• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 7, 2016

Is Netflix now less of a threat to linear TV networks’ ad revenue?

Its new agreement with the CW network seems to head in this direction. Netflix will now be able to air a full season of CW shows just days after the most current season’s finale airs, instead of having to wait a full year.

CW co-owner CBS has been extremely careful in its dealings with the likes of Netflix -- not wanting to incur the possibility those SVOD airings would have any effect on the viewership of its linear TV airings and  hurt advertising sales, where the majority of its revenue originates.

CW pulled in around a billion dollars from its original 2011 deal with Netflix, which perhaps was a deciding factor. Netflix helped push the network into profitability, according to analysts. CW benefits from Netflix because its young-skewing audience leans more toward digital presentations.

Decades ago, the concern when the U.S. syndication business was young and growing was that viewers would just watch the reruns and not be in much of a rush to watch new episodes on the major networks. That turned out not to be the case.

As a matter of fact, many credit syndicated reruns of NBC’s “Cheers” pulling in new viewers  -- as a promotional vehicle -- for new episodes of “Cheers” on NBC.

Does this mean Netflix's airing of network shows will head into an even more near-time direction — like next-day airing?

No. That’s because increasingly, TV/media companies are betting on a big future when it comes to growing revenue from their own advertising-supported video-on-demand platforms -- as well as their own digital apps/platforms.

In Netflix’s favor: lots of quality content viewers can’t consume in a regular basis. As long as there are some 400 TV shows, there is plenty to watch and lots of delayed viewing of many TV series -- viewing that can occur months, or even years, after original episodes have aired.