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

Online cost of risk is much lower.

[jellomizer]

With higher risk, there is a chance for higher reward.
Broadcast companies have a high cost for a show failure.
1. The cost to make the show.
2. The opportunity cost of having people watch something else on that channel instead.
3. While the show is failing they will still normally need to broadcast for a few more weeks.

These cost prevents them from straying from the normal formula of what to show.
While sacrificing a new hit by reducing a huge flop.

Online companies, has the cost to make the show, but after it is made and posted to the servers it is easy money.
The people who like the show can watch it anytime. So even if it gritty they can watch it prime time, and not off hours where such people may be already asleep because they have to be at work in the morning. If people don't like it they won't watch it, and Streaming companies have real time reviews and can use such to fix the show, or cancel it, with the rest of the season available (and perhaps just wrap it up)

Re:Who actually watches this?

[Anonymous Coward]

To torture you for forgetting your anniversary.

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.