TV's Awful Decline

[GodfreyGR 652]

1 hour ago, MediaZone4K said:

We haven't discussed award shows decline in this thread yet but the Primetime Emmys last night were actually good if anyone saw it! It was a well done retrospective of 75 years of tv with several cast reunions.

Here lies the problem/challenge however- One "good" show does not stop the trend that has driven viewers away en masse. The Swifties are still probably sour about the Golden Globes joke last week (I'm sick of it showing up in my newsfeed), half of America can't stand Hollywood's political opinions in their speeches (see Ricky Gervais' call out of that), oh, and ABC was showing a blowout football game at the same time. 

 

It's going to take a lot of time, effort, and consistency to make Americans care about awards shows again. 

[MediaZone4K 2176]

2 hours ago, GodfreyGR said:

Here lies the problem/challenge however- One "good" show does not stop the trend that has driven viewers away en masse. The Swifties are still probably sour about the Golden Globes joke last week (I'm sick of it showing up in my newsfeed), half of America can't stand Hollywood's political opinions in their speeches (see Ricky Gervais' call out of that), oh, and ABC was showing a blowout football game at the same time. 

 

It's going to take a lot of time, effort, and consistency to make Americans care about awards shows again. 

I agree with your points. More award shows could stand to take a page from last night. It wasn't trashy like the VMA's and not overly political like the Oscars. It was just about celebrating the craft which is what award shows should be about. The cast reunions were a big part of that.

[Megatron81 258]

Why I like the music award shows like The Grammy's where it's all about the music and hardly anything about politics like The Globs & Oscars plus I don't watch any of the movies or TV shows that are up for noms why I don't watch them that much.

[MediaZone4K 2176]

Interesting watch. Adam Conover argues that Netflix swindled consumers with its cheap $8 offering, helped kill the traditional TV model, and now that it has the lion's share of streaming viewers, it's jacking up prices and adding advertisements---its plan all along. 

 

Conover also claims their method of dropping the entire seasons at once to encourage binge-watching is causing Netflix's constant show cancellation problem.

 

Why?: full season releases causes a season to stay relevant for a few days then fizzle. Conversely weekly releases keeps momentum and attention around a show. I think Power on Starz is a good example of that. 

 

Conover also concludes that streaming services are collapsing because audiences like free content, which made the ad subsidized network television popular. A future where all of television is multiple paid streaming services is not sustainable. 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[MediaZone4K 2176]

As we further examine the decline television news, these two articles say that the days of the high paid television anchor are over. In in the storytellers thread on Facebook someone even suggested the days of the local anchor making over $100,000 a year are done.

 

The articles point to Hoda Kotb's departure from the Today Show after allegedly being asked to take a salary cut. They also point to Jimmy *Fallon cutting back to four new shows a week, and the removal of the 8G band from Late Night with Seth Meyers.

 

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/anchors-tv-news-stars-pay-cuts-exit-1236180206/

 

https://jacobsmedia.com/death-by-1000-salary-cuts/

Edited February 3 by MediaZone4K

[mre29 1519]

It's Jimmy Fallon whose show cut back to four (new) episodes a week, not Kimmel.

 

[newsteam13 395]

Nobody comes home to watch the news anymore. Not even the local news at 5pm, 6pm and 11pm (10pm on central/mountain). Certainly not the network evening newscasts. More people are streaming nowadays, not to mention getting their news on the internet.

 

CBS News's YouTube channel offers full-length episodes of the CBS Evening News. After they broadcast on their local affiliates, CBS News uploads that night's newscast like 4 hours later, so people who prefer online can watch on YouTube at their own convenience. ABC News YouTube channel, same deal with World News Tonight uploaded like 4 hours after they broadcast on ABC affiliates. NBC News YouTube Channel uploading the NBC Nightly News the same night. Talk about ease of access!

 

Why aren't local stations following suit with the networks? That is, uploading the local newscast on their stations YouTube channel the same night after they aired it live? 

[atlnews2 591]

1 hour ago, newsteam13 said:

Nobody comes home to watch the news anymore. Not even the local news at 5pm, 6pm and 11pm (10pm on central/mountain). Certainly not the network evening newscasts. More people are streaming nowadays, not to mention getting their news on the internet.

 

CBS News's YouTube channel offers full-length episodes of the CBS Evening News. After they broadcast on their local affiliates, CBS News uploads that night's newscast like 4 hours later, so people who prefer online can watch on YouTube at their own convenience. ABC News YouTube channel, same deal with World News Tonight uploaded like 4 hours after they broadcast on ABC affiliates. NBC News YouTube Channel uploading the NBC Nightly News the same night. Talk about ease of access!

