TV, As We Know it, Is Doomed

It became abundantly clear last week when Insider seller Billionaire Sumner Redstone dumped his $330 million stake in CBS.

Insiders have been talking about it for a while now. TV is doomed, at least in the way it operates now. Investors are also aware of this, and it became abundantly clear last week when Insider seller Billionaire Sumner Redstone dumped his $330 million stake in CBS, so far even the highest rated network of the bunch. The message coming from many corporate executives, especially in the media business is clear: They believe their companies’ shares are largely overvalued and they’re rapidly losing terrain to the Internet.¬† So, they’re cashing out before the next leg down.

CNBC 50% Drop in Ratings

It may be that when the stock market is not moving up or down 20% a month that people lose interest.  The new CNBC ratings fell 50% in October compared to the same month a year ago, according to Nielsen. During  “business day” viewing hours from 5 AM to 7 PM the drop was even worse at 52%. Jim Cramer, whose popularity has been responsible for almost all the success of TheStreet.com , has carried CNBC on his back for some time due to the high ratings of his “Mad Money” show. The ratings for that program dropped 52% in October.

YouTube reports 1 BILLION views a day

These days, it’s looks like we here at SearchAmelia are posting every day with an increasing number of watchers. C’est la vie.¬† The Internet video revolution has come, saw and conquered. What’s left to say that hasn’t been said before? Well, occasionally milestones happen that deserve attention.

Here are two big ones:
1. YouTube hits 1 billion video downloads a day
Holy smokes! ¬†There are only about 1 billion Internet users. Does this mean that everyone on the Internet is watching an average of at least 1 video a day on YouTube? I guess that is exactly what it means… and then there are people who watch 50 or more a day, like me, for example. It’s not hard to do. It’s part of my job. I don’t watch TV. Why bother when I can call up anything I want whenever I want? That’s why TV is doomed.

2. The Internet creams TV in advertising revenues
My associates in the UK just told me that the amount of money spent by advertisers on Internet advertising in that country just exceeded the amount spent on TV advertising. The numbers are 1.75 billion for online advertising vs. 1.64 for TV advertising. More evidence that TV is doomed and we’re not that far off here in the US. And this is still only the beginning and it looks like the predictions we have been venting for years are starting to come to pass.

PEG Committee Channel 29/Digital 264

With a PEG committee meeting coming up this Wednesday for Channel 29 here on Amelia Island, I do wonder if we’re not wasting energy on discussions about ethics of sponsoring and advertising, while most TV bastions of yesterday are rapidly becoming obsolete. It will be hard enough to compete with Internet streaming to even find an audience, let alone figuring out where the monies need to come from to make valuable productions.

As SearchAmelia, we’re honored to be part of the ongoing discussion, but wary about the outcome. Only with an objective that serves the economic pillars of our community can we even hope to compete in terms of quality and entertainment. But at least we have the set up to broadcast into the world that we are the coolest island on the planet and we are constantly creating the videos to prove it.