Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Viability of TV Cartoons in a Changing TV Landscape

Cartoon Network continues to trundle along handsomely.

... Across the fourth week of March, Cartoon Network ranked as the #1 television destination for all boys 2-11, 6-11 and 9-14 (among all TV) on Thursday night (7-9 p.m.), #1 among boys 6-11 & 9-14 on Monday night (7-9 p.m.) and #1 among boys 9-14 on Wednesday and Friday night (7-9 p.m.).

On Monday night, original animated series Regular Show (8 p.m.) scored as the #1 telecast of the day among boys 6-11 on all television; similarly, the earlier 7 p.m. telecast ranked as the #1 telecast of the day among boys 9-14.

New episode premieres of Dragons: Riders of Berk (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), Annoying Orange (Thursday, 7:30 p.m.) and Incredible Crew (Thursday, 8 p.m.) each ranked #1 in their respective time periods with all boys 2-11, 6-11 & 9-14. ...

And as one cartoon net rises, another declines.

... Todd Juenger, analyst with Sanford Bernstein in New York, says Viacom’s increased subscription video-on-demand license agreements with Netflix and others, continues to hurt Nickelodeon ratings.

In 2012, Nickelodeon TV ratings dropped 14% in Netflix households, compared with 12% in non-Netflix homes. The ratings declines were even more pronounced for Nick Jr. (down 14%), Nick Toons (down 21%) and TeenNick, which saw ratings decline 17% in Netflix homes while remaining flat in non-Netflix homes.

By comparison, Cartoon Network ratings increased 15% in Netflix homes, mushroomed 38% at The Hub, 17% at Disney XD, and 10% at Sprout; while declining 2% and 4%, respectively, at Netflix homes watching Disney Channel and Boomerang.

Notably, Cartoon Network inked an SVOD deal with Netflix in January, while Disney and Netflix signed a landmark streaming deal set to begin in 2017 for movies, and earlier for catalog Disney Channel fare.

In a March 25 note, Juenger cautioned that increased availability of children’s content on Netflix conditions kids and their parents to skip linear TV. Indeed, the “Just for Kids” section is designed so children can navigate content choices without parental supervision since the programming has been pre-screened by a nonprofit child advocacy group.

The long-term problem for tv networks (of all stripes) is the increasing ubiquity of "on demand" video. Who wants to wait for a Nick show when you can pluck it out of the skies and place it on the computer whenever you want?

As "anywhere, anytime" entertainment delivery expands, rating companies take time-shifting into account, advertisers try to out-manuever DVR ad-skipping, and teenagers cease to watch scheduled t.v. altogether. (And who the hell watches on television screens anyway?)

Welcome to 21st century media.


1 comments:

Chris Sobieniak said...

It's a shame when the very nature of patience is becoming obsolete. I still don't mind scheduled things.

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