Lead-In Nielsen: Pay TV Subs Could Stabilize Slowing decline in live viewing, changing millennial habits stir hope for networks

BY JON LAFAYETTE have more services, more varied behaviors. So after the loss of S THE DECLINE in the multichannel homes that we number of pay-TV sub- have seen, we might see some Ascribers appears to slow, pressure in the other direction, Nielsen researchers suggest that which could help stabilize the more help might be on the way number,” he added. as cord-never millennials get This means that in a few years, older and have kids. the TV business might no longer In its fourth-quarter Total be looking at a generation of Audience report, Nielsen cord-nevers. said that pay-TV house- “Generally speaking multi- holds dropped below the channel penetration is higher 100 million mark. The re- as you get older, but I think port also noted a relatively that’s been true for like 15 small 1.2% drop in live TV Freeform’s Recovery Road is a millennial-skewing show that could years, “ Enoch said. “This is viewing as streaming video- benefi t if the forecast from Neilsen’s Glenn Enoch (left) holds. a whole group of people who on-demand penetration might be in the market for edged up to 48%. multichannel.” Those numbers give media dent adults living in someone “We know that families have Of course there’s also the pos- companies cause for concern. else’s home; on-their-owns; and higher multichannel penetration sibility that as today’s millennials Glenn Enoch, senior VP, audi- those starting a family. The group than non-families, and that’s age, new entertainment choices ence insights, at Nielsen and au- with the lowest pay-TV penetra- pretty much true of every age will be invented that might prove thor of the report, took a closer tion— the on-their-owns—has and every income group. If you to be an alternative to traditional look at those 18-to-34-year-olds the highest income, and people have children, you’re more likely pay-TV and continue to lure and said their behavior might with high incomes tend to delay to have cable, satellite, telco, eyeballs away from live TV. start to change as they age and starting a family. some kind of multichannel sub- “If you’re saying that the that could stabilize the number As those on-their-owns get to scription,” Enoch said future will continue to get of multichannel subscribers. ages 35 to 39, two-thirds of them “And upscale households more complicated, I think I’m Nielsen divided 18-to-34-year- are going to have homes and chil- tend to have more of everything. endorsing that point of view,” olds into three groups: depen- dren, up from about 53% today. They have more devices, they Enoch said.

sues but not delaying the March 29 start date, MORE AUCTION ACTION IN GEORGIA FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said last week. THE COURT taketh away and the participation as part of a chal- Separately, the FCC’s unwinding of the court giveth. lenge to the unwinding of a Augusta JSA and similar actions drew heat With March 29 still the joint sales agreement that from the Hill last week. date on which TV stations SPECTRUM the FCC had said needed to The FCC in March 2014 changed its JSA that applied to the spectrum be unwound as part of Gray’s rules to make most of them attributable as auction have to fi sh for big WATCH purchase of WAGT from Schurz. ownership interests. Congress grandfathered bucks or cut bait (see “Washing- WAGT has the second-highest existing JSAs for 10 years. But Wheeler told ton,” page 23), the FCC scored a victory in opening bid price in the Augusta market, so some angry legislators on both sides, who the Georgia Supreme Court. the FCC defi nitely wanted it in the mix. signaled the FCC was skirting its will, that The court temporarily enjoined a lower The Georgia development followed the FCC when stations change hands—as in the case court from blocking WAGT Augusta (Ga.) court defeat two weeks ago, when a Florida of Schurz and Gray—it becomes a new license from electing to enter the auction. Media low-power station was allowed to re-enter the and the JSA a new JSA, subject to the un- General had asked the court to block WAGT’s auction—causing the FCC some logistical is- winding provision. —John Eggerton Freeform/Adam Taylor Freeform/Adam

