The American Prospect - Broken Cords

Center for Journalism and Liberty director Dr. Courtney Radsch was quoted on the loss of news programming amid the growing trend in streaming networks.

“It’s already not very profitable to run a news outlet on cable or broadcast,” she said. “I don’t think policymakers are either addressing the current challenges adequately nor are they looking to the history of governing our information communication technology. We’ve got to get on top of this faster and not wait two decades.”

There were so many CNN logos on the set of the June presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that it became a running joke. This was the first general-election debate produced by a single television network since 1960, and CNN, whose numbers had sagged to the point of irrelevancy, was going to milk it for all it’s worth. CNN’s moderators would ask the questions, and the logo would appear everywhere, even on rival channels simulcasting the program. The network added an unprecedented two commercial breaks and sought millions of dollars from advertisers.

In the end, ratings revealed the smallest audience for a general-election debate since 2004, and of the estimated 51.27 million viewers across 16 channels, fewer than 1 in 5 watched it on CNN. Part of this was due to the June airdate, months before Election Day. But CNN took solace from the fact that Nielsen ratings only register broadcast and cable channels, not its burgeoning digital platforms. Indeed, they said, this was the largest-ever audience for CNN on Max, the streaming network owned by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. But that was a low bar; the digital audience for WBD platforms was 2.5 million, and for Max, only 864,000.

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