Tag Archives: Broadcast

Second Chance Post #8

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This past Friday, Second Chance continued to drop in the ratings. Even for FOX, a 0.5 in the 18-49 demo isn’t very good, but a total audience of about 1.91 million is still respectable. According to TV By the Numbers’ renew/cancel weekly standings, the show still has not been officially cancelled by FOX, but it’s thought that this will probably occur by May of this year. Being that the season order was cut down before the show even aired, renewal isn’t likely.

It is interesting to note that since I last blogged about Second Chance’s Facebook pages, the number of people who like the page has increased by over 7,000. The total number of likes now sits at over 18,000. Everything the page posts gets good social engagement and fans seem very happy/dedicated to the show. When going to the FOX website, Second Chance is pretty far down on the homepage so they don’t seem to be actively promoting it on web. A cool feature that they do have is called Latest Buzz which is found on the show’s homepage within the FOX website. Here, they curate what people are saying about the show on social media which includes official show accounts, stars of the show, and general fan tweets. It’s done in a very attractive and clean layout. Just shows once again that social is really a requirement for today’s television…

Second Chance Post #6

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This week, Second Chance saw the lowest total audience numbers of the season pulling in only 1.78 million viewers. Compare that with 4.71 million viewers for its premiere, and it’s easy to see that Second Chance probably won’t get one. This week, it was up against Dateline, Shark Tank, and Hawaii Five-0, all perennially successful shows which each pulled in a rating greater than 1 in the 18-49 demographic. It’s definitely interesting to note that Second Chance lost over a million viewers from its lead in, Sleepy Hollow, which pulled in 2.96 million viewers and held a 0.8 rating in the demo.

FOX still hasn’t released any information about whether or not the show will continue past this season. With it doing so poorly in its Friday timeslot, it would certainly seem unlikely that it will be renewed. Perhaps this was merely a “down” week for the show, but continuing to drop in ratings nearly every week since its premiere is never a good omen.

Grandfathered Post #7

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This has been a huge week for Fox’s comedy Grandfathered because Fox has requested six additional script orders for both Grandfathered and The Grinder. This shows the network, that the show is worthy of continuing production and showing episodes. On the contrary, Fox’s show The Minority Report’s episode order has been reduced from thirteen to ten, which shows Fox’s lack of faith in that show. Grandfathered has remained relatively consistent in the ratings and appears stable enough for Fox to grant the okay on the continuation of production.

grandfathered-the-grinder-tv-review-fox

Unfortunately directly correlating with this positive accolade for the show, Grandfathered lead John Stamos was charged for a DUI coming from an arrest that occurred earlier this year. Although, Stamos could face up to six months in jail, Fox keeps reassuring the press that this incident will not affect future production for the show.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Rob Latour/Variety/REX Shutterstock (5120784fg) John Stamos 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, Arrivals, Los Angeles, America - 20 Sep 2015

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Rob Latour/Variety/REX Shutterstock (5120784fg)
John Stamos
67th Primetime Emmy Awards, Arrivals, Los Angeles, America – 20 Sep 2015

Even with reassuring remarks the question still remains, how this charge and possible sentencing will affect the rest of the season and future production of this new comedy.

Grandfathered Post #6

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After opening up to a decent audience, Fox saw a decline in all three of its Tuesday night programming including Scream Queens, The Grinder, and Grandfathered. Grandfathered in the second week dropped 26%
in viewership, which is staggering and probably very disheartening for Fox Executives. The show received a 1.1rating/4 share and reached only 3.8 milli
on viewers in the key 18-49 demographic.

 

Grinder-Grandfathered-1       The show is already working to generate more fans by tying in some of John Stamos’ previous successes such as Full House, which is in the works as a sequel, Fuller House. Grandfathered will be having Bob Saget guest star on an episode. This is a perfect example of cross-promotion between different shows, but interestingly the shows are not on the same network. Fox’s Grandfathered and Netflix’s Fuller are sharing their talent pool to generate more viewers for hopefully both of the programs.

bob-saget-grandfathered

Grandfathered really needs to improve its fan base not only in the viewership, but also on social media. Currently, the show’s official Twitter has less than 10,000 followers, which compared to Fox’s Scream Queens that is on an hour later, which has about 266,000 followers. This juxtaposition shows that Grandfathered really needs to improve its social media especially in this multifaceted industry, which is integrating more and more social media into television programming.

