If you were to ask someone in the early nineties about some of their favorite shows on television, you would likely yield a response mentioning Seinfeld, FRIENDS, or Frasier. Ask them today and you’re more likely to hear Homeland, Game of Thrones, or Dexter. All iconic programs, however now there’s a visible trend of fan favorites residing not on broadcast networks, but rather on premium cable channels. So what exactly has caused this shift in interest and acclaim of premium programs by audiences across the nation? Well there’s a lot more to it than one would think.
Since the turn of the millennium, premium giants such as HBO and Showtime have managed to slowly draw critics away from the “Big Three” television networks. These are NBC, CBS, and ABC, although FOX and The CW are also viable network competitors. This could be for a number of reasons, including content for instance. Premium cable networks are not held to the same strict standards as broadcast television. Since consumers pay for the channels at their own free will, programming can contain an abundance of swearing, violence, and nudity that would never see the light of day on any of the main networks. This freedom allows writers and producers to really break-free from the creative barricades of broadcast television laws and guidelines. Another reason viewers could be more drawn to premium cable is its lack of commercials. Again, because consumers pay in to premium networks they are not forced to rely on advertisers for revenue. Regardless of the reason, viewers and critics alike are applauding the original programming offered by premium cable networks, and shying away from the remaining hits on broadcast television. At the 2013 Golden Globe Awards, HBO and Showtime dominated with a total of 9 wins. Shockingly, not a single broadcast network program received an award that night (Bauder).
Broadcast networks have been down up to 18% in viewership of the 18-49 year old demo in recent years, and major cost-cuts have been made to even the most critically acclaimed shows (Flamm). Ironically, even with the substantial drop in viewership network television still garners three-times the viewers of premium cable networks. For instance, a recent episode of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory pulled in 18.98 million viewers in it’s most recent broadcast (Bibel), meanwhile HBO’s Girls pulled in roughly 1 million viewers in it’s broadcast on the same week (Kepler). That’s about an 18 million-person difference in viewership, yet Girls still managed to defeat The Big Bang Theory at the Golden Globes when competing in the same category. But how? What makes Girls, or any premium cable program for that matter, more acclaimed than its rivals? Joe Germscheid, director of consumer engagement at public relations firm Carmichael Lynch, weighs in, telling the Los Angeles Times, "What you'd call a 'hit' used to have a lot more viewers than it does now. A show still needs a lot of views, but it also needs a cultural currency. That can include everything from awards to blog items to mentions in social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (Collins).”
Viewers themselves are creating all the buzz any network could dream of having through social media, and positive word-of-mouth like that can go a lot further than any Nielsen rating. That buzz attracts viewers who later watch the show on-demand or with their DVR. That translates into greater viewership and results in pleased executives, especially when the shows pick up awards along the way. June Thomas explains in her Slate article “How Much Gold Is Game of Thrones Worth?” that essentially, “yes, premium cable does pay attention to ratings—just different ratings, and with different standards of success than at the broadcast networks (Thomas).”
So how can broadcast television combat this alternate way of doing business? It’s a difficult feat, no doubt. It’s not enough to simply switch over to a premium cable’s business model, because broadcast television still relies heavily on advertisers for revenue. The big question is can broadcast networks produce acclaimed scripted television like that of their premium competitors, and still rake in the ratings and viewers that less-expensive reality or game shows manage to achieve? A question that is still up in the air. David Poltrack’s “Outlook for Broadcast Networks” presentation addressed one of the ways broadcast networks are moving towards a new way to process their viewership. “We now have a new model defining and segmenting the television audience which can offer us and our advertisers Nielsen “ratings” for each of the segments comprising the television audience as well as cross media usage profile encompassing the Nielsen online panel and the MRI data base (Poltrack).” He describes how age and gender are no longer enough to target viewership, and that the new ways we view our shows, such as online, need to be addressed. This new model could pave the way for broadcast networks to start putting their money towards more creative programming, however there is no way of knowing how long that may take, or if they will ever be able to compete with premium cable networks.
Work Cited
Bauder, David. "Premium Cable Wins Big, Broadcast Networks Completely Shut out at Golden Globes." The Dallas Morning News Online. The Dallas Morning News, 13 Jan. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.
Bibel, Sara. "Thursday Final Ratings: 'Community' & 'The Big Bang Theory' Adjusted Up; 'Person of Interest' & 'Elementary' Adjusted Down." TVbytheNumbers. Zap2It, 8 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.
Collins, Scott. "Cable Networks Are TV's Biggest Stars." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 30 Sept. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
Flamm, Matthew. "Peacock network fails to take off, again." Crain's New York Business 10 Nov. 2008: 1. General OneFile. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
Kepler, Adam. "Girls Ratings Down From Season 1 Premiere." Arts Beat. The New York Times, 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
Poltrack, David. "The Outlook for the Broadcast Networks." UBS 39TH ANNUAL GLOBAL MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE (2011): n. pag. Web.
