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TV ratings see double-digit declines for fifth straight month
New York Post ^ | 3/25/2015 | Claire Atkinson

Posted on 03/15/2015 7:15:25 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity

February was another heartbreaker for the $65 billion television ad business.

Commercial ratings — the viewing “currency” that determines what advertisers pay for TV time — cratered across broadcast and cable networks, marking the fifth straight month of double-digit declines for the industry.

“It’s clear the downward spiral in TV ratings continues with no end in sight,” media analyst Michael Nathanson wrote in a research note on Friday.

Overall prime-time broadcast network ratings were off 12 percent last month compared to a year ago, while cable networks dropped 11 percent, according to his report.

Nathanson looked at so-called C3 ratings, which come in later than traditional ratings. They measure average commercial viewership in shows up to three days after the original air date via DVR playback.

While a couple of networks that carried the Super Bowl and the Olympics last year clearly suffered because of tougher comparisons, almost every channel was hurting.

Looking at total-day C3 ratings, only three networks boosted their audience: HGTV, Discovery and TBS, while TNT, History and Nickelodeon fell the most.

Typically, TV ad sales executives can increase prices to compensate for a ratings decline, citing scarcity. But Nathanson said seismic changes are pressuring networks to hold the line on pricing.

Although some of the ratings declines can be blamed on changes to Nielsen’s measuring methods, among other changes, “we believe these terrible ratings trends are also indicative of changing viewership habits,” he wrote.

The numbers underscore the rapid changes in how TV viewers are consuming content.

Americans are increasingly watching TV shows on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon streaming and other services. Some 40 percent of households now have subscription video service, Nielsen reported earlier this week.

Yahoo, Amazon and Hulu are among the bidders for the streaming rights to “Seinfeld” episodes, WSJ.com reported Friday.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cabletv; hdtv; tvratings
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

Very easy!!! Using a movie as an example......the great Clint Eastwood film, “American Sniper” has now grossed $570 billion dollars, worldwide. All of this years Academy Award nominees, put together, with the exception of “American Sniper” made less then 10% of this number.

Forgetting the money difference....you cannot forget the viewer attendance, which is in the millions of people who saw “American Sniper”. Producing & showing films or TV programs that impact tiny percentages of America life and history and people is no sane way to run a business.

The very fact of life that the “Fox” mega empire is killing all the competition in every sector as cable and alphabet news dwindles away is proof of much failure of vieweship on many biased TV stations!!!

Until that practice and attitude changes, many “Obamabot”, “waterboy” TV stations will only continue to go down in both viewership of news and regular programming!!! End of story!!


81 posted on 03/15/2015 8:18:05 PM PDT by JLAGRAYFOX ( My only objective is to defeat and destroy Obama & his Democrat Party, politically!!!.)
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To: yarddog

‘Creek is only mildly funny.


82 posted on 03/15/2015 8:19:22 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

All gay, all the time, is a ratings loser.


83 posted on 03/15/2015 8:22:20 PM PDT by VRWC For Truth (Roberts has perverted the Constitution)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

My time is limited on this earth. I don’t waste it on crap like TV. So many people wasting their God-given time on worthless b-flat, time-controlled entertainment.

Yes, I’m from the TV generation. It was broadcasting coast to coast when I was 5 (1939). I wasted a lot of my free time on this crap all the way through the 70’s. By the early 1980’s my TV rabbit ears were gone and I moved into videos.

Life was good once again. And so, for 33 years, I’ve been very, VERY happy. Watch a movie once or twice a week. That’s all I need.


84 posted on 03/15/2015 8:22:51 PM PDT by Up Yours Marxists
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To: Aria

We have DirecTV and it is pretty good, but it’s a tad pricey, we have Comcast for internet though, which is OK.


85 posted on 03/15/2015 8:24:33 PM PDT by jocon307 (Tell it like it is.)
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To: PAR35
I can’t stand the pop-up ads during the shows.

That was one of the reasons I gave up on "King of the Hill" eons ago. During a movie on FX, Hank Hill drove his lawnmower across the screen and back again, with sound, I stopped watching Hank.

Well that, and about the same time, I bought a Palm, and a free utility was a multi-timer app. I remember watching "Kiss of the Dragon", and timing the segments. When the commercial breaks started outlasting the movie segments, I pretty much stopped watching FX, since they made it too aggravating. Seriously, 5+ minutes of commercials, and < 4 minutes of show?

86 posted on 03/15/2015 8:25:21 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: dhs12345

There was a guy who created a device that muted and blackened most of the screen when a live tv event went to commercial. It could sense the signal change from live to taped, and back. I believe on the older sets.


87 posted on 03/15/2015 8:25:43 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: SamAdams76
Actually the quality of "TV" shows has never been better. The big difference is that they are being viewed on demand through services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.

Okay, you piqued my interest. I am up for some binge watching. What shows do you find good? Just FYI, here is my current "lineup":

Waiting on new season: The very good: Broadchurch, Hinterland, Bosch, Shetland, True Detective, Longmire. The OK, but watchable: Lilyhammer, Turn, The Chosen (if it ever comes back), and the Strain (barely OK or watchable).