 

Grandfathered Post #4

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Is John Stamos involved in too much?

A simple Google search of John Stamos provides you with millions of results. Unfortunately for Fox, most of the links relate to the Full House spinoff, “Fuller House”. Although the extensive publicity for Fuller House cannot be blamed on Stamos, it could cause some worry for Grandfathered executives who appear to be having difficulty spreading the word about this new show. John Stamos went on the Today Show and had a one-on-one interview with Matt Lauer, but the highlights from the interview revolved around Stamos’ rehab stint and Fuller House. Stamos’ social media platform is also not focused around Grandfathered, which might damage the premiere ratings on September 29th. On the contrary, Josh Peck, the younger star of Grandfathered has been covering his social media accounts with posts about Grandfathered to help create buzz for the show.

John Stamos on the Today Show

John Stamos on the Today Show

 

Also, Grandfathered reviews have arrived from a multitude of sources praising John Stamos for his performance and claiming that he fits really well into television narratives. This positive critical acclaim and lackluster social media presence could lead to unpredictable viewership for the premiere.

More Reviews: Yahoo Review, New York Times, & Deadline

 

 

Grandfathered Blog #2

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Grandfathered – Blog #2

As Grandfathered prepares for its premiere on Tuesday September 29th, Fox must consider this show’s competition for the upcoming season. Unfortunately, Grandfathered will be directly competing against the CW show, The Flash. The Flash is known for being one of the first Superhero TV show hits in recent years. This along with Jane the Virgin helped boost ratings on CW Network last year. This show and network are targets younger viewers in their teenage years, so Grandfathered might lose some younger viewership to this program.

Also, Grandfathered will be competing against NCIS, which has long-standing viewers that tend to be older. NCIS, draws in a solid following, but their viewers could be becoming bored with their average content and might look to some new programming like Grandfathered. Completely different genres, but hopefully Grandfathered can steal some of this viewership.

ABC will also be premiering a new show at this time, The Muppets. The Muppets, always a fan favorite might cause some shifting in this Tuesday night lineup and it will be interesting to see what age demographic ABC will be targeting.

The Slap Premieres

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The Slap premiered last Thursday to less than stellar ratings. It earned a 1.1 rating, with a 4 share in the 18-49 group. Its total viewership was 5.1 million overall. It had a decent amount of competition, which is important to consider. It went up against ratings powerhouse The Big Bang Theory, which got higher numbers despite being a repeat. On Fox and ABC, it was up against American Idol and Grey’s Anatomy respectively, two shows with a loyal and established audience. On the bright side, The Slap was NBC’s second best regular programming timeslot result this season. Time will tell if it get gain an audience in the coming weeks.

As far as reviews for the show, it currently holds a 5.4/10 on IMDb. The reviews themselves are mixed, but most find the characters to be terrible people which could prove to be problematic. They also praise NBC for taking a risk and making a show one would expect to see on Showtime or HBO, not broadcast.

The Slap 2/12/15

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With a recent trend towards limited series and event television, NBC is premiering The Slap next week. The 8-week series follows a group of family and friends in the aftermath of one fateful party, where one man slaps another couple’s child. Based on the Australian mini-series of the same name, it has a star-studded cast, including Peter Sarsgaard, Zachary Quinto and Uma Thurman. The controversial storyline could be a risk for network television, which rarely delves into this kind of psychological show.  NBC hopes the edgy subject matter will bring viewers in, even if just out of curiosity.

As far as publicity, NBC has a trailer on its site, as well as YouTube, where it has almost 4 million views. The show has a Twitter account (@TheSlap), mostly comprised of character bios and retweets from excited viewers. As the premiere date gets closer, more and more interviews and articles about The Slap are popping up. No reviews are up yet, so there’s no telling if it will be the awards darling the Australian series was. Even if it isn’t, it’s clear that NBC is pushing the boundaries of their usual content.

