If you grew up in the 80's, 90's or 2000's, when you talked about TV, you mostly talked about cable channels.
As somebody obsessed with comedy as a kid, I was glued to Comedy Central for their stand-up. I couldn't get enough of Family Guy re-runs on TBS. And I was introduced to Arrested Development after they were cancelled the first time and whole seasons would run on IFC.
So, what happened?
Are there any new shows on cable? Is cable even a thing anymore?
Well, the answer is a big emphatic... sorta...
The Big Cable Writedown
In early August, both Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery admitted to stockholders that their cable divisions were overvalued.
Alright, not such a big deal, right? After all, these things are in flux and reassessments and audits happen all the time.
It's the amount of the value decrease that's truly shocking.
Paramount just de-valued its cable channels by $6 billion dollars.
And Warner Bros. Discovery de-valued theirs by a whopping (that's right, this is a whopper!) $9 billion dollars.
Billion!
Why Is This Happening?
There are two big reasons that this devaluation was triggered.
For Paramount, they are in the middle of being sold, and that means Skydance, the buyer, has access to their books. And, well, basically, they couldn't keep lying.
So, they had to come clean and truly assess the value of cable channels like MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon.
The Warner Bros. Discovery writedown was slightly different. This was sparked by the NBA not renewing their deal they had with their slate of cable channels.
NBA games will no longer be shown on TNT as they have been for years. They've gone to streaming for the most part.
And it goes to show just how lucrative this deal with that it sparked a major re-evaluation of their entire slate of cable channels.
What Does This Mean For The Future Of Cable TV?
Cable TV is still alive. 40% of households in the US still have cable.
But it has seen a steady and quick decline. Basically, it will be dead soon as cord cutting becomes the norm rather than a niche subset of American society.
The interesting thing is there has been an uptick in network TV viewers. In fact, one of the fastest growing technologies in TV today are digital antennas that can get free TV from local broadcast stations.
So, cable's dead, network is alive and changing, and streaming is the new big fish in the pond.
But are these evaluations really even that surprising? I mean, were there even any new shows on cable? Who do you know that turns on TBS when they're not in a hotel room? Is USA even a channel anymore?
This evaluation is really only news for the shareholders. We all knew this was the case years ago.
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