^{(To the tune of Pink Floyd)} We don't need no awards shows.

Emmy awards U.S. TV audience hits all-time low

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-awards-emmys-ratings/emmy-awards-u-s-tv-audience-hits-all-time-low-idUSKCN11P1O8

#SMILE

ESPN is apparently the canary in the coal mine.

https://www.fastcompany.com/40501613/espns-john-skipper-just-announced-another-150-layoffs

<4 years later>

Streaming Subscribers Outnumbered Cable in 2018 for First Time | Digital Trends
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/streaming-subscribers-2018-mpaa/

"Fox averaged the most total viewers, with 1.22 million, a drop of 45% from April 2020. MSNBC averaged 953,000 total viewers in total day, a drop of 25% from last year – the smallest drop of all the cable news networks in this segment. CNN was third, with 786,000, a drop of 42% from the year before."

April Ratings: Fox News Returns to Dominance, But All Networks See Steep Declines From Last Year
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/april-ratings-fox-news-returns-to-dominance-but-all-networks-see-steep-declines-from-last-year/

<warp>

Worth a read;

Cord-Cutting Q1 2023: Pay-TV Ops Lose 2.3M Subs, Worst Quarter to Date - Variety

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/cord-cutting-all-time-high-q1-2023-pay-tv-losses-1235610939/

I've never had pay TV personally, though we have it in the rental.

But talking to my neighbor, who just decided he was done with satellite TV, there was a factor not mentioned in the article. He says the over-the-air free TV quality has improved with the rollout of new digital broadcasting, and they are rolling out enhanced recording capability. It still isn't like satellite where you could record two shows while watching another, but the niche in between on-demand streaming and over-the-air is getting smaller and smaller not just because of the growth of on-demand, but because of some improvements on the other end.

I was at his house watching the over-the-air on a new OLED whatever-K TV and it was astounding quality.

>over-the-air free TV quality

FTFY: Signal quality.   The content quality, even discounting ad saturation, is horrific.  News may be tolerable, but try sitting through a sitcom or reality show sometime.

Well , yes. I believe he mostly watches news, weather and sports in real time, the rest streamed.

It's mostly the sports that have kept him subscribed, but as prices climb, he's finding he is not that addicted to sports.

And.... today I got the new bill for the satellite TV for our rental. I ignored it at first because I thought I had missed an autopay due to an expired card or something because it was roughly double previous bills.

Alas, no, my bill went from $66.32/mo to $111.76/mo because the two-year promo offer I was on expired.

After chatting with two different customer service reps, I'm back down to $69.17/mo, but their original solution ($81.76) was going to end in me cancelling and now that they have gotten me angry at the company (the reps were great actually), they've successfully put the idea of cancelling in my head.

I only keep it because I don't know how much people use it and, when we had geosynch satellite with limited bandwidth, I was looking for anything that would keep them off the internet.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/07/disney-streaming-results-improve-as-cable-tv-decays.html

The streaming future Disney promised is finally here as cable TV decays

Will this kill local tv journalism in the same way online national text media and  marketplaces killed local text journalism?

For the most recent part, Sinclair has already taken care of that in smaller markets. The journalism is dead but they're still putting it on the air.