ABC Television Network

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by Macy Jenkins

History

The American Broadcasting Company began in 1943, after previously operating as the NBC Blue Radio Network.   The first television broadcast was in 1948.  In 1996, The Walt Disney Company bought ABC, which is now a part of the Disney-ABC Television Group.    Corporate headquarters and network news are based in New York City, while programming is based in Burbank, California.

The Players

Bob Iger

Source: disneylandtraveler.blogspot.com

.

Bob Iger

Chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company.

Iger began his career at ABC in 1974. Most recently, he acquired Pixar (2006) and Marvel (2009).  He directed the merger between Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. and The Walt Disney Company. [1]

Courtesy of Womensconference.org

Source: Womensconference.org

 

 

Anne Sweeney

Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks; President, Disney/ABC Television Group.

Sweeney oversees ABC Studios, the ABC Owned Television Stations Group, the ABC Television Network, Disney Channels Worldwide, ABC Family, SOAPnet, and A&E Television Networks.

Courtesy disneyabctv.com

Source: disneyabctv.com

 

 

Kevin Brockman

Executive Vice President, Global Communications, Disney/ABC Television Group.

Brockman oversees all corporate, news and entertainment communication efforts worldwide on behalf of the Disney/ABC Television Group.

 

Courtesy of disneyabctv.com

Source: disneyabctv.com

 

 

Rebecca Campbell

President, ABC Owned Television Stations Group.

Campbell is responsible for the company’s eight local TV stations and their digital assets in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno.

First Quarter Report

The Walt Disney Company’s media networks (which include cable and broadcast stations) increased by 7% in 2012, ending with $5.1 billion in revenue.  ABC Broadcasting revenue increased by 6% over the last year, going from $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion.  This comes after broadcasting operating income increased by $36 million to $262 million in 2012.  The increase in operating income was able to increase because of higher advertising revenues.  The amount of online advertising increased, as did advertising rates. [2]

Ratings

Each of the broadcast networks has seen a decreased in ratings from last year.  As of March 24th, ABC is in fourth place (after CBS, FOX, and NBC) with a 26-week season average of a 2.3 rating.  ABC is down 8% from last season.  Among total viewers, ABC’s 7.8 million is second only to CBS’ 12.1 million viewers (CBS had the Superbowl and the Grammy’s, while ABC’s main event was the Academy Awards). [3]

Courtesy of nydailynews.com

Source: nydailynews.com

On Sunday February 24th, 40 million people tuned in to watch Seth MacFarlane host the 85th Annual Academy Awards ceremony.  It was the most watched Oscars since 2010.  And this year’s saw 1 million more viewers than Billy Crystal’s 2012 ceremony. [4]

Primetime Programming

In January 2013, ABC had television’s number 1 scripted program for adults 18-49, “Modern Family.”

In January 2013, ABC had television’s number 1 scripted program for adults 18-49,
“Modern Family.” [5]  Source: scottfeinberg.com

Top Rated Shows: Modern Family,  Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Once Upon a Time, Dancing With the Stars, The Middle, The Bachelor, Castle, and 20/20.

On March 21, 2013, Grey’s Anatomy beat American Idol for the first time ever. And ABC delivers its most-watched non Oscar week since November during the week of March 18th.

On March 21, 2013, “Grey’s Anatomy” beat “American Idol” in the ratings for the first time. And ABC delivered its most-watched non-Oscar week since November during the week of March 18th. [6]  Source:  homeofthenutty.com

New Shows – Winter 2013:

The Taste: The competitive reality cooking show premiered on Tuesday January 22, 2013.  The eight-episode season consisted of auditions where the judges blindly tasted food and eventually eliminated teams to find the winner.  The premiere earned a 4.0 rating but the spring finale raked in a mere 1.1.   Critics say The Taste is simply a less exciting version of NBC’s The Voice. [7] [8]

