Cord Cutters And The Death Of TV. Mike Nudelman / BI The TV business is having its worst year ever.
Audience ratings have collapsed: Aside from a brief respite during the Olympics, there has been only negative ratings growth on broadcast and cable TV since September 2011, according to Citi Research. Media stock analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson recently noted, "The pay-TV industry has reported its worst 12-month stretch ever. " All the major TV providers lost a collective 113,000 subscribers in Q3 2013.
That doesn't sound like a huge deal — but it includes internet subscribers, too. Broadband internet was supposed to benefit from the end of cable TV, but it hasn't. In all, about 5 million people ended their cable and broadband subs between the beginning of 2010 and the end of this year. People are unplugging. NBCUniversal to Showcase TV Shows on Twitter. YouTube Preps Big New round of Content Investments. Why Is the TV Ad World So Hard for Silicon Valley to Understand? Simple.TV’s unique DVR is a cord-cutter’s dream (but isn’t for everyone) Simple.TV has all the makings of the perfect cord-cutter’s device: It can broadcast free over-the-air (OTA) HDTV content to web browsers, iOS devices, and Roku set-top boxes.
And with the addition of a USB hard drive, it also turns into a full-fledged DVR, allowing you to schedule recordings and view them across multiple devices. On paper, the idea sounds fantastic. After debuting at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Simple.TV walked away with the Best in Show prize in Home Entertainment. And following up on that hype, it also managed to raise more than $226,000 on the crowdfunding site KickStarter. Today Really Simple Software, the company behind Simple.TV, will finally begin shipping out units to pre-order customers and KickStarter backers, after being delayed from a late-September launch. Publications Future Of TV Looks Bright Thanks To Social Media 10/03.
Because That’s Where The Content Is. When asked why he robbed banks, legend has it that Willie Sutton said, “because that’s where the money is.”
I’m reminded of this quote today when reading the reports that Apple is in talks with the cable operators about their television plans. Why are they talking to them? Because that’s where the content is. This should surprise absolutely no one. In fact, the news isn’t even actually new. It seems that the shock of this news is more around the fact that Apple may not actually completely transform the industry overnight. We all enjoy looking back fondly to the iPhone debut in 2007 as the moment when everything changed. Yes, this is me giving AT&T credit for something beyond creating the worst cellular network known to man for a few years there.
BBC’s Olympics Broadcasts Focus on Live Coverage. Publications Dish Should Put Itself At Risk Of Auto-Hopping 07/03. Dish Network should move to show its controversial ad-zapper places it at similar risk to the major networks.
Otherwise, it’s open to well-founded charges of hypocrisy, while giving opponents plenty of grist in court. Dish has ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC apoplectic with its new AutoHop DVR feature, which allows users to automatically skip all commercials in recorded prime-time shows from them. Why only the Big Four? Dish, which has about 14 million subscribers, says it’s because the bulk of recorded shows come from their prime-time line-ups.
In May, a Dish executive said there is no technological impediment to enabling AutoHop for cable networks, but the satellite operator has no plans to go that route. It’s making a mistake and can rightly be accused of hiding behind a smoke screen. The networks, which are challenging the legitimacy of AutoHop via federal lawsuits, charge AutoHop will cost them dearly in ad revenues. Social TV: Social Marketing Practices That Translate Beyond Television. For us marketers engaging in a dialogue with your key audience and cultivating that ongoing relationship is crucial to maintaining brand awareness and loyalty.
Social TV is no exception. In the largely uncharted waters of social media, Social TV is an arena marketers can no longer afford to ignore. People are using this space at a rapidly growing rate, and certain television networks, like Discovery Communications, LLC and USA Networks, are reaping the benefits. Summer TV Guide: 20 Social Shows to Watch. A crop of new and returning reality shows, comedies, talent competitions and dramas will vie for your attention on your TV screens, web browsers and mobile devices this summer.
Flip through the gallery above to discover 20 shows that will use social media and interactive tools to enhance your viewer experience or will likely inspire significant conversations across social networks. Social TV Moves Beyond Promotional Role, Becomes Content. CW Network's Rush to Web Rankles Some TV Stations. When the TV show "The Vampire Diaries" made its debut on the youth-oriented CW network nearly three years ago, Brie Bagwell watched it regularly on her TV.
This year, she still watches—but has dropped her pricey cable subscription and checks the show out free online. "It's more convenient," says the 31-year-old San Francisco Bay area resident, who watches the show mostly on the CW website. "I can just load it up whenever I want to. " As the CW prepares for its annual presentation to advertisers at next month's TV ad-sales bazaar, the network is increasingly relying on a wave of viewers like Ms. Bagwell. This shift is partly by the network's design.