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Number of Streaming Shows Overtakes Basic Cable, Broadcast For First Time (variety.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Variety: Streaming services snatched their biggest piece of the TV pie ever in 2018. According to FX's annual report on the number of scripted originals on TV, the number of streaming shows has surpassed the number of basic cable and broadcast shows for the first time ever. Out of 495 scripted originals that aired in 2018, 160 of them did so on a streaming platform. That is compared to 146 on broadcast and 144 on basic cable. Pay cable accounted for the remaining 45 shows. Streaming shows also saw the biggest increase year-to-year, growing from 117 last year. Broadcast dipped slightly, dropping from 153 in 2017. Basic cable saw a more sharp decline, compared to the 175 shows that aired on basic cable the previous year. Pay cable was up slightly from 42.
On a percentage basis, streaming shows now account for approximately one third of all scripted originals, with approximately 32%. Broadcast made up 30% and basic cable 29%, with pay cable making up 9%. The total number of shows across all of TV was up again as well, rising from 487 in 2017. The year-to-year growth was less than that of previous years, however. For example, the number of shows grew from 455 to 487 between 2016 and 2017. The 495 scripted originals this year was also off from FX Networks CEO John Landgraf's prediction that 520 such shows would air this year.
On a percentage basis, streaming shows now account for approximately one third of all scripted originals, with approximately 32%. Broadcast made up 30% and basic cable 29%, with pay cable making up 9%. The total number of shows across all of TV was up again as well, rising from 487 in 2017. The year-to-year growth was less than that of previous years, however. For example, the number of shows grew from 455 to 487 between 2016 and 2017. The 495 scripted originals this year was also off from FX Networks CEO John Landgraf's prediction that 520 such shows would air this year.
Commercials will slowly make their way into these services because of simple greed.
Yes, but is it companies who want to double dip or customers who want their "free" TV? Both sides of the same coin, I think. The nice thing about streaming services though is that they can deliver a full selection of choices. There's nothing stopping Netflix from saying "We want to make our original content available to an even broader user base who can't afford our subscription fees, so now we're announcing Netflix Ads at $3.99 and Netflix Zero at $0 with a little and a lot of advertising, respectively." So if you're dirt poor but your kids absolutely want to watch Stranger Things they can do that legally without being left out - assuming you got broadband I guess, but with a heavy side order of commercials.
I don't really see a future where streaming services would not want to offer an actual top-tier, no ads service. Obviously you have to "outbid" the advertisers for your own eyeball time, but that's really what's happening today as well. Netflix got the business model they got because they think it makes them more money than the other one, YouTube is the other way around where the main service is free but they too offer an ad-free Premium service if you want to pay your way instead. It's a different market dynamic than cable where people had no "super-premium" alternative when premium started doing ads, it was extracting more money from a trapped user base who wouldn't accept higher prices. Today they leave for other services on a whim.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings