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They are TV’s ghosts — networks that somehow survive with little reason to watch them anymore

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

apnews.com

They are TV's ghosts — networks that somehow survive with little reason to watch them anymore

Cable television is filled with ghosts. They're networks that somehow survive as shadows of themselves, with schedules clogged with reruns and devoid of any real innovation.
apnews.com apnews.com

This is about how Cable is fading away all due to streaming. This is tied to where TV apps are today and median demos.

Viewership to MTV, USA and Disney Channel (Cable edition) are down. Not shocking given that the owners of MTV are currently putting emphasis on content at Paramount+, same with USA parent company over the Peacock app and Disney Channels owners over Disney+ and Hulu apps.

Networks were endlessly malleable, too. Once MTV recognized there wasn’t much money in music videos — people would change channels when a song they didn’t like came on — the network became a relentless arbiter of cool. Generations had their own touchstones in programs like “Punk’d,” “The Osbournes” and “Total Request Live.”

Now MTV is a ghost. Its average prime-time audience of 256,000 people in 2023 was down from 807,000 in 2014, the Nielsen company said. One recent evening MTV aired reruns of “Ridiculousness” from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

The general interest USA Network’s nightly audience tumbled 69% in the same time span, and that was before January’s announcement that viewer-magnet “WWE Raw” was switching to Netflix.

Without favorites like “The Walking Dead” or “Better Call Saul,” AMC’s prime-time viewership sunk 73%. The Disney Channel, birthplace to young stars like Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff and Selena Gomez, lost an astonishing 93% of its audience, from 1.96 million in 2014 to 132,000 last year.
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"The Disney Channel, birthplace to young stars like Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff and Selena Gomez, lost an astonishing 93% of its audience, from 1.96 million in 2014 to 132,000 last year."

Cot Damn!
 
MTV has been the Ridiculousness channel for several years now. They are running 28 straight hours of the program from 5am Sunday until 9am Monday. And it would be the entire weekend (10pm Friday to 9am Monday) if not for running three feature films on Saturday night into early Sunday morning.
 
First, to give proper credit, it appears this discussion thread was started by posting an article that @michael hagerty had initially posted over in another thread that was originally about Paramount and their ongoing situation.

Regarding the article above, if we look back in history, this situation with various cable and budget-run OTA networks has been going on for some years, even before streaming became as big a factor as it is today. Think about the number of networks that were started and then either changed direction and programming philosophy completely at some point, or outright changed their names: MTV (music television) and VH-1 (video hits 1) haven't aired 24/7 music videos for a number of decades now. Court TV, TNN (the Nashville Network), Biography, DIY, Pax TV, FX and a host of others are either gone, changed their names or radically changed their programming. Lots of channels that started out airing classic TV like TV Land and Nickelodeon radically changed their programming and lineups several years before streaming really made an impact. Many cable channels air "block" programming where they show several hours of a particular TV program or series, which sometimes has little to do with the programming that channel was originally named or known for. In the case of networks that once aired truly "classic" movies, TV shows and series, they must have found the target demo wasn't working, was limited or advertisers weren't interested, as many of thsoe are now airing more modern programming and content, some of it 20 years old or younger at this point.
 
Would it be cheaper to just sell the transponder space and shut down these channels. Why broadcast something nobody watches.
 
Pretty much any cable network that popped up in the 2000s that you probably don't know off the back of your head unless (if you're watching digital cable) & flip around the mid 100s-200s on ur lineup & may not even pay extra to subscribe to get these extra channels, many of those networks are ghosts.
 
JJSPC said:
Whatever became of "The Movie Channel"?
Click to expand...
en.wikipedia.org

The Movie Channel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

www.paramountpluswithshowtime.com

TV Schedule | Channel Finder | Shows, Episodes | SHOWTIME

Brace yourself...for SHOWTIME®. SHOWTIME® is commercial-free premium entertainment featuring critically acclaimed Original Series, including the Emmy® winning Homeland and Golden Globe® honored HOUSE OF LIES -- plus RAY DONOVAN, MASTERS OF SEX, NURSE JACKIE, SHAMELESS, EPISODES, and the...
www.paramountpluswithshowtime.com www.paramountpluswithshowtime.com

The Movie Channel Still exists but at this point they merged within the Paramount+ app along with Showtime. These Cable channels are simply labels within the Paramount+ app.
 
Mikey Radio said:
First, to give proper credit, it appears this discussion thread was started by posting an article that @michael hagerty had initially posted over in another thread that was originally about Paramount and their ongoing situation.

Regarding the article above, if we look back in history, this situation with various cable and budget-run OTA networks has been going on for some years, even before streaming became as big a factor as it is today. Think about the number of networks that were started and then either changed direction and programming philosophy completely at some point, or outright changed their names: MTV (music television) and VH-1 (video hits 1) haven't aired 24/7 music videos for a number of decades now. Court TV, TNN (the Nashville Network), Biography, DIY, Pax TV, FX and a host of others are either gone, changed their names or radically changed their programming. Lots of channels that started out airing classic TV like TV Land and Nickelodeon radically changed their programming and lineups several years before streaming really made an impact. Many cable channels air "block" programming where they show several hours of a particular TV program or series, which sometimes has little to do with the programming that channel was originally named or known for. In the case of networks that once aired truly "classic" movies, TV shows and series, they must have found the target demo wasn't working, was limited or advertisers weren't interested, as many of those are now airing more modern programming and content, some of it 20 years old or younger at this point.
Click to expand...

We mentioned a similar thing with local TV stations rebranding themselves but with no direct ties to their affiliates app. But true at the same time we had to look at the relevance of secondary local TV Stations at this point for looking for pre emotes shows when the main one has to air breaking news.
 
inari said:
Most of these "ghost" channels are still profitable. They collect something like 25 cents per subscriber per month and there still are millions of people with cable subscriptions.
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Cable operators will start to cut bait on these deals if they don’t see value in them.
 
Street Novelist said:
"The Disney Channel, birthplace to young stars like Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff and Selena Gomez, lost an astonishing 93% of its audience, from 1.96 million in 2014 to 132,000 last year."

Cot Damn!
Click to expand...
Yes especially when Disney itself has promoted their bundle between their owned apps like Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ during NBA games and yes between local news segments among the Disney owned ABC affiliates like KGO-TV. It's not shocking to see this it took some time for that to happen.
 
Paramount's Logo network airs classic shows and reruns of RuPaul's Drag Race. Now I'm as big of a fan of Mama's Family as the next guy, but there is no reason to air it for 26 hours in a row.

Other classic shows they air include Will and Grace, Married with Children, The Nanny, Three's Company, and The Facts of Life. They used to air Bewitched, but I guess their contract to air it expired.

P.S. Mama's Family is shared with sister network CMT.
 
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