Does it feel as if you’re watching nothing but cable shows this summer? “Duck Dynasty,” “Breaking Bad,” “Rizzoli and Isles,” and maybe just “Big Bang” Reruns on TBS. Summer never was a big time for the major broadcast channels (Fox, CBS, ABC, and NBC,) but this summer has been their worst yet. The average viewer this summer has been watching 17.4 hours of cable TV every week, versus just 6.2 hours of major broadcast channels. Sure, we’re still watching local news, “Wheel of Fortune,” and “Dr. Phil” on broadcast channels, but in the evening, when we settle in to “veg out” and watch some TV, we now watch cable. Why is this happening? Sure, there are more cable channels available now than ever, but the overall quality of cable network TV shows has been improving quickly. And the major networks are presenting few new shows to compete, other than “Under the Dome” on CBS, the summer’s only broadcast hit.
It’s simple, the broadcast networks give up on summer, whereas the cable networks put their best stuff on, and really go for it.
This summer, we’ve been running many of our TV clients during prime time hours on the top cable TV networks. It’s still affordable, but that will change in the coming years, as people begin to catch on to this. If you need help building a cable TV schedule, contact us. Although King Marketing, Inc. specializes today in Internet Marketing, over the past 25 years, we’ve run a lot of our clients on TV, both broadcast and cable. Let us use our experience to help you build a successful summer ad program on cable TV.
Data source: Turner Network study of Nielsen ratings for May-August 2013.
