Analyst: Online Streaming Now Hurting Some TV Networks' Ratings

The online streaming availability of TV content may have helped TV ratings in the early going, but its benefits are peaking and even reversing for some networks, Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tony Wible suggested.

TV audience data for May suggests "a worsening trend" for the TV industry as C3 ratings pressure "has intensified for the past three quarters," the Wall Street observer wrote in a report that reviewed data from a sample of 2 million TiVo users. In his latest contribution to the debate about whether online content services cannibalize traditional media consumption, Wible said the recent TV ratings decline "is ill-timed and could impact upfront negotiations for affected networks," which are ongoing. "Investors need to look at a broader set of metrics as they evaluate the impact of new technology adoption," he said. The data "is not reflective of current trends in the broader population but rather is a tool that helps us find harbingers for future trends," he argued.