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FATES AND FORTUNES THE WATCHMANINDUSTRY MOVES Deputy Editor Michael Malone’s weekly look at the programming scene OF THE WEEK ■ (1) CHRIS PEÑA has been tapped as senior VP of local media television for Univision. Peña joins One Last Season Before I Go the company from MSNBC, where he was a senior 1 executive producer. Univision also upped Lourdes THE FINAL SEASON of Torres to senior VP of political coverage and special rough-and-tumble drama projects. ■ Simulmedia has hired MICHAEL ZIMBALIST Banshee kicks off on as chief marketing offi cer. Zimbalist was previously Cinemax April 1, wrap- senior VP of advertising products and research and ping up four seasons for development at the New York Times Co. ■ (2) GABRIELA the Jonathan Tropper- GONZALEZ has been named VP, Latin for ASCAP. David Schickler series. Gonzalez, most recently a senior director of the 2 Tropper, of course, made performing rights group, will lead Latin membership his name as an author staff in L.A., New York, Miami and Puerto Rico. ■ before having a go of it Sinclair Broadcast Group’s American Sports Network in Hollywood, but says has appointed (3) IBRA MORALES VP of operations and he can’t quite remember Banshee TODD SIEGEL VP of sales. Morales joins ASN from the when his last novel came 21st Century Fox-RCN Television Group joint ven- out. (It was One Last ture MundoMax, where he was president and CEO. Thing Before I Go in 2012, if you’re scoring at home.) Siegel comes to ASN from Ipowow, where he served “I still consider being a novelist my day job,” Tropper 3 tells The Watchman, though he admits he’s at least a as executive VP of sales. year late on his next book. His publisher will have to wait. Tropper has writ- ten the pilot for a martial arts project called Warriors that’s set in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1870s. It’s “One of the inspired by the writings of Bruce Lee; Cinemax is home THEY SAID IT for that one too. best parts of Tropper also got to direct an episode of Banshee. “It my job is when was a little intimidating, but it being the last season, I fi gured I’d better do it,” says Tropper. I work with actors He promises high “emotional stakes” I loved as a kid and for Lucas Hood and the rest of the characters in the fi nal run. they’re even more kind There’s a sharp dichotomy than I imagined. RIP between Tropper’s suburban-set, character-driven books and his fi st- Ken Howard.”—@GBerlanti, The Passion in-your-face TV work. Pitching the Greg Berlanti, producer of The CW’s The Flash, Arrow and Leg- former around Hollywood went no- “[M]uch of the program, where, he says, while the big-action ends of Tomorrow, on the death of which made Jesus Christ the SAG-AFTRA president. stuff birthed a new career. Superstar seem like Speaking of surprise births, Trop- a|documentary, consisted per raves about Amazon’s shotgun-wedding comedy Ca- of cheesy, previously fi lmed “My favorite Garry tastrophe (“a painfully accurate assessment of relation- ships”), along with Orange Is the New Black, Shameless segments depicting the fi nal joke: “I’m dating Miss and Girls. “Very different from Banshee,” he says, “but hours of Jesus, projected on Georgia. All right, it’s all have that dysfunctional family theme.” a giant screen for the hordes And fi nally getting to enjoy some good primetime in attendance.” the former Miss Geor- fare is Sam Champion, host of the new 23.5 Degrees —Frank Scheck in a review for The Hollywood gia. OK, it’s George With Sam Champion issues-oriented talker on Weather Reporter of Fox’s The Passion, which was Channel. Champion moved off morning show AMHQ last produced by the magazine’s sister entity, Foreman.” #RIPGarry- Dick Clark Productions. The review was fall. Not waking up at 3 a.m. has opened up a whole new removed from THR’s website after initially Shandling”—@normmacdon- world of TV for the weather maven. Narcos, Downton appearing on March 20. Janice Min, co- ald, comedian Norm Macdonald, Abbey and Love & Hip-Hop are on his rave list. president and chief creative offi cer of the reacting to the death March 24 “It’s kind of nice to be aware of these things now,” Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, of comedian and TV star Garry Champion says with a laugh. “I now have the ability to told B&C in a statement that an “editorial Shandling, who was 66. error” ignored a company policy against have things of cultural signifi cance as part of my life.” reviewing DCP shows. “It was caught after it posted and then removed,” Min said. Heidi Gutman/NBCUniversal; Gregory Shummon/HBO; Steve Deitl/Fox Steve Shummon/HBO; Gregory Heidi Gutman/NBCUniversal;

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