NETWORKS TRY TO FIGURE OUT MILLENIALS

They’re the largest generation in America—bigger than Gen Xers or Boomers—and 2013 marked the year that the TV industry decided they needed to figure out exactly how to appeal to viewers born after 1980. Right now there are 92 million 12-34-year olds in running around America, and the networks know they have a problem on their hands, since new research shows that one-third of them watch mostly online video or no television at all. 2013 saw not one, but two new networks aimed directly at Millennials, albeit with slightly different takes on what might appeal to them. The first out of the gate—pivot—aims to entertain while inspiring social change. pivot’s programming—mix of everything from a Meghan McCain reality series to a variety show featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt—was garnering lots of media buzz and not a few kudos (see “Please Like Me,”) but by year’s end the channel had a long way to go in terms of viewership and carriage. The other new net, FX spinoff FXX, focused on Millennial men with a mix of established FX fare (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “The League”) and syndicated repeats (“Parks & Rec,” “Arrested Development,” and “Rescue Me”). [Full disclosure: yours truly once worked for pivot’s parent company, Participant Media.]

GOODBYE, STYLE. HELLO, ESQUIRE!

After everyone thinking for months that NBCUniversal’s new Esquire network would be replacing G4, it was announced in September that it was actually Style that was getting the axe. Seems there was just too much overlap between Style and its siblings E! and Bravo, so NBCU Cable topper Bonnie Hammer made the switch. Style (75 million homes) actually gave Esquire a bigger launch platform than G4 (62 million homes), and the move allowed NBCU to give greater brand clarity to its female-centric offerings (E!, Bravo, and Oxygen).

STREAMING SERVICES COME OF AGE

2013 was the year that Netflix, Amazon and Hulu all proved they were legitimate—and competitive—content providers. Not a month went by that it seemed someone wasn’t talking about “Orange is the New Black,” “House of Cards,” “Alpha House,” or any of the other original properties being offered on the streaming platforms. And at industry panel after industry panel this year, producers started talking about shopping their shows not only to the traditional channels, but also the streamers. And while the debate continues to rage over whether streaming services help or hurt linear, 2013 was the year they proved they were here for the long haul.

EMMY SMILES AT ‘HOUSE OF CARDS’

In walking away with the Best Director Emmy at this years Kudocast, David Fincher “House of Cards” secure its place in the TV history books as the first show distributed by a streaming service to be awarded TV’s highest honor.

TV EMBRACED THE BINGE

“Breaking Bad” went out with a bang (literally and figuratively) in 2013, propelled into the cable ratings (and online buzz) stratospheres partly by a wave of binge viewing wholeheartedly encouraged by AMC. While viewers were slow to flock to the critically-acclaimed meth drama at first, catch-up viewing, especially in its later years, helped grow the fan base to the point that viewership rose 442 percent in the final two years. Marketers have taken notice, and many of the promos for the Fall 2013 season encouraged fans to catch up online ahead of the season premieres. But the networks are already trying to move binge-watching away from Netflix and other streaming services, which have developed into competitors who are diluting network branding. FX launched its own streaming app this Fall, and the other networks are scrambling to develop their own streaming solutions, or risk Netflix toppling the entire TV business model in the near future.

SOCIAL MEDIA SAVES ‘SCANDAL’

Ah, Scandal, the Shonda Rhimes-helmed D.C. soap that got some critical love but not a lot of ratings in its first season. Then somewhere along the way in season two, Twitter took over. By mid 2013 “Scandal” was a bona fide hit for ABC, and Kerry Washington became one of the faces of the network’s primetime lineup. A legion of Twitter fans calling themselves “Gladiators” turned the show into one of the few remaining instances of appointment viewing an increasingly time-shifting world. Fans have serious fear of missing out on both the cast’s live tweets, and a serious fear of spoilers in a show that’s famous for a plot twist practically before every commercial break.

THE SHARKNADO TOUCHES DOWN

It was the kind of buzz that TV execs and marketing departments dream of. For a few weeks this summer, everyone—and we mean EVERYONE—was talking about “Sharknado,” SyFy’s almost improbably dopey Tara Reid and Ian Ziering vehicle about a group of sharks propelled through the air by a violent mega-storm. I mean, even Mia-flipping-Farrow tweeted about the show. In the end, the show still tanked in the ratings. But the online buzz did wonders for SyFy’s brand awareness, and the network has already greenlit a sequel—and allowed fans to pick the title (the winner? “Sharknado 2: The Second One”) In case you missed it the first time around, take a gander at the trailer for the original and marvel at the power of Twitter to turn even the shlockiest of shlock into a pop culture moment.

NIELSEN LAUNCHES TWITTER TV RATINGS

In September, Nielsen released its first-ever Twitter TV ratings reports tolling out a new service that the ratings company says will give advertisers and networks a clearer picture of the breadth and depth of the conversation people are having about individual shows on the social media platform. The new reports highlight two basic data points: how many individual Twitter users are posting about a particular show, and how many people in the broader Twitter community see those posts. By December, it was still too early to see any change in advertising rates based on the newly measurable social buzz, but Nielsen is confident that they could start influencing the conversation between networks and advertisers in 2014.

HOLA, VIEWERS

Latino-focused programming went mainstream in a big way in 2013. In Feburary, Univision beat out one of the Big Four—NBC— in sweeps. With 500,000 Hispanics turning 18 every year, and having little to no concrete connection to their family’s home countries, the television landscape in 2013 started out fairly devoid of a network or brand that speaks directly to them. But a number of entertainment companies began launching new networks to fill that void. Univision and ABC’s highly-anticipated new network Fusion launched in just over 20 million homes in October, part of a major play for Latino millennial viewers in a rapidly changing America. Jennifer Lopez is serving as Chief Creative Officer for Nuvo TV, an entertainment and lifestyle channel that re-lauched in July. Viacom’s MTV Tres and Telemundo’s Mun2 already program a mix of Spanish and English on their airwaves, and Robert Rodriguez’ El Rey network is launched on Dec. 15 with a mix of scripted, acquired, and live action programming.

NETWORKS DOUBLE-DOWN ON LIVE

2013 was the year that proved TV executives don’t care that greater numbers of viewers are switching to streaming and on-demand services every day. This year they redoubled their efforts at attracting live viewership—and the lucrative ad buys that go with it. We saw everything from big successes (NBC’s live remake of “The Sound of Music” with Carrie Underwood) to major flops (“Million Second Quiz,” anyone?). NBC is already saying they’re considering making a live musical a part of next year’s holiday programming, too.

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