There are some interesting stories circulating today about the new (and quite serious) problems the TV networks are having in keeping viewers. Those stories include this Reuters report on how "old guard' media is getting downright spunky about their competition with newer technologies and this tale about the particularly bad ratings for Katie Couric's "news" program.But the most detailed and relevant story in this vein comes from David Bauder of the Associated Press. Here are some excerpts:
Maybe they're outside in the garden. They could be playing softball. Or perhaps they're just plain bored.
In TV's worst spring in recent memory, an alarming number of Americans drifted away from television the past two months: More than 2.5 million fewer people were watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox than at the same time last year, statistics show.
Everyone has a theory to explain the plummeting ratings: early daylight savings time, more reruns, bad shows, more shows being recorded or downloaded or streamed.
Scariest of all for the networks, however, is the idea that many people are now making their own television schedules. The industry isn't fully equipped to keep track of them, and as a result the networks are scrambling to hold on to the nearly $8.8 billion they collected during last spring's ad-buying season.
"This may be the spring where we see a radical shift in the way the culture thinks of watching TV," said Sarah Bunting, co-founder of the Web site Television Without Pity.
The viewer plunge couldn't have come at a worse time for the networks -- next week they will showcase their fall schedules to advertisers in the annual "up front" presentations...
More bad news abounds. NBC set a record last month for its least-watched week during the past 20 years, and maybe ever -- then broke it a week later. This is the least popular season ever for CBS' Survivor . ABC's Lost has lost nearly half its live audience -- more than 10 million people -- from the days it was a sensation. The Sopranos is ending on HBO, and the response is a collective yawn.
Events like American Idol on Fox (which is owned by News Corp.) and Dancing With the Stars on ABC (owned by The Walt Disney Co.) are doing the most to prop up the industry. But still, in the six weeks after Daylight Savings Time started in early March, prime-time viewership for the four biggest broadcast networks was down to 37.6 million people, from 40.3 million during the same period in 2006, according to Nielsen Media Research...