The cable industry knows what people are watching on television and brags about the rising numbers of viewers.
But either those lucky Nielsen families aren’t keeping good diaries or they just can’t remember anything beyond the Big Four, because network television is finding it pretty easy these days to mock the numbers claims of the cable industry.
This aggressive attack strategy started a little more than a year ago when high-ranking members of the broadcast networks got together and said something had to be done, a war needed to be waged, against the mounting media attention paid to cable and its claims of rising numbers while the networks were sinking.
Now understand that in the television industry every network is out for its own good and none of them would shed tears if another went bankrupt.
The cable industry, on the other hand, has always been about helping one another. Most of the channels are involved in niche programming, which means they are not competing in the literal sense. They are grabbing specific genres — sports, food, cartoons, to name a few. Even when there is overlap, there is a certain sense of camaraderie. That’s why the National Cable Television Association has a long-standing motto: “The Future Is On Cable.”
Cable is an emerging force but, for whatever reason, the ratings aren’t there. Many people believe the vast number of cable channels dilutes the audience so the numbers will never be comparable to the networks. Some even believe viewers just can’t remember what they watch.
Either way, the broadcast networks have snatched this ratings discrepancy and, frankly, are all too giddy about making fun of wrestling and old movies sitting at the top of the cable ratings.
Every broadcast network likes to tout the superiority theme. For example, ABC says the number of people 18-49, over a one-week period, watching the network is 65.1 million. And for the most popular cable channel, TBS, that figure is 19.2 million. ABC took it one step further and said that among 245 cable channels — national, regional and local — only six are up in household ratings since 1997.
Take that — and all the numbers spun by the networks — for what you will. The networks are scrambling to reinvent themselves before they collapse, a very real possibility in the near future.
How people watch television is going to be revolutionized, and flipping for cable channels is just the beginning.
Right now, some of the best dramas and comedies are on basic cable. Then factor in HBO and Showtime, which have the best made-for-TV movies. Cable often produces the best documentaries and is rivaled only by PBS for outstanding information series.
Also, cable takes more chances than broadcast networks and consequently produces more mature, intellectual programs. While the networks are locked into antiquated ideas about what Americans will watch — a practice that leads to programs that speak down to the viewer — cable understands it has to be better to survive.
Right now, cable has the shows. The beginning and the end for broadcast networks was yesterday.
