The Great TV Purge Is Coming

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 847 Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by longtime media executive Tom Rogers to discuss the state of the streaming world, the future of the cable television ecosystem, who will create the ultimate bundle, which companies are here for the long haul, and where live sports fits in the equation. Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Tom Rogers Producer: Craig Horlbeck Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The NFL preseason is here, so check out the ringer fantasy football show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:05.9	Also, if you need fantasy rankings, we've got our rankings and sleepers at fantasyfutball.com.
0:11.7	So come listen to Danny Kelly, Danny Highfitz, and me, Craig Horlebeck on the Ringer Fantasy Football Show.
0:24.6	All right, it is Friday, August 5th.
0:25.5	Happy weekend.
0:31.7	Back in 2013, not that long ago, actually, about 100 million households in this country subscribe to a cable or satellite television service, Comcast, DirecTV, you name it. By this year, it'll be down to
0:40.0	about 70 million. Are you one of them? I am actually, but producer Craig, I'm betting you are not.
0:45.8	That's correct. In the 2021 survey, only 34% of adults between 18 and 29 got a cable or satellite package compared to 81% of those 65 or
0:57.9	older. I'm somewhere in the middle. I am not 65. By 2026, it'll be down to about 57 million
1:04.6	subscribers, say projections. These latest numbers are pretty grim, and it's an acceleration of what
1:10.4	everybody knows is cord cutting.
1:12.3	Eventually, it will be zero, probably, replaced by digital streaming services, TikTok, other things that have yet to be invented.
1:19.1	So what does that mean for these cable TV networks, which still exist, and in most cases, are still pretty profitable?
1:24.9	In a decade, they've gone from expansion mode, the explosion of
1:28.7	niche networks like VH1-2 and VH-1 Latino and ESPN-5. Now it's a fight for survival. To discuss
1:38.9	the future of cable TV, I wanted to have on a true expert, someone like Tom Rogers. He has been around the cable business pretty much since its inception.
1:47.7	He joined NBC in 1987 as president of NBC cable.
1:52.0	He helped launch CNBC and MSNBC, as well as a range of other cable channels.
1:57.7	He was the CEO of TiVo back in the day, and he's currently executive
2:01.6	chairman of Engine Gaming and Media. Tom has amazing insights on where the cable business is today,
2:07.6	where it's going, and what it means for all consumers, people like you and me. So that's what
2:12.8	we're going to talk about today. We're also going to get into a little bit of the more newsy things,
	...

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