Local TV Could Go the Way of Newspapers 180
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."
Re:Local sports on TV will not die and WGN is good (Score:4, Informative)
er... hasn't WGN been a cable network for the last 15-20 years? I don't even live in the same state (or even time zone) as Chicago, but all the local cable operators carry WGN, and have carried it even back when it was "Chicago's Very Own Channel 9."
Re:The measure of satisfaction? (Score:3, Informative)
Snape, Snape, Severus Snape [youtube.com].
Re:Good riddance. (Score:3, Informative)
That day hasn't been around for decade. The Government pulling it's funding for news broadcasts ended quality journalism. Ever since then it's been a race for money.
Re:Hyperlocal vs. local (Score:3, Informative)
And where does Google get the "local content" that fills their search results?
Right, it comes from the local journalists (including the TV folks, although in most markets they're useless).
I wish people would realize that all this magically "free" content comes from somewhere. And once those people who pay their bills making that content lose their jobs, it's game over on many levels.
Of course you'll get people submitting photos of car crashes they saw on the way to work, or opinions on any number of topics. But what casual blogger's gonna cover city council? Who's going to take on the full-time job of keeping tabs on the school districts?
And, quite frankly, being a reporter requires skill, training and talent just like computer programming or brain surgery. It takes an understanding of the situation to ask the right questions, and it takes trust and tenacity to get sources to talk to you.
If it didn't, all CNN et al would use is crap like iReport.