The headline of a story on an entertainment site this morning blared “Emmys Sink to All-Time Low Ratings”. The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, which was broadcast on Fox on September 22nd, earned a very low 5.8 Nielsen rating (6.9 million viewers). The viewership of this year’s show dropped 23 percent from last year’s also sluggish 7.4 rating, (10.2 million viewers). For comparison, 21.3 million viewers tuned in for the Emmy broadcast 25 years ago, in 1994.
It may be easy for critics to blame the new no-host format, a poorly-received final season of Emmy juggernaut Game of Thrones, or the lack of broad popularity for shows such as Fleabag or How They See Us, for the poor viewer turnout. But the problem with the Emmy Awards ratings is much broader and much more a reflection of a rapidly transforming consumer appetite for content, and it is indicative of a permanently changed and sharply splintered media world.
Forty years ago, there were only three broadcast networks to choose from, so every American was forced to choose from three programs at a time if they wanted to watch TV. That is why The Ropers became a TV show. And there were not many other entertainment choices, as there was no internet. No podcasts. No audible books to download. No YouTube videos to create. No iTunes to listen to. No Netflix to watch. That landscape of limited choices and media scarcity that dominated the world for decades has given way to a world of abundance, and there is no turning back. Award show viewership is in a permanent decline. Who wants to watch a show about which show is judged to be the best show, when you can just be watching the actual shows whenever you want?
The days of high ratings for programs on the main four broadcast channels are not coming back. The days of high ratings for national radio personalities are not coming back. And the days of high profits for musical content production and distribution are not coming back. There is an infinite number of entertainment and media creation choices available today, so each one’s reach and visibility is very small. There is no more mass market. Only a large amount of small markets.
Each entertainment market entry needs to create its own niche audience and following. Artists can no longer count on the broad distribution of the scarcity market, where a small number of powerful TV stations, radio stations and movie production companies dominate the landscape like dinosaurs. To survive in today’s media landscape, creators and distributors of entertainment and content must be nimble, cost-efficient, and focused on finding small audiences. They must focus on a small group of interested customers that are radically passionate about their product, who will then tell more people about their cool new discovery, who will then tell more.
Yes, 20 million viewers tuned in to see Game of Thrones each week this past season. But that means that 310 million Americans chose not to watch the series. They had other things to do. With so many entertainment choices available these days, it is very easy to create content, but very difficult to attract an audience. It is easy to scream, but difficult to be heard. The world has evolved and changed, and it is not going back to old ways. Only nimble minds who have accepted this change and who are committed to organically growing their product’s reach, one small group at a time, will survive.