Currently in season: The very good: Justified. The OK: The Walking Dead, 12 Monkeys. The given up on: Vikings, Grimm.
88 posted on 03/15/2015 8:25:51 PM PDT by jjsheridan5 (The next Ronald Reagan will not be a Republican, but rather a former Republican)
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To: DiogenesLamp

Therein lay the tip of the sword. What you said. An open sewer. In the chest.

The spear to decent programming of yesteryear. Frankly, I miss Leave It to Beaver, pearls and dresses for dinner, civility, meals together, but only after the prayer of Thanksgiving, and father’s in the home and mothers there to greet them at the end of the day. God help us.


89 posted on 03/15/2015 8:27:08 PM PDT by RitaOK ( VIVA CRISTO REY / Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming)
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To: napscoordinator
Not mine. A close friend confided in me that he was one of those “Nielson families.” It made no sense as he could not exist without the TV on, not in one room but in every room of the house. His wife also had it on every second of her waking life. Hey freedom is fine, a waste of time is another.
90 posted on 03/15/2015 8:27:43 PM PDT by Fungi (Evolution is piece by piece over billions of years. At what point did a precursor become a human?)
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To: freedumb2003

Yes, the Match Game for sure. I haven’t seen Hollywood Squares in years, but I often wonder why they’ve never tried to bring it back.

I really do wish they’d go back to showing the real old shows. I’ve Got a Secret was great.


91 posted on 03/15/2015 8:27:58 PM PDT by jocon307 (Tell it like it is.)
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To: Happy1947
The Weather Channel tried running movies one Summer. Movies in which the elements played some sort of part.

Then they had to break into the movies for live coverage of tornadoes, and tornado warnings, and the movie idea sort of got scrapped.

92 posted on 03/15/2015 8:30:47 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: yarddog
That is what I watch too but for the last week the only two stations which show ME-TV have been showing ACC basketball which I would pay not to see. Every day I miss shows I wanted to see.

Thankfully it will be over before too long. Tomorrow they show Mudd’s Women on Star Trek and that is one of my favorites. I bet I miss it tho.

It seems there are only a few themes and among those themes there is one idea. Black Men and White Females romantically involved. I see it over and over and have to turn to something else. Also titles like Schitts Creek is really getting too crude I just don’t like that garbage but some people do.


I know, they do the same thing to our MeTV affiliate here in the Ohio Valley, WTOV broadcasts it out of Steubenville, OH. i'm watching Mission Impossible. BTW, Barbara Bain is a real hottie. I can only afford over the air TV, I have a couple of sets but my main one is a 1982 Zenith using a set of 1959 rabbit ears. Since Obama took power, my standard of living went into the crapper. Mom passing on really accelerated it but overall if she was still here, we'd still be going down, albeit slower. BTW, Get Smart is next, I always got a big kick out of "The Cone of Silence" and even more so out of the portable field version. B-)

BTW, I remember the days when the networks would put a big hullabaloo when the new season was ready to start, that was like the 1960's into the 1980's, those were the good times. I lost Mom a year and a half ago but when I tie TV into my memories, I think back to the early 1980's when I wake up on a Saturday morning, turn on the 1982 Zenith and enjoy the Smurfs as Mom made breakfast. Bonus points for the Casey Kasem bumpers and if the morning was a cold, winter's day. Well, at least I still have and use that old set to this day, best TV I can think up, been in use almost 33 years, I still have the old bill of sale.

I'm not part of the internet revolution for now since of my standard of living. I have limited access now witg my cellphone but I have to watch my bandwidth like a hawk. Basically, I've been thrown back to a lifestyle akin to 1970.
93 posted on 03/15/2015 8:31:58 PM PDT by Nowhere Man (Mom I miss you! (8-20-1938 to 11-18-2013) Cancer sucks)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

It’s impossible to watch because of all the commercials. Unwatchable.

The story or mood to any good show now is like driving on a highway with someone slamming the breaks on every 3 minutes.


94 posted on 03/15/2015 8:34:16 PM PDT by Dick Vomer (2 Timothy 4:7 deo duce ferro comitante)
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To: SamAdams76

If you want to watch free streaming sports, any sport, go to VIPLeague.com. I like college basketball and NFL, and can watch any game online, they have them all. Just manage the ads at the beginning. Also any TV channel free on TVPC.com.


95 posted on 03/15/2015 8:34:24 PM PDT by Rennes Templar
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To: Secret Agent Man

Cool! Sounds like it would work with any type of TV. Maybe it is an abrupt change in volume which ads tend to do. The station will crank up the volume on ads and there is a level of intensity in an advert because the company is spending millions and needs to cram as much info into the few seconds that they have.

I was telling my wife the other night that our provider would love to be able to control the mute button on my remote.


96 posted on 03/15/2015 8:34:47 PM PDT by dhs12345
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To: dhs12345

The problem was it only worked on live tv events, not the vast majority of programming that was not live, but running off tape or dvd.


97 posted on 03/15/2015 8:38:18 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: joshua c

Yes, cater to 3% of the population on the way down!


98 posted on 03/15/2015 8:40:16 PM PDT by Cen-Tejas (it's the debt bomb stupid)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity


99 posted on 03/15/2015 8:42:15 PM PDT by QT3.14 (GRUBER - HARK 2016 /s)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

It is a wonder they manage to find time to run their homo porn sitcoms between the daily Obama rally and conservative bashes.


100 posted on 03/15/2015 8:42:33 PM PDT by Iron Munro
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