Is Broadband TV Running TV Reruns Into The Ground?

Filed in archive Internet TV on April 9, 2007

I was reading an interesting angle about broadband TV written by Wayne Friedman. Namely, ever since networks started offering Internet viewings of their shows, they also came up with research that said all those new airings of prime-time shows had no effect on traditional TV.

But now it seems that's only half true: That is, there's no effect from Internet viewing of original prime-time shows. But, there has been an effect when it comes to networks reruns. For example, any of the CSI reruns might retain 80% of their original audience. Now those numbers are down to 60% or less.

I suspect that the DVR is having an impact. After all, you can record it and watch it when you want. But what if you have no recording at all? This doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out. If I really missed a specific show that I want to see, I would not wait for the summer or some non-sweep time periods to catch that show. Better is to go immediately online and find the exact show I'm looking for or download it.

That's the easy part. But what isn't easy for the networks is how they'll continue to monetize prime-time shows with lower ratings on reruns. As Wayne points out the "whole network system depends on reruns -- even in this age of reality shows that aren't repeated at all."

Can the Internet make up the difference? Right now those Internet viewings are priced much higher per-thousand viewers than on traditional TV. But the total out-of-pocket prices are still small.