Local TV Could Go the Way of Newspapers

Hugh Pickens writes "Alan D. Mutter writes on his 'Reflections of a Newsosaur' blog that the economics of local broadcasting may begin to unravel as dramatically in the next five years as they did for newspapers in the last five years, due to the unparalleled consumer choice made possible by a growing mass of (mostly free) content on the Internet. 'Once it becomes as easy and satisfying to view a YouTube video on your 50-inch television as it is to watch "Two and a Half Men," audiences will fragment to the point that local broadcasters will not be able to attract large quantities of viewers for a particular program,' writes Mutter. The economics of cable TV programming already are geared to serving small but targeted niches, but as audiences shatter, those options won't be available to local broadcasters, who will be deprived of the vast reach that enabled the high ad rates and enviable profits long associated with their businesses. Although barely 8% of US households had access to IPTV in 2009, this technology is likely to be available to some 20% of the more than 100 million homes subscribing to pay-television services in 2014, according to senior analyst Lee Ratliff of iSuppli, a private market research company. 'We already have gotten a hint of what the future could hold. Acting to trim spending during the recession, many local stations cut back their news staffs, resulting in a decline in the caliber and depth of their coverage,' writes Mutter."

A Bold Claim

[boneclinkz]

"Once it becomes as easy and satisfying to view a YouTube video on your 50-inch television as it is to watch "Two and a Half Men," I don't know... Two and a Half Men... That's a pretty high bar as far as satisfaction is concerned.

The measure of satisfaction?

[camg188]

'Once it becomes as easy and satisfying to view a YouTube video on your 50-inch television as it is to watch "Two and a Half Men," audiences will fragment

As satisfying as watching Two and a Half Men? Well, that wouldn't take much. An out of focus, artifact ridden, 6 fps, 320 x 240 puppet show would be as satisfying.

Re:Local sports on TV will not die and WGN is good

[Anonymous Coward]

Some people say punctuation is good it makes it possible to break up individual sentences so that they can be read clearly but I have to agree with you that punctuation is a waste of time I dont have time to try to think where to put commas and periods and things and I dont like speling eether speling is too much trouble