Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by chromas on Friday August 02 2019, @09:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the ask-your-doctor-about-adctl dept.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-02/tv-networks-stuff-in-more-commercials-despite-vows-to-cut-back

Notice more TV ads lately? You're not imagining it.

The amount of commercial time on cable TV keeps increasing as networks try to make up for shrinking audiences by stuffing more ads into every hour of television. That's despite years of promises to cut back on ads.

Last quarter, commercial time rose 1%, according to Michael Nathanson, an analyst at MoffettNathanson LLC. After declining in 2017, the volume of ads increased every quarter last year and expanded again in the first half of 2019, he said. Fox was the only major cable network group to lower its ads last quarter, cutting them by 2%, Nathanson said.

As TV viewership declines and more consumers jump to streaming services like Netflix, media companies have only a couple of options to generate the advertising revenue that Wall Street expects: They can raise prices, run more commercials or do a little of both.

"Look at the decline in ratings," Nathanson said. "Everyone's got pressure to make their quarterly numbers. Long-term, it's a very bad decision, but you don't want to miss your numbers and have your stock go down."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @01:44AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @01:44AM (#874916)

    Legacy media is dying, and deserves to die
    Have you been saying that since the early 80s? I would posit you were wrong and still are. In fact I would posit you are wildly wrong.

    If you think for 1 second that the existing media companies are going to go away you have not been paying attention.

    Disney is bigger than ever. So is ABC, NBC, FOX, and HBO etc etc etc.......

    Linear TV is dying a slow death. The companies that made things for them are doing the best they have ever.

    The only thing dying is the old middlemen. We are replacing them with new ones who are vertically integrated with the old guard.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Touché=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday August 03 2019, @04:32AM (1 child)

    by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 03 2019, @04:32AM (#874998) Journal
    No, in the early 80s, they were manifestly not dying. They were making money hand over fist, and constantly expanding.

    But today, they're scrambling, they're losing, they're dying and they don't even seem to be capable of understanding why.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 03 2019, @02:11PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday August 03 2019, @02:11PM (#875132) Journal

      that is true, and was already true ten years ago. my friend is head of programming at Starz. he complains how he has to fight and scrape everyday just to stand still.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday August 03 2019, @03:11PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 03 2019, @03:11PM (#875156)

    Financially bigger than ever, while also less influential than ever.

    "Kids these days" don't understand that in the 70s, successful TV shows had like 1 in 4 people watching them, very culturally influential because its normal to meet people with similar entertainment backgrounds. Now a days a wildly successful show might have 1 in 30 people watching, there's no cultural impact anymore.

    Like... when gen-X was young, we non-ironically talked to each other about watching the same shows; now a days nobody watches that crap but we're still socialized to talk about how "we all" watch some nonsense or another, even when basically no one watches statistically.

    Financially, sure, its possible to grow in dollars and cents at a rate vastly slower than the overall economy while becoming less influential over time.