Zero Hour: The drama premiered on Thursday February 14, 2013.  It was the least-watched premiere for a scripted series in ABC’s history (1.3 rating/6.3 million viewers).  Two weeks later, it was canceled. [9]

Red Widow: The drama premiered on Sunday March 3, 2013 and was picked up for eight episodes.  It’s centered around a woman who discovered her husband’s secret business life after he is murdered.  The premiere earned a 1.5 rating and it’s currently the lowest-rated show on the network.  However, ABC hasn’t pulled the plug yet. [10]

Splash: The series premiered on Tuesday March 19, 2013 to an audience of 8.8 million and earned a 2.6 rating.  It’s ABC’s highest-rated reality TV premiere in two years and the highest-rated reality TV premiere since The X Factor’s Fall 2011 premiere. [11]

Source: zap2it

Cast of “Splash”.  Source: zap2it

How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life): The comedy premiered on Wednesday April 3, 2013.  It stars Sarah Chalke as a divorced mother who moves back in with her hippie parents.  The show premiered with a 2.9 rating.  It airs after ABC’s #1 show, Modern Family. [12]

Source: Slant Magazine

Source: Slant Magazine

(See the “How to Live with your parents…” trailer)

Family Tools: The comedy will premiere on Wednesday May 1, 2013 as a part of ABC’s Wednesday comedy line-up.  The series is centered on a man who returns home from the army and has to take over his father’s hardware business. [13]

The only new shows from fall 2012 to escape cancellation (so far) have been Nashville, Malibu Country, and The Neighbors.  

ABC Daytime

Daytime television as a whole is not what it once was.  The soap opera era is over and only four traditional American soap operas remain on the air across all of the networks.  Due to declining ratings, ABC canceled the long-running dramas All My Children in 2011 and One Life to Live in 2012.  The sole survivor is General Hospital, which airs at 2pm.

Source: webpronews

Source: webpronews

The only other daytime programming the network offers is The View at 11am and The Chew at 1pm.

ABC News

ABC’s news programming includes World News with Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America, Nightline, Primetime, 20/20, and This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Good Morning America was the number 1 morning program in total viewers and in the Adult 25-54 demographic during the fourth quarter of 2012.  In fact, it marked the first time the program has won the Adult 25-54 demographic since 1994.

Source: Facebook

Source: Facebook

Nightline was the number 1 late-night program in total viewers and in the Adult 25-54 demo.

World News with Diane Sawyer beat CBS Evening News in fourth quarter ratings and saw its strongest fourth quarter performance since 2009.

Diane Sawyer has been with ABC News since 1989 and serves as the leading face of ABC's News Department. Source: ABC News

Diane Sawyer has been with ABC News since 1989 and serves as the leading face of ABC’s News Department. Source: ABC News

Online and Mobile

Election Night 2012 was the most streamed live event in the history of ABC News. [14] Source: Sun Times

Election Night 2012 was the most streamed live event in the history of ABC News. [14] Source: Sun Times

ABC.com has a comedy web series that infuses recaps from the network’s programs with comedic situations.  The latest is called “Taye Diggs Destroys Hip Hop.”  Actor Taye Diggs leaves Private Practice and starts a career in the world of Hip Hop music. [15]

ABC was the first network to offer a mobile app (released in april 2010).  As of April 5th, the app had been downloaded 10 million times, there have been 200 million episode views and more than 1.3 billion ads run.  [16]

ABC's video player is the sixth most downloaded free iPad app of all time. Source: ABC

ABC’s video player is the sixth most downloaded free iPad app of all time. Source: ABC

The Future

ABC still claims the number 1 scripted show, Modern Family, and has a large online presence.  But overall, in the era of “blinkandyoumissit,” the major networks have no time to rest before they plot their next moves.

