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LA Times

New TV Season, Same Old Problem

Sep 28, 2016  •  Post A Comment

The new fall TV season comes with the same old problem for the networks. With the numbers in for the first week of the 2016-2017 season, The Los Angeles Times reports that the nets continue to lose ground among younger viewers.

“During premiere week for the 2016-17 season, overall prime-time TV usage was off around 7% among the 18-to-34 age group compared with a year ago, based on Nielsen data,” The Times reports. “The number has been on a downward trend over the last few years,  reflecting the emergence of online video streaming and video on demand.”

The report quotes Jeff Bader, president of program planning, strategy and research for NBC, saying of younger viewers: “They are watching. They are just watching in different places. That audience watches where they want, when they want.”

The report notes that NBC, which ranked first during premiere week in the advertiser-friendly 18-49 demo with an average of 2.51 million viewers, was still off 6% from premiere week a year ago. “CBS was up slightly to 2.46 million. ABC was off 21% to 1.34 million, while Fox was down 23% to 1.23 million,” The Times reports.

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