And This Year’s Winner of the Oscar Is….

Bottom line the 2016 Academy Awards had a down year for ratings with 34.3 million viewers.  If you compare that to the last 15 years of viewership, it isn’t at the bottom but it’s far from the top of the ratings pyramid.

The show had the diversity controversy written all over the show.  From the opening monologue and mentioned continuously during the show.   I thought Chris Rock did a great job handling a very difficult situation, but at times I got a bit uncomfortable with some of the jokes around the subject.

Could the diversity issue drive down the year’s ratings to the third lowest in 15 years?  Perhaps, but a few other thoughts are worth noting.

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•   Must See TV – in years past I can recall “Oscar Viewing Parties” being held.  There was a sense of excitement.   My take… people aren’t enthused about the program or award.  They feel the content has become dull.
• -          Identity Loss – has Oscar lost his brand?  With the SAG Awards and Golden Globes all proceeding the Academy Awards it seems some of the luster might be a bit tarnished on the Oscar trophy.
• -          Movies – frankly, I had only seen one two of the movies up for the big award.  So the movie product might not have been exciting as years past.  Albeit, seeing if Leonard DeCaprio would win Best Male Performance was intriguing. 
• -          Competition – the show had no competition that night so that excuse is out the window.
• -           Host – Chris Rock was great.  He was dealt a very tough hand.  Striking a balance on diversity, humor and moving the show along had to be incredibly difficult.
• -           Cross promotion – it was very lean.  Little digital components left the show dry.

Ratings for this year and previous years of the show came in at:

2016 34.3 million 

2015 37.3 million 
2014 43.7 million 
2013 40.3 million 

2012 39.3 million 

2011 37.9 million 
2010 41.3 million 
2009 36.3 million 
2008 32.0 million 
2007 40. 2 million 
2006 38.9 million 
2005 42.1 million 
2004 43.5 million 
2003 33.0 million 

2002 41.8 million
2001 42.9 million 

Let’s hope next year’s event is a bit stronger.

Scott

College Football Championship Game -- What's Wrong?

I have to congratulate the Alabama Crimson Tide.  What a great College Football Championship game this past week.  

So I was shocked when the TV ratings started rolling in.

This years game ratings were down 23% to 25.7 million viewers. Compare that to the previous year at 33.4 million viewers.

If ESPN made rating guarantees with advertisers at 33 million viewers then…., well, let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be an ESPN traffic coordinator.  

Now some folks think it’s the teams which played this year… Alabama and Clemson vs. the previous year, Ohio State and Oregon.  That might have something to do with it.

I believe there’s more going on and opportunity to increase ratings.

1. Competition — the NFL playoffs are the same time… getting a great deal of clean pre-game promotion is tough.  Beef up the promotion and create stronger sponsor involvement.  It is going to be tough given Super Bowl competition, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
2. When it airs — Perhaps it’s time to think about moving the game to a Saturday evening?  There’s issues with the NFL game schedule, but this might be worth a look.  a
3. Where it airs — the game ran on ESPN exclusive.  What about putting this on ABC? A solid prime time channel and time. 
4. How it airs — online viewership was up 38% this year.  I wouldn’t make any changes. 

The College Football Championship game should be drawing 32 million viewers… it’s a showcase of talent and passion.  ESPN has some work to do.

Scott

TV Ratings -- Sometimes a Case of Shooting Yourself in the Foot

AdAge reported on a December 9th, 2015 article that TV ratings continued to fall… and this time 39 legacy shows are experiencing the issue.  Just 3 are feeling an uptick.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.  We know live sports events always do better as people would rather experience the action as it happens vs. rebooting TIVO to watch.  The Sunday Night Football ratings prove that as the ratings were up 8.2 in the 18-49 demo up from the last ratings period.

But I’m confounded by a move ABC is making.  Marvels Agents of Shield just ended it’s Fall shows on December 8th.  But the show doesn’t return until March… March, you’ve got to be kidding me.  It’s time slot is being filled by Agent Carter another Marvel property during the vacancy, but March?  It’s 2.5 months from now.   That’s an eternity to have the show off the air.  AND… Agent Carter really doesn’t have a solid track record as a ratings driver.  And hoping that the Shield crowd stays around for Carter is a risk.  Certainly, getting the audience to gravitate to a new show is great, if, they also stay around for the old show.  But that’s a damn big risk.

Now summer is different story, consumers expect the reruns or shows off the air.  But during the prime season to keep a show off for 2.5 months.  Good luck boys.  My gut, ratings will fall on Agents of Shield at least 15%.

I don’t know about you, but I’m so frustrated with the TV networks these days.  Shows are off the air for extended time periods, get switched between different TV properties, can be watched online etc.  It’s no wonder ratings continue to fall.  The disaggregation continues making it easier for consumers to get access to the show, but this continues to hurt aggregation of ratings.

I long for those days of less tech, and schedule simplicity.

Scott