Regular television apparently just had its worst month ever
For the first time, less than half of all TV usage in July came from people watching broadcast and cable
Aux News NBCUniversal
This has been a dramatic summer for the entertainment industry, with the Barbenheimer phenomenon doing big business at the box office while the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes call attention to the struggles faced by workers in Hollywood, but the traditional broadcast and cable TV networks are probably wishing that things were a little less dramatic right now in the world of show biz. That’s because, as reported by Axios, broadcast and cable accounted for less than 50 percent of all TV usage in July for what is apparently the first time ever (or at least the first time since anyone was tracking these things), with broadcast specifically hitting a “new low.”
The data came from Nielsen’s monthly survey, The Gauge, which also noted that cable’s share of the whole TV usage pie also fell below 30 percent for the first time ever. Combined with 20 percent going to cable, that left about 50.3 percent of all TV usage for streaming services and “other” (Nielsen says that’s, like, video games and stuff)—meaning, again, that more people spent July using their TVs to stream stuff or play Xbox than watch broadcast TV or cable.
Axios has a handy “why it matters” thing pointing out that the lack of any big sporting events in July (aside from the Women’s World Cup) really hurt the regular TV networks, but there is another reason this matters: The traditional TV networks are staring down the barrel of a fall schedule with no new scripted shows because of the strikes. Unless the strikes end immediately, that’s not going to change even when the football season kicks off (football pun), and since we’re talking about percentage of TV usage and not ratings, that’s going to benefit the streaming services and the “others.”
That might not be a big deal to the corporations that own a network and a streaming service, like how Disney has ABC and Hulu/Disney+ and NBCUniversal has NBC and Peacock, but if the market share is already skewing in this direction, then the strikes are going to start putting more and more of a strain on the companies that aren’t also running streamers—which could, in theory, sow some discord among the AMPTP companies that the actors and writers are striking against. At a certain point, someone might have to start questioning whether or not the traditional networks are simply letting themselves get crushed by the streamers when they choose not to give in to the unions’ demands.
61 Comments
Worth month?
Worst monst?
New, MonstWurst! Available in your deli case, October only!
“It was the best of times, it was the *worth* of times? You stupid monkey!”
that’th crathy you guyth
probably b/c it’s too expensive & lots of it sucks. surprise!
Worth headline ever!
It wath the betht of headlineth. It was the blurtht of headlineth.
You stupid monkey!
Do they even have editors at “Gawker” any longer?
Never have. I’ve been told its a blog format so Editors aren’t needed.
And look and well that’s working.
I tawt i taw a puddy tat
Thankth, Tham Barthanti!
Maybe he has a REALLY bad lisp.
You’re Thor? I’m tho thore I can hardly pith!
Obliviously, it’s not worst the hassle to fix it.
The AV Club’s editors are the worth. Hardly worse the money they are paid.
But I did like their write-ups of ‘You’re The Worth’.
I don’t think there are any actual humans in attendance.
Best of headline, blurst of headlines.
This site still shows up quickly on search engines and in facebook ads. How embarrassing. It’s been five days. No one GAF.
Worse every penny.
If the networks tried not broadcasting low grade trash all the goddamn time, then that’d probably help though.
So start broadcasting high grade trash?
Tell me you don’t proofread without telling me you don’t proofread. It may be the guys who write the stories aren’t the same people that write the headlines, but still.
I see that the switchover to AI is proving to be worst the cost in product quality.
*worth
In fairness, the AI would probably have spelled it correctly.
It is spelled correctly, it’s just not the correct word.
Proof-read! For fuck’s sake!
You need to actually to budget for a proof-reader first.
Or, just a suggestion, the writer should proof-read before submitting. I remember something in high school about that.
You’ll be shocked to learn that the industry doesn’t work like high school. Sure, there’s an argument to be made that in 2023, things could have evolved somewhat from the way it’s been done for over a century, but that’s going to be difficult to pull off when some wall street bros buy your mag and gut it to the bone.
Hell, I still do that with my texts. Hitting send and seeing those typos go out if ducking embarrassing.
Not long ago I mistyped the word “bigger”, starting it with a different letter, one that’s just to the right of the B on the keyboard. It was an entirely unintentional mistake, but I still felt absolutely awful about it. It pays to check.
Damn. Brave of you to admit that. I’m going to be extra aware of that now.
Oh Tham Barthanti, you are the worth.
Now more than ever, know your worse, writers.
Theriouthly, leaving behind the glaring typo that screams “moving on to next bit of content, can’t be bothered to care here”…Why is there any suprise with this happening? Given that summer is traditional shit viewing season combined with the strike, we’ve had… oh… the entire timespan of the existence of network broadcasting to know this is the time of year to turn off the box and do something worthwhile.Now that list includes “switching to a service that provides shit I DO want to watch”.I guess I’m part of the problem anyway. We recently downscaled our cable service following yet another massive hike (we were elevated to close to a forty percent hike without warning recently) and I’m thinking the best idea is to write off TV and streaming and just stick with video games.Most of the ones I’m playing? You pay for it once. That’s it.
I only came here for the commenths
It’s great that the Women’s World Cup had good ratings, but it’s not surprising that they did not contribute much to TV viewership overall. The only games that had truly great ratings were those played by America, and America only played four games. That’s just never going to provide the ratings lift of the NBA or MLB. NFL games are somewhat less frequent, but there are still maybe three times as many NFL games a week as the U.S. Women played the whole tournament, and even middling NFL matchups have great ratings relative to other sports.
Give it to me, I’m worth it.
Who saw the headline and came here jutht for the comments?
Yeah but that’s true of every article.
always
Yeth.
good time to hit up the library!
Gentlemen, I think we’ve found Sam Barsanti’s “jellybeans”….so to speak.
The jellybeans moment was hilariously bizarre. Rabin essentially hallucinated a whole scene. This is just kind of sad.
Which review was that? I remember a South Park review where the writer imagined a scene but that wasn’t Rabin.
It was a 30 Rock recap where Nathan thought Alec Baldwin’s character slipped some pills into Tracy Morgan’s jellybeans:
https://www.avclub.com/30-rock-reaganing-1798166295
I remember that episode oh my god this is amazing thank you.
It was his review of the ‘30 Rock’ episode “Reaganing”. Rabin wrote about a scene where Jack sneaks some pills into Tracy’s jelly beans, which doesn’t actually happen.
broadcast and cable accounted for less than 50 percent of all TV usage in July That’s not necessarily bad for network TV (which I consider regular TV) cause a lot of people watch the same amount of network TV on streaming services like YouTubeTV/Hulu, same as they did with cable.It sounds like bad news for cable, but they can suck it.
Damn. Seven hours later and the headline still says “worth.” This is starting to feel like Trump-esque gaslighting. “We meant TV had its worth month ever. What’s not clear about that? And you know, many people, they’re saying it was the worth month, not just us, okay? The worth.”
It will stay here… forever…
Did the AI bite it’s tongue?I bet the reason they won’t fix this is the typo is generating lots of clicks.
Spelling mistakes not just in the articles themselves anymore. Straight to the headlines.
Figured that was a typo. Comments confirm. How do you have that on your front page and not notith ith?