AMC’s prime-time viewership sunk 73%. The Disney Channel, birthplace to young stars like Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff and Selena Gomez, lost an astonishing 93% of its audience, from 1.96 million in 2014 to 132,000 last year.

TBS, TNT, History, Lifetime, FX, A&E, BET, E! Entertainment, SyFy, Comedy Central, VH1 and Discovery have all lost at least half of their 2014 audience.

...

In 2015, some 87% of American homes had a cable or satellite television subscription, according to the Nielsen company. By 2023, only 47% of homes subscribed. If you include services like Hulu or YouTube TV, the percentage of homes with access to multiple channels was 62% last year, Nielsen said.

...

To illustrate how fast habits are changing, a survey taken in January by the digital marketing agency Adtaxi found that 73% of viewers turned to streaming before cable or broadcast when they sat down to watch TV. Only a year earlier, 42% said streaming was their default choice.

...

HBO is also making the transition well, while Bravo programming is a strong draw for Peacock. Nickelodeon and MTV are among the brands having a harder time; S&P Global last week put their parent company, Paramount, on a negative credit watch, citing “the deterioration of the linear television ecosystem.”

As much as we scoffed at Amazon taking over Thursday Night Football and the Pac-12 turned their nose up to Apple TV, if these numbers continue on the trajectory they're on now, when the next round of negotiations comes around, you're going to see streaming services coming into the conversation as major players, and conferences will start to listen.

It’s crazy that MTV’s ratings are that low. That channel used to be “it” for teens and young adults in the 90s.

(03-05-2024 06:21 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  It’s crazy that MTV’s ratings are that low. That channel used to be “it” for teens and young adults in the 90s.

Damn. WE're about as far in time from, say, Nirvana on MTV Unplugged as that was from the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.

(Paramount stock is tanking, and I really think the company is doomed. Which is wild, since it's the No. 1 TV network, but since only old people watch TV, that doesn't matter.)

(03-05-2024 06:26 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(03-05-2024 06:21 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  It’s crazy that MTV’s ratings are that low. That channel used to be “it” for teens and young adults in the 90s.

Damn. WE're about as far in time from, say, Nirvana on MTV Unplugged as that was from the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.

MTV had a show around 2000 where they’d invade college campuses. They’d even go to random directionals - it was so DavidSt.

(03-05-2024 06:26 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(03-05-2024 06:21 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  It’s crazy that MTV’s ratings are that low. That channel used to be “it” for teens and young adults in the 90s.

Damn. WE're about as far in time from, say, Nirvana on MTV Unplugged as that was from the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.

(Paramount stock is tanking, and I really think the company is doomed. Which is wild, since it's the No. 1 TV network, but since only old people watch TV, that doesn't matter.)

Are we going to end up with a handful of streamers like when there was only a handful of channels? What's old is new again?

(03-05-2024 06:37 PM)Porcine Wrote:  

(03-05-2024 06:26 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(03-05-2024 06:21 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  It’s crazy that MTV’s ratings are that low. That channel used to be “it” for teens and young adults in the 90s.

Damn. WE're about as far in time from, say, Nirvana on MTV Unplugged as that was from the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.

(Paramount stock is tanking, and I really think the company is doomed. Which is wild, since it's the No. 1 TV network, but since only old people watch TV, that doesn't matter.)

Are we going to end up with a handful of streamers like when there was only a handful of channels? What's old is new again?

Definitely could end up with about as many "Major Streamers" as you used to have Major Networks. Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, and one more?

Do you count ESPN Flagship, ESPN+ separately? Separate from Disney? IDK

Or it could happen that MAx, PAramount, Peacock, Apple settle in where they are now, not losing enough money to get shut down, not making enough money to challenge the bigger fish.

Something I wonder--do four major OTA networks survive? As the bundle continues to decay, the next target is going to be OTA retransmission fees. That's a lot of revenue that goes to the owners of TV stations from cable and DirecTV and MVPDs. Willie Sutton's Law (that's where the money is) says they're probably next on the chopping block over the next five years.

(03-05-2024 06:08 PM)Mav Wrote:  I know this isn't directly related to college sports, but considering how much of the current state of college athletics is dictated by media rights, how quickly things are changing, and some of the numbers in this article, it seems very relevant.

https://apnews.com/article/television-tv...wtab-en-us

Quote:Now MTV is a ghost. Its average prime-time audience of 256,000 people in 2023 was down from 807,000 in 2014, the Nielsen company said. One recent evening MTV aired reruns of “Ridiculousness” from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

The general interest USA Network’s nightly audience tumbled 69% in the same time span, and that was before January’s announcement that viewer-magnet “WWE Raw” was switching to Netflix.

