The above chart pretty much tells the story..when your ratings are below even CNN's, there's not much lower you can go. And Ronan Farrow's catastrophe definitely didn't help.MSNBC is simply bleeding viewers at a torrid pace.
In 2013, MSNBC lost 24 percent of its prime-time audience and 15 percent of its daytime viewers, and that trend has continued. While CNN and FOX also lost viewers, mainly because the market has expanded, MSNBC's is double the losses of CNN and four times those of Fox. And where it counts, on the money side, Fox and CNN are both growing while MSNBC is actually losing income.And in broadcasting, that's the wound that keeps on bleeding because it perpetuates a death spiral - your ads are harder to sell because your audience share is smaller so you end up continually lowering your prices, kind of like a rapidly aging hooker trying to compete with the younger, more in demand ones.
Like Air America, MSNBC was the result of a conscious, corporate decision to chase the far Left demographic. It was always a place to find the most outre' Bush bashing and worship at the shrine of Obama and other far Left icons.
Well, Dubbyah has ridden off into the sunset and Barack Obama...well, let's be kind and just say that a lot of people have come to a new realization about what that hopey-changey crap really meant. And therein lies a problem.
Like Air America, MSNBC is a one trick pony and that is deadly boring to anyone but True Believers in search of an echo chamber. In the end, even many of them eventually zone out. And as the political climate is changing, MSNBC can't move with it without losing the core audience it has built up.
FOX doesn't have that problem. While the network definitely carries conservative commentary, they also use Lefties like Juan Williams or Susan Estrich as a counterbalance,so the spark is there. And FOX also carries a fair amount of straight news, regardless of how President Obama and his fellow Leftists demonize FOX as 'biased'. Most people who watch FOX for any length of time realize that FOX makes a real attempt to live up to the network's motto, 'Fair And Balanced', which is why FOX has maintained its position as the number one cable news network.
On MSNBC, most of the programming won't even interview conservatives let alone have them on the air
even as occasional panel members. The only real host who can even come close to being conservative is Joe Scarborough on 'Morning Joe', and even he pretty much toes the Leftist line of things like gun control, the Tea Party and amnesty for illegal aliens. Also, he and Mika, a major Lefty, have their own back and forth, which provides a bit of the spark needed to keep a show like that entertaining. Aside from 'Morning Joe', it's pretty much the George Soros network, all far Left talking points all the time.
Ironically, the best scenario for this changing would be for the GOP to retain the House, take the Senate and actually elect a conservative in 2016. If that happens, we might once again see MSNBC's audience increase as die hard Lefties look for a place on the dial that reflects their own worldview and prejudices.
Given the fact that America is politically left of center, it seems strange that a network like MSNBC can't retain viewership. Perhaps this says something about MSNNC and its programing. While Americans are generally politically left of center, there tolerance for the tactics of demonizing the opposition as the far left typically does is not as likely to be tolerated.
ReplyDeleteAs for Fox News, I think your analysis is spot on, however, Fox is generally left of center and this is likely why it has the highest ratings. From the perspective of MSNBC, Fox probably seems far right.
looking at that viewership thingy curve like thing, i'm wondering now, and this is just me wondering, if maybe, and i mean maybe there are one or two other people like me.
ReplyDeleteyou know.
who think they are all full of sht.
doesn't monkey boy in charge of programming at msnbc?
or is he in crimea now?
Traffic to my blog has dropped. Drudge is down from a billion hits a month to around 800,000 - still good but "down." I think part of the reason is the lack of substantial political news and there is very little of this type of news, and that has been the case for three years or so. Go to Drudge for headlines. You fill find almost nothing in terms of substantive political news. This "lame duck season" is tough on the editorial blogger. The elections will give us all a break.
ReplyDeleteLet me get this straight, if I'm hearing you whining champions of the Lame Stream Media, e.g. MSNBC/CNN/HLN/NBC, et. all save 1,
ReplyDeleteAND if it's a fact (faux fact) that most of America is left leaning, and Johnny boy is blaming the lack of political news as the reason for the lame stream media's flat-lining, then please explain how it is the Fox's (or Faux, as you inbred liberal diehards like to call it) ratings are skyrocketing, while the liberal's alternatives are dying.
I suspect it's because Americans are finally realizing just how wrong your favorite news (Ha!) channels are entering into politics, and intentionally avoiding the failures of their party pick.
I'm old enough to remember what it was like to see a real news channel, and Fox isn't it either. But at least they deliver the stories that the others purposefully run away from.