Is the value of the television networks going down?
With YouTube to watch, Instagram pictures to take and Facebook, Snapchat and other social media platforms to explore, a generation of young Americans that used to turn to television for entertainment is finding its fix elsewhere.
They are watching on-demand services, such as Netflix and Hulu and the BBC iPlayer but turning off “linear” TV, or tuning in at a set time on a set channel. This migration has been gradual but is starting to show up in the quarterly results of some of the world’s biggest media companies — and investors are beginning to notice.
Television executives started sounding the alarm last autumn when Viacom, 21st Century Fox, Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, and Walt Disney began reporting lower advertising revenues for some or all of their networks. Todd Juenger, senior analyst with Bernstein Research, called the ratings declines “alarming” and “unprecedented”.
The trend has continued into the most recent round of financial results, with Viacom among the worst hit. The company, controlled by 91-year-old billionaire Sumner Redstone, has suffered some of the sharpest ratings declines, with viewership down 18 per cent in the fourth quarter, according to a MoffettNathanson analysis of Nielsen data.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Broadcasters fear falling revenues as viewers switch to on-demand TV
The Financial Times reports:
