Good to see that the Les(s) Man is finally facing reality:
USA Today reports that Les(s) Moonves, Chairman of CBS Corp – which means he controls CBS, Showtime and half the CW – now claims to have been waiting, waiting, waiting for the glorious moment when alternate programming like DVR viewing, online streaming, mobile viewing, etc. to dominate the television world…and now that time has come.
“This year has really sort of been the tipping point that we’ve been expecting,” Les(s) claims in the article, pointing out that “This fall, 38% of young-adult primetime viewing on the major networks (and 23% of all viewing) consists of previously recorded shows…. That’s up from nearly zero a decade ago.”
(Wow, does this guy really speak in parentheses? How does the listener know? Does he use some kind of hand signal to communicate the “(” and the “)”?)
While this sounds good to us – a boon for untethered entertainment viewing – Old Media and those associated with it aren’t nearly so happy. The article, for example quotes Tim Spengler of New York advertising agency Magna Global as saying, “Everything is being disrupted by technology. Television is very effective for advertisers, (but) we just can’t rely on it to do the whole job the way we used to. What advertisers are forced to do is look at a much more diverse mix of media, and ‘the younger the target audience, the more diverse the mix needs to be.’ ”
In other words, the old TV business model is crumbling. Will Les(s) and his ilk be able to come up with a new one in time to save their 8 digit $$$ salaries? Moreover, do we, the audience, even care?
Tune in tomorrow. Or don’t. Just set your DVR.
Are you saying there’s more than one MOONVESES?! HOLEY SHIT!!! gs