TV's Pandemic Disruption: Fewer Prime-Time Episodes, Lower Linear TV Ratings
- by Wayne Friedman , April 8, 2021
For prime-time linear TV this year, absence has not made the heart grow fonder.
Heading into the upfront selling season, there have been fewer scripted prime-time broadcast TV episodes through March, as well as continued overall declining prime-time TV ratings.
Roughly eight to nine episodes have aired among the top …
We keep belaboring this rating fragmentation thing to death. Yes, average minute ratings per channel are down---mainly because there is intense competition from many channels---including streaming venues ---for audiences. This isn't going away, and it applies within the streaming universe as well as for "linear TV". There was a time when Netflix commanded a 75% or greater share of total streaming time, but as competitors siphoned off viewing its share has dropped steadily and now stands around 25-30%. As streaming penetration hits the 80% mark a ceiling on its reach will develop---probably around 85% at which point we will have seven to eight serious programmers competing witn Netflixand scores of smaller fry. There's only so much content that an average streamer will be willing to consume daily so audience fragmentation of the sort we have been seeing in "linear TV" will soon be a major problem for streaming programmers as well. Get used to it.