Without favorites like “The Walking Dead” or “Better Call Saul,” AMC’s prime-time viewership sunk 73%. The Disney Channel, birthplace to young stars like Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff and Selena Gomez, lost an astonishing 93% of its audience, from 1.96 million in 2014 to 132,000 last year.

TBS, TNT, History, Lifetime, FX, A&E, BET, E! Entertainment, SyFy, Comedy Central, VH1 and Discovery have all lost at least half of their 2014 audience.

...

In 2015, some 87% of American homes had a cable or satellite television subscription, according to the Nielsen company. By 2023, only 47% of homes subscribed. If you include services like Hulu or YouTube TV, the percentage of homes with access to multiple channels was 62% last year, Nielsen said.

...

To illustrate how fast habits are changing, a survey taken in January by the digital marketing agency Adtaxi found that 73% of viewers turned to streaming before cable or broadcast when they sat down to watch TV. Only a year earlier, 42% said streaming was their default choice.

...

HBO is also making the transition well, while Bravo programming is a strong draw for Peacock. Nickelodeon and MTV are among the brands having a harder time; S&P Global last week put their parent company, Paramount, on a negative credit watch, citing “the deterioration of the linear television ecosystem.”

As much as we scoffed at Amazon taking over Thursday Night Football and the Pac-12 turned their nose up to Apple TV, if these numbers continue on the trajectory they're on now, when the next round of negotiations comes around, you're going to see streaming services coming into the conversation as major players, and conferences will start to listen.

Streaming is a fad right now. People are not going to put up with price hikes and content removal. Cable will make a small comeback at some point.

...will be very interesting when the ESPN/Fox/WB-TNT-TBS entity gets up and running...

(03-05-2024 07:08 PM)andybible1995 Wrote:  

(03-05-2024 06:08 PM)Mav Wrote:  I know this isn't directly related to college sports, but considering how much of the current state of college athletics is dictated by media rights, how quickly things are changing, and some of the numbers in this article, it seems very relevant.

https://apnews.com/article/television-tv...wtab-en-us

Quote:Now MTV is a ghost. Its average prime-time audience of 256,000 people in 2023 was down from 807,000 in 2014, the Nielsen company said. One recent evening MTV aired reruns of “Ridiculousness” from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

The general interest USA Network’s nightly audience tumbled 69% in the same time span, and that was before January’s announcement that viewer-magnet “WWE Raw” was switching to Netflix.

Without favorites like “The Walking Dead” or “Better Call Saul,” AMC’s prime-time viewership sunk 73%. The Disney Channel, birthplace to young stars like Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff and Selena Gomez, lost an astonishing 93% of its audience, from 1.96 million in 2014 to 132,000 last year.

TBS, TNT, History, Lifetime, FX, A&E, BET, E! Entertainment, SyFy, Comedy Central, VH1 and Discovery have all lost at least half of their 2014 audience.

...

In 2015, some 87% of American homes had a cable or satellite television subscription, according to the Nielsen company. By 2023, only 47% of homes subscribed. If you include services like Hulu or YouTube TV, the percentage of homes with access to multiple channels was 62% last year, Nielsen said.

...

To illustrate how fast habits are changing, a survey taken in January by the digital marketing agency Adtaxi found that 73% of viewers turned to streaming before cable or broadcast when they sat down to watch TV. Only a year earlier, 42% said streaming was their default choice.

...

HBO is also making the transition well, while Bravo programming is a strong draw for Peacock. Nickelodeon and MTV are among the brands having a harder time; S&P Global last week put their parent company, Paramount, on a negative credit watch, citing “the deterioration of the linear television ecosystem.”

As much as we scoffed at Amazon taking over Thursday Night Football and the Pac-12 turned their nose up to Apple TV, if these numbers continue on the trajectory they're on now, when the next round of negotiations comes around, you're going to see streaming services coming into the conversation as major players, and conferences will start to listen.

Streaming is a fad right now. People are not going to put up price hikes and content removal. Cable will make a small comeback at some point.

It's more likely that they move to social media. Tiktok and Instagram feeds are where they're going if they're unsubbing from streaming services.

We switched from cable to streaming because of the cost. Even getting cable channels without sports is costly. Mainly because a monthly fee for the cable box is atrocious when makes it not worthwhile when having 3 TVs

Still with Philo for $25/month. All the cable channels without the sports channels.