Sources

[1] “Robert A. Iger”  http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about-disney/leadership/ceo/robert-iger

[2] “The Walt Disney Company Reports First Quarter Earnings For Fiscal 2013” http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/sites/default/files/press-releases/pdfs/q1-fy13-earnings.pdf

[3] “2012-2013 Season: CBS Leads Among Adults 18-49 & With Total Viewers Through Week 26 Ending March 24, 2013” http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/03/26/2012-2013-season-cbs-leads-among-adults-18-49-with-total-viewers-through-week-26-ending-march-24-2013/174970/

[4] “Seth MacFarlane-Hosted Oscars Watched By 40.3M, Up From 2012” http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/oscars-2013-tv-ratings-up-from-2012-abc-seth-macfarlane/

[5] “ABC The Only Major Net to Grow Year to Year” http://tvafterdarkonline.com/2013/01/abc-the-only-major-net-to-grow-year-to-year/

[6] “ABC Delivers Its Most-Watched Non-“Oscar” Week Since November” http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings/2013/03/26/abc-delivers-its-most-watched-non-oscar-week-since-november-209415/20130326abc02/

[7] “The Taste’s Two-Hour Premiere Earned Solid Ratings” http://eater.com/archives/2013/01/23/the-taste-wire.php

[8] “’The Taste’ Ends First Season With A Sad Whimper” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/the-taste_n_2876049.html

[9]” ‘Zero Hour’ Canceled: ABC Pulls Anthony Edwards Drama After Three Episodes” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/01/zero-hour-canceled_n_2794162.html

[10] “Red Widow: New ABC TV Series; Cancel or Keep It?” http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/red-widow-new-abc-tv-series-cancel-or-keep-it-27528/

[11] “Ratings: ABC Makes a Big Splash, Body of Proof Rises, Smash Dips, New Normal Drops” http://tvline.com/2013/03/20/ratings-abc-splash-premiere-ncis-la-spinoff/

[12] “’How to Live with Your Parents’ Opens Strong, ‘Modern Family’ is Wednesday’s Number 1 TV Show” http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/04/04/how-to-live-with-your-parents-opens-strong-modern-family-is-wednesdays-number-1-tv-show/176484/

[13] “’Family Tools’ Cut Down To 10 Episodes: ABC’s Midseason Comedy Affected By ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Schedule” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/10/family-tools-cut-down-to-10-episodes-abcs-midseason-comedy_n_2109980.html

[14] “ABC News surges into 2013 propelled by strong 4th quarter 2012 ratings.” http://www.cynopsis.com/files/8013/5759/7642/ABC_NEWS_SURGES_INTO_2013_PROPELLED_BY_STRONG_4TH_QUARTER_2012_RATINGS.pdf

[15] “It’s No April Fools Joke: ‘Taye Diggs Destroys Hip Hop’ on ABC.com/ABCdotcomedy – Video” http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/04/01/its-no-april-fools-joke-taye-diggs-destroys-hip-hop-on-abc-comabcdotcomedy-video/175843/

[16] “Disney/ABC App Downloaded 10 Million Times.” http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/197432/disneyabc-app-downloaded-10-million-times.html#axzz2PslnXpZl

Distribution

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By Ali Zaslav

          What’s Changed in TV Distribution?

In the television business, distribution is the key component in making content accessible and viewable by consumers on traditional and new platforms. Distribution is not only the way programming reaches audiences, but is a large component of programmers and distributors business models.

laptop_ipad_iphoneTraditionally TV distribution used to be much simpler; it was primarily through TV and consumed on the TV set. In this old media structure there were barriers to reaching consumers, (you would have to own a network or have a program carried by one). Today broadband allows for video content to be carried and viewed on the web. Countless individuals and companies can now reach viewers in new ways with all types of video content.

promo-tv-everywhereTelevision is still the primary way people consume video but new devices and new content are beginning to change consumers viewing behavior.  Viewers can watch traditional TV or now have the option to aggregate their favorite videos through many new options like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or TV Everywhere and watch them on their TV, or a tablet, phone or computer. The rise of new platforms to distribute TV content through DVR and VOD plus online viewership has resulted in a number of exciting developments for programmers and distributors, as well as real threats and challenges.

cableRight now television content distribution can be broken down into three categories: traditional distributors, new challenging distributors, and programmers that try to take advantage of all avenues of distribution.  Programmers now distribute through the traditional multi-channel operators (Time Warner), phone companies (Verizon & AT&T) and satellite distributors (like Dish and DirectTV) and new avenues like apps, TV Everywhere through a cable operator or digital offerings like Netflix.

