Emmys: Broadcast TV Airs Its Own Funeral As Netflix, HBO, Amazon and FX Dominate (hollywoodreporter.com)

At the 70th Emmy Awards, broadcast TV was almost shut out as Netflix and HBO battled each other. The Hollywood Reporter: This year, longtime Emmy nominations leader HBO was out-nominated by Netflix. Netflix then won the most Emmys on the main telecast, with seven noms to HBO's six. But earlier, HBO won one more award than Netflix at the Creative Arts Awards ceremonies, 17 to 16. So by the time the curtain came down on the 70th Emmy Awards, technically -- and sort of poetically -- Netflix and HBO had fought to a draw. Almost all of the major content providers left with several wins to celebrate.

[...] All in all, it was a terrible night for broadcast networks -- even as NBC aired the show and two stars of the network, Saturday Night Live's Michael Che and Colin Jost, hosted. SNL won the variety sketch award for the second year in a row, and ABC's The Oscars won for best direction of a variety show (that award's winner, Glenn Weiss, stole the night with his on-stage marriage proposal), but other than that, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and PBS had nothing -- nothing -- to show for their work of the past year. The times have certainly changed.

Comments

Re:Online cost of risk is much lower.

[MightyMartian]

The funny thing is that the subscription model long predates Netflix's and Amazon's forays into original programming. HBO has been around for nearly fifty years as a premium service, and has done fairly well with it, enough that is able to produce a good deal of original programming, which it in turn is either now directly streaming online or has sold in certain national markets to other streaming services. What we're seeing here is simply a repeat of what happened to the music industry 15 years ago, where a total lack of foresight, despite the notion of directly delivering the media product via a subscription service being floated for a long time leading to the industry suddenly going 'WTF!" And as the unholy alliance between the cable companies and the major networks continues to fray (after all, what the hell does a cable company care whether the TV show being sent across its network is via TV signal or IP packets), watch the traditional studio model collapse completely.

I still watch OTA TV

[Anonymous Coward]

exclusively. Why pay for drivel when I can get it for free?

When Jesus addicts get their way

[hyades1]

There's a way to ease this problem, though perhaps not eradicate it completely. The viewing public has proved definitively it wants programming which includes some NSFW content. I don't mean flat-out pornography (that's an argument for another time and place). I mean characters that curse and have sex occasionally without paying some price for their "sins", perhaps some nudity, realistic depictions of adult relationships...all that and more. The broadcast networks have been shut out of that incredibly huge market thanks to the squawking of religious nutbars who believe a character saying "fuck" at 11 pm on a talk show somehow endangers the moral well-being of the nation.

If the networks were allowed to air shows like "Breaking Bad", "Jessica Jones" or "Game of Thrones", I doubt very much whether they'd be getting out-competed by Netflix, HBO and Amazon. After all, a lot of broadcast channels are available for no more than the cost of an antenna (analog or digital). Instead, their licenses depend on adhering to so-called "community standards" that haven't really existed for decades. So you can't get shows like this at all, and even occasional expletives on shows like the Tonight Show are bleeped. So people look elsewhere for entertainment.

And guess who's created that situation. It's the same pack of self-righteous assholes who can't resist sticking their long, pointy noses into my life and telling me what a worthless sinner I am while they simultaneously excuse ugly, evil behaviour by any politician, police force or religious organization that promises to advance their political and cultural objectives.