None of this would matter if the streaming business model was financially equivalent to the cable model. But it isn't. The high water mark of media contracts may well have been reached and we're looking at a significant downward trend. If so, and if ESPN doesn't pass on the last 9 years of their contract the ACC might well be the smartest players in the game. Once you're use to the big money coming down from that is harsh.

(03-05-2024 07:18 PM)EOU93 Wrote:  We switched from cable to streaming because of the cost. Even getting cable channels without sports is costly. Mainly because a monthly fee for the cable box is atrocious when makes it not worthwhile when having 3 TVs

Still with Philo for $25/month. All the cable channels without the sports channels.

As a senior citizen I can say major change is hard to accept. But I finally dropped cable and jumped into streaming. Even with a Sling package with an add on for TCM and the ACCN my total bill for internet, home phone and content (streaming replacing cable) went from $307 down to $190. It's hard to justify sticking with cable, even for an old geezer like me.

It sounds like it’s time to let cable die. For better or worse, streaming is the future. Rather than hanging on to the bitter end, it makes more sense the the media companies to go ahead and make the switch. This new joint sports package is only going to hasten it.

(03-05-2024 07:50 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  It sounds like it’s time to let cable die. For better or worse, streaming is the future. Rather than hanging on to the bitter end, it makes more sense the the media companies to go ahead and make the switch. This new joint sports package is only going to hasten it.

As I said in an earlier post, people are not going to put up with price hikes and content removal. Cable will make a small comeback. The reason some of these media companies are going under, such as Disney and Paramount, is because they've put out one identity politic movie after another, and they've all bombed. Only a hostile takeover would save them from extinction, but that looks highly unlikely.

I've paid for a LOT of content on Amazon. Not to rent, I 'purchased' the movies/shows. Now, when I go to some of that content I have to watch ads. Can't tell you how annoying that is... To me, this is a major scam.

I think some poor soul a few years ago actually tried to sue Amazon, as they were removing some content she had 'bought'. Somewhere in the fine print it was buried that it was actually a 'long term rental', not a purchase. But the button clearly says 'purchase', and words mean things.

Hulu used to not have ads... ditto with youtube long ago.

Bottom line, it's all a scam, and they will keep prying more and more cash from you, one way or another.

(03-05-2024 08:00 PM)andybible1995 Wrote:  

(03-05-2024 07:50 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  It sounds like it’s time to let cable die. For better or worse, streaming is the future. Rather than hanging on to the bitter end, it makes more sense the the media companies to go ahead and make the switch. This new joint sports package is only going to hasten it.

As I said in an earlier post, people are not going to put up with price hikes and content removal. Cable will make a small comeback.

Why? There's a big gap between the cost of streaming and the cost of cable.
If you get every streamer I can think of -- Netflix, Disney+, Max PAramount Peacock, plus the ESPN-Fox-WBD Joint Venture for $50 a month. Let's add that up, going with the cheaper, show-me-ads options since you're comparing to cable.

Cheapest Netflix is $7 a month
Disney Plus $8 a month
Max $10 a month
Paramount $6 a month
Peacock $6 a month.
That's $37 a month if you're willing to watch ads to save money. Plus $50 for the sports bundle. Maybe ad $20 a month for your local BAllys Sports Plus streamer to watch the local MLB/NBA/NLH team

That's $107 a month. Spectrum says their cheapest package is $65 a month.

OK you want to know how finished the cable bundle is? I went to Spectrum's page from the ad that said $65 a month, and everything I see is about home internet, except for one button about bundling Disney+ with Spectrum Select.

Cable may never go away completely, but it's never "coming back"

Quote:The reason some of these media companies are going under, such as Disney and Paramount, is because they've put out one identity politic movie after another, and they've all bombed. Only a hostile takeover would save them from extinction, but that looks highly unlikely.

It's not about politics. Fox is facing the same realities, didn't pour a few billion dollars into a streaming service, and their market cap is down 50% or so since Fox Corporation spun off when Disney bought 21st Century Fox

(03-05-2024 06:26 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(03-05-2024 06:21 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  It’s crazy that MTV’s ratings are that low. That channel used to be “it” for teens and young adults in the 90s.

Damn. WE're about as far in time from, say, Nirvana on MTV Unplugged as that was from the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.

(Paramount stock is tanking, and I really think the company is doomed. Which is wild, since it's the No. 1 TV network, but since only old people watch TV, that doesn't matter.)