Traditional Distributors in the TV Market

MSO’s, satellite, and phone companies are actively trying to delve into the growing market of cross platform viewing and video streaming. A recent development is TV Everywhere.

xfinity_logoComcast successfully released Xfinity on demand and struck deals with cable networks, broadcasters, and pay TV to stream their content online for Comcast subscribers. Applications like TV Everywhere are being released by a multitude of distributors, allowing consumers to stream their carried programming on any tablet, phone or computer. Time Warner now has TWC TV and Cablevision has TVtoGO.  Phone companies also provide online streaming; Verizon streams FiOS TV and AT&T streams U-verse.

directv everywhere

In February, DirectTV joined the online game and released DirectTV Everywhere. For traditional distributors, “TV Everywhere” has become an important part of their distribution model. But their applications have a lot of competition coming from Netflix, HuluPlus and Amazon which offer library’s of content and more recently original or exclusive programming.

Rising Challengers to Traditional Distributors

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The development of broadband as a vehicle for video has spurred huge entrepreneurial investment in companies like Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube as well as user-generated content. Traditional distributors are being challenged by new online distribution channels like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Apple TV, and Google (YouTube). These distributors are offering very appealing services to consumers and at low costs (Netflix & HuluPlus: both $8 a month and Amazon Prime $79/ yearly), or in the case of the web, Google or YouTube for free (you only need to have broadband). In addition, there is easy access through many devices like the computer, Xbox, iPad, etc with a wide range of content. We know this is appealing to consumers since Netflix recently grew to almost 28 million subscribers[1].house-of-cards-poster

For the past few years Netflix, Amazon and HuluPlus have provided old shows, almost like a library service. This year Netflix shook up its programming strategy when it released original content “House of Cards”. They did what no distributor or programmer has done before: presenting an entire television series “House of Cards” to subscribers upfront.  The viewer can than choose to watch the show all at once or at their own pace instead of once a week. In some ways, this strategy makes Netflix a competitor to HBO and cable channels. It also has blurred the lines as to what kind of company Netflix is: a distributor or original programmer? Further following a similar lead, Amazon is now promoting that they have exclusive content that you can only find and watch on Amazon[2].

apple_tv_boxApple’s release of the Apple TV has further blurred the lines of traditional distribution; offering the perks of online streaming and TV together. Further Hulu Plus and other services are offered on the Apple TV [3]. These advancements have changed how the media works and how television content is distributed to consumers. Netflix offering original content, the Apple TV, Hulu Plus and Amazon’s exclusive content offerings shows how fast things are transforming in the distribution and video content business
  TV Programming Distribution Strategies
Broadcast and cable networks, to stay competitive, have been dabbing into online streaming, tablet apps, and phone applications. Most cable networks do their best to offer applications that distribute some recent episodes, behind the scenes clips, best of clips, etc. However cable networks tend to limit the amount of long-form content because the distributors they partner with would not pay them as high of a sub fee for their programming. A critical part of the business model for cable programming services is maintaining a strong sub fee with distributors.

[15]Cable channels like A&E, Discovery, History, Lifetime and many others have iPad applications. Disney offers “Watch” to stream ESPN and Disney Channel to computers and other devices [4]. Recently on the broadcast side, broadcasters have been making more content available on their websites and through services like Hulu.  Since broadcast don’t rely on sub fees they have been much more aggressive in moving their content to other platforms than cable. And just this month ABC and CBS both came out with tablet applications to stream their television series.

Conclusion

Distributors have been and must adapt to new technologies, platforms and consumer demands.  Despite the buzz that cable and broadcast are “dying mediums,” the Neilson graph below shows that while online viewership is increasing, people are still consuming a large percent of content on the TV set[5]. eeeee

The real measure of the success of TV distributors will be how well their offerings satisfy consumer interests in viewing content how and when they want too. If the traditional distributors don’t provide it, new companies like Netflix and Apple will meet that demand.