Broadcast TV Networks like CBS Losing to Cable Networks like TNT, TBS

Broadcast TV networks like CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC have been losing viewers to cable channels for years.  The average viewership for broadcast network programming has declined from 9% of US TV households in 1998 to 7% in the 2007-08 season. One of the main reasons for this is that broadcast networks do not have a niche target audience but rather work on a one-size fits all strategy. Most cable channels have much smaller audiences (~3-4 million), but the audience is targeted.  For example, TNT focuses on drama, TBS on comedy, Lifetime on women and Spike TV on men.

CBS’s 7.5 million weekly average viewers (~7% of US TV households) in 2005 declined to 6.1 million by 2008.  We forecast that weekly average viewers will be 5.7 million by the end of the Trefis forecast period.