 

Why aren't local stations following suit with the networks? That is, uploading the local newscast on their stations YouTube channel the same night after they aired it live? 

KSAT posts full newscasts on their YouTube page after they air. WDIV posts the A block of their newscasts on their YouTube page. I’m not aware of other stations that do this 

[MediaZone4K 2176]

On 1/25/2025 at 2:28 AM, mre29 said:

It's Jimmy Fallon whose show cut back to four (new) episodes a week, not Kimmel.

 

Thanks. Meant to say Fallon but had Kimmel in my mind.

[Big Rollo Smokes 260]

2 hours ago, newsteam13 said:

Nobody comes home to watch the news anymore. Not even the local news at 5pm, 6pm and 11pm (10pm on central/mountain). Certainly not the network evening newscasts. More people are streaming nowadays, not to mention getting their news on the internet.

That's a very subjective statement.

 

Just because you may not come home to watch the evening news, don't assume "nobody" else does either. That invalidates the rest of your comment.

Edited February 3 by Big Rollo Smokes

[Recovering Producer 218]

2 hours ago, newsteam13 said:

Nobody comes home to watch the news anymore. Not even the local news at 5pm, 6pm and 11pm (10pm on central/mountain). Certainly not the network evening newscasts. More people are streaming nowadays, not to mention getting their news on the internet.

 

CBS News's YouTube channel offers full-length episodes of the CBS Evening News. After they broadcast on their local affiliates, CBS News uploads that night's newscast like 4 hours later, so people who prefer online can watch on YouTube at their own convenience. ABC News YouTube channel, same deal with World News Tonight uploaded like 4 hours after they broadcast on ABC affiliates. NBC News YouTube Channel uploading the NBC Nightly News the same night. Talk about ease of access!

 

Why aren't local stations following suit with the networks? That is, uploading the local newscast on their stations YouTube channel the same night after they aired it live? 

Most likely at the local level, the labor cost of the work it takes to clip and upload broadcasts to YouTube is greater than getting video up to existing on-demand platforms and YouTube has lower potential revenue for the station. There almost certainly ways for a sales team to generate ad and monetization opportunities for broadcasts on NewsOn/Zeam/station OTT channels, while YouTube wouldn’t generate much, if any, revenue for past newscasts on demand. Additionally, station group operated streaming platforms are likely easier to integrate into engineering and IT workflows so the clipping/upload of broadcasts there is semi, if not fully, automated and almost instant. 

 

Network likely has the bodies available to manually clip segments and remove any possible restricted video from a newscast before uploading the 30 minute broadcast, and they would upload far less broadcasts per day compared with local stations almost constant around the clock newscasts 

[C Block 1566]

1 hour ago, Recovering Producer said:

Most likely at the local level, the labor cost of the work it takes to clip and upload broadcasts to YouTube is greater than getting video up to existing on-demand platforms and YouTube has lower potential revenue for the station. There almost certainly ways for a sales team to generate ad and monetization opportunities for broadcasts on NewsOn/Zeam/station OTT channels, while YouTube wouldn’t generate much, if any, revenue for past newscasts on demand. Additionally, station group operated streaming platforms are likely easier to integrate into engineering and IT workflows so the clipping/upload of broadcasts there is semi, if not fully, automated and almost instant. 

 

Network likely has the bodies available to manually clip segments and remove any possible restricted video from a newscast before uploading the 30 minute broadcast, and they would upload far less broadcasts per day compared with local stations almost constant around the clock newscasts 

 

Some of the more modern (but lesser used) newsroom software like Inception and Octopus have automations that make  clipping video and posting to the web a lot easier. Supposedly it's as easy as just highlighting a few lines in a rundown and the app then clips it at the right spot and gets the clip ready to publish in a web CMS or YouTube. I've heard we may be switching from iNEWS to one of those, so I guess I'll find out how well it works sooner rather than later.

 

You are right though that YouTube has limited revenue potential, and that's true not just for local TV stations, but really any content creator who's not selling in-video sponsorships.

[MD TV 258]

The ABC O&Os post full replays of their newscasts on their sites (minus sports segments), as do the Gray stations. And stations on the Zeam and NewsOn apps also have full newscast archives.

[MediaZone4K 2176]

I understand on the surface level why Nexstar implemented the delay: forcing viewers to watch newscasts live. But that only works if the competition does the same. If I can't stream my local Nexstar station online, what stops me from turning into my local Hearst or Sinclair station which does?

 

There's also less incentive to watch a newscast live If stories are clipped and uploaded to various platforms shortly after being aired. (Granted a station still benefits from impressions to their website for ad revenue) but still less incentive for live viewership.

Edited February 12 by MediaZone4K