About the Beatles, I remember about a year ago I came across an old photo of myself in high school, back in 1981. For some random reason it occurred to me that when the photo was taken, I was closer in time to Pearl Harbor than I was to today.

That blew my mind, LOL.

(03-05-2024 07:08 PM)andybible1995 Wrote:  

(03-05-2024 06:08 PM)Mav Wrote:  I know this isn't directly related to college sports, but considering how much of the current state of college athletics is dictated by media rights, how quickly things are changing, and some of the numbers in this article, it seems very relevant.

https://apnews.com/article/television-tv...wtab-en-us

Quote:Now MTV is a ghost. Its average prime-time audience of 256,000 people in 2023 was down from 807,000 in 2014, the Nielsen company said. One recent evening MTV aired reruns of “Ridiculousness” from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

The general interest USA Network’s nightly audience tumbled 69% in the same time span, and that was before January’s announcement that viewer-magnet “WWE Raw” was switching to Netflix.

Without favorites like “The Walking Dead” or “Better Call Saul,” AMC’s prime-time viewership sunk 73%. The Disney Channel, birthplace to young stars like Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff and Selena Gomez, lost an astonishing 93% of its audience, from 1.96 million in 2014 to 132,000 last year.

TBS, TNT, History, Lifetime, FX, A&E, BET, E! Entertainment, SyFy, Comedy Central, VH1 and Discovery have all lost at least half of their 2014 audience.

...

In 2015, some 87% of American homes had a cable or satellite television subscription, according to the Nielsen company. By 2023, only 47% of homes subscribed. If you include services like Hulu or YouTube TV, the percentage of homes with access to multiple channels was 62% last year, Nielsen said.

...

To illustrate how fast habits are changing, a survey taken in January by the digital marketing agency Adtaxi found that 73% of viewers turned to streaming before cable or broadcast when they sat down to watch TV. Only a year earlier, 42% said streaming was their default choice.

...

HBO is also making the transition well, while Bravo programming is a strong draw for Peacock. Nickelodeon and MTV are among the brands having a harder time; S&P Global last week put their parent company, Paramount, on a negative credit watch, citing “the deterioration of the linear television ecosystem.”

As much as we scoffed at Amazon taking over Thursday Night Football and the Pac-12 turned their nose up to Apple TV, if these numbers continue on the trajectory they're on now, when the next round of negotiations comes around, you're going to see streaming services coming into the conversation as major players, and conferences will start to listen.

Streaming is a fad right now. People are not going to put up with price hikes and content removal. Cable will make a small comeback at some point.

It's not a fad. Spectrum is pushing their cable customers to transition to a streaming box that organizes content like the old cable format. Their business model is shifting more heavily to internet and cellular service. They aren't going to continue to invest in the maintenance and upgrades required to keep cable going much longer. They are typical of cable providers that also have internet. For the stand along cable companies (are there any left?) they are going to have to do some major reworking of their business or die.

"...In 2015, some 87% of American homes had a cable or satellite television subscription, according to the Nielsen company. By 2023, only 47% of homes subscribed. If you include services like Hulu or YouTube TV, the percentage of homes with access to multiple channels was 62% last year, Nielsen said.

If fewer people have cable, then obviously fewer are watching. But it’s a classic chicken-and-egg situation: Have the number of subscribers dropped because people feel the networks have less to offer? Or is less being offered because there are fewer viewers?

To illustrate how fast habits are changing, a survey taken in January by the digital marketing agency Adtaxi found that 73% of viewers turned to streaming before cable or broadcast when they sat down to watch TV. Only a year earlier, 42% said streaming was their default choice...."

Above is a quote from the article.

As someone said, cable has gotten really expensive. We will be looking at our options this summer. We've got Uverse TV and Uverse internet.
Getting the local channels is not an issue. We can get them with a simple indoor antenna, although we don't really like the clutter.
But if you are streaming on your internet, it puts a burden if you are doing multiple things at once (streaming a movie while a couple people are doing videos on their phone or computer). So we have to figure that out.
For me, all I need are ESPN/2/SECN along with FS1. But my wife likes Lifetime. My daughter likes Nickelodeon and a couple like that. There are probably 80% of the channels we never watch and 10% rarely so we wouldn't miss them at all.

(03-05-2024 06:21 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  It’s crazy that MTV’s ratings are that low. That channel used to be “it” for teens and young adults in the 90s.

Its amazing they even got a 2nd life when they stopped focusing on music videos and focused mainly on reality tv. Once that well dried up they had nothing left to offer. Going back to music videos was pointless with youtube around.