Sure, cord-cutting has whittled linear TV audiences to the bone in recent years. But if you're Warner Bros. Discovery, the company that somehow convinced the broader video business that low EBIDTA losses on streaming equate to the same thing as having a profitable future, winning the ratings race in that shrunken, post-apocalyptic world is still meaningful.
Take Wednesday’s WBD press release, which touted three primetime occasions in the second quarter during which its linear channels controlled 60% or more of the adult 18-49 linear cable TV audience.
The conglomerate said that since March, its networks group, which includes Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, Investigation Discovery, TBS, TNT, TLC, Adult Swim and OWN, also delivered 16 nights with more than a 50% share of cable viewing among adults 18-49.
“Our popular group of networks attracts more than one-third of all cable viewers 25-54 each night,” Kathleen Finch, chairman and chief content officer for WBD's U.S. networks group, said in a statement. “In the second quarter, our viewers came for sports, their favorite series and brand-new originals which premiered all quarter long and kept our ratings and audience share high.”
Leading the way was TNT’s coverage of the NBA playoffs, with the pro hoops league enjoying its biggest postseason audience in five years across national TV partners. TNT led the cable TV primetime universe in Q2 adults 25-54, 18-34, 18-49, as well as people 2-plus.
Other highlights:
- On TBS, off-net series The Big Bang Theory remained cable’s No. 1 acquired show among adults 25-54, 18-49 and P2+.
- Led by 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way, TLC ranked as the No. 2 nonsports cable network among adults 25-54, women 25-54, adults 18-49 and women 18-49.
- Discovery Channel owned three of the top 10 unscripted cable series in primetime among men 25-54: Gold Rush, Naked & Afraid: Last One Standing and Deadliest Catch.
- ID ended the second quarter as the year-to-date No. 1 nonsports cable network in total day among women 25-54.
- OWN’s Love & Marriage: Huntsville was Saturday night’s top original series across linear broadcast and cable among African-American adults and women 25-54, and African-American women 18-49.
According to Nielsen’s popular market monthly viewing share tracker “The Gauge,” linear cable went from controlling 36.5% of all U.S. TV viewing in May 2022 to just 31.5% a year later. The viewer erosion in linear cable is far quicker than even broadcast.
Then again, we can make all the glib jokes we want to about WBD’s newfound dedication to linear cable under the regime of David Zaslav. But as TVREV analyst Alan Wolk wrote in Next TV last week, linear TV — dilapidated in reach as it might be — is still where the ad money is.