Thomas, June. "How Much Gold Is Game of Thrones Worth?" Slate Magazine. The Slate Group, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.
Cable networks will always be relevant. While the shows on the cable networks may not be as racy as those seen on premium channels, there will always be an audience for cable networks. As mentioned in the article from Bibel, shows like The Big Bang Theory are still pulling in a much larger audience than the premium networks. However, focusing on different ways that people are watching TV may give more insight to which of these outlets for television are truly doing better than the other.
ReplyDeleteWithin the last five years, it has become a widely used practice to watch shows online, days or weeks after the original broadcast. With the announcement that Nielsen is going to be teaming up with Twitter this year, we may be able to receive more accurate data on how many people are truly watching a show—not just when it is live, but whenever they watch it (Shih). Because we are entering an era where shows are watched unconventionally more and more, we need a more unconventional approach to measure the ratings. This idea of using social media to gauge the true size of the audience may be revolutionary to how cable television produces their shows. It may also give television networks a better idea of who exactly their audience is—especially the most loyal viewers.
There has been a recent trend, that will probably only get more prevelant, of shows live tweeting with their audience as the show is on. This not only allows the viewer to have a stronger connection with the show and become more loyal, it also draws in viewers to watch the show live when they may not have done so in the past. The next step for the big networks to not miss out on their viewers is to have their shows available online for people who missed the show the night before. Instead of selling the show to Hulu, these networks could have specific advertisements for online viewings of their show. They will lose out on viewers, especially those in the younger generation, if their show is not available anywhere online.
It shouldn’t be ignored, however, of cable channels that have tried to produce shows similar to what may be found on premium networks. FX has produced shows like “Sons of Anarchy” and “American Horror Story”, which have a similar feeling to shows on HBO like “True Blood” or Showtime’s “Dexter”. While they are still produced within the constraints of cable network, they are awarded some degree of a creative license. Also, these shows, also known as “Timeshifted Viewing” have seen a huge increase in viewership over the past three years. Other networks with shows in this category include AMC, USA, and FOX (Nielsen). This increase in viewership is evidence that the cable networks, if willing to make changes and enhance the quality of their show, will retain a huge audience. However, these cable networks must either choose between continuing with reality television in order to produce cheaper TV, or hire good writers to produce more well-received shows when it comes time for award season.
Works Cited
Shih, Gerry. "Twitter and Nielsen Pair up to Publish New "social TV" Ratings." Reuters (2012)
"Nielsen Tops of 2012: Television." Nielsen. N.p., 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.
Broadcast Networks and Premium Channel Networks are competing for viewership of their shows. In recent years the Premium Channel Networks are getting more viewers by a different source than the Broadcast Networks. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets are being utilized to discover new shows. Fellow friends and tweeters can see tweets and statuses about a certain show and can be interested and find a way to watch it. It can be a domino effect, if someone thinks a show is worthwhile they will tell the world, it is how our culture works. It will spark interest with others and the show can become a hit overnight.
ReplyDeleteNielsen Ratings are implementing a new rating mechanism to measure TV programming. It will be called “The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” this rating will “measure the number of people discussing a show on Twitter as well as those who are exposed to chatter to provide ‘precise size of the audience’ and effect of social TV to TV Programming.”(Nielsen) Nielsen will want to show the effect that Twitter has on shows. This can help see when and which networks that people are more apt to watch. There is a new phenomenon that many shows have used to gather followers and viewership it is called Live Tweeting. Live Tweeting helps viewers participate in the show. Viewers want to be as much part of the show as they can be. Shows that use Live Tweeting are “The Voice” and “What Happens Live”. These shows value the viewers’ opinion and help the ratings of the show sky-rocket.
Why is the viewership increasing with the Premium Cable Channels? Reasons such as: more alluring TV shows, the ability to watch on demand from multiple screens without commercials, the TV shows can be racier and profane and more creative. I don’t watch much live TV in general. I watch HBO GO at the gym to catch up with my show. I don’t particularly watch a lot of TV in general so I have never been into Broadcast Networks.
Broad Cast Networks, just like Premium Channels are upping the way viewers can watch their TV shows. “New technologies have, in the past few years, done a great deal to solve the problem of limited access to content.” (Poltrack) New technologies make it easier to view shows whenever a viewer pleases, whether it is on demand or DVR. The problem is not watching content but how many people watch it. Broadcast Networks seem to become a niche network because only certain types of viewers will only watch select shows on these networks. To get a better viewership the networks will have to either think of more creative shows or add more social media to the mix.
Works Cited
Poltrack, David. "The Outlook for the Broadcast Networks." UBS 39TH ANNUAL GLOBAL MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE (2011): n. pag. Web.
Shih, Gerry. "Twitter and Nielsen Pair up to Publish New "social TV" Ratings." Reuters (2012)