Nickelodeon in Danger of Being Dropped by Cable/Satellite Companies
What the Nick is Going on Here?
2012 continues to be a bad year for Nickelodeon. While several new shows including The Legend of Korra and the brand-new Figure It Out revival have brought in some fairly decent ratings for the network, they still continue to be ranked in third place.
According to Todd Juenger, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, in a statement made on June 12th, 2012, if Nickelodeon does not turn things around in the next several years, there is a good possibility that several cable and satellite providers may drop them. Declining ratings along with streaming content on Netflix and people cutting out their cable and satellite to save money are reasons why pay-TV providers would make such a drastic decision.
Losing Affiliate Fees and Advertising Revenue: What This Means to Viewers
The likelihood of Nickelodeon losing affiliate fees and advertising revenue is still in the "improbable" category, but considering that the likelihood was once in the "inconceivable" category as little as a year ago, this is not particularly good news.
Overall viewership is down over 30% in the last several months. Juenger blames online streaming of its shows as one of the main causes for this steep decline. Those who have Netflix are watching their shows this way to cut costs which in turn is hurting ratings.
Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom, continues to stand by what he said several months ago - Nielsen's ratings issues.
Juenger disagrees. "We fear the long-term value of the flagship networks is in jeopardy." (Hollywood Reporter).
Nickelodeon isn't the only network in trouble as he cites problems with MTV and other Viacom-related networks as well.
Exhibits A and B
Dish Network made a rather difficult decision to drop AMC very soon. Because most of AMC's original shows including Mad Men and The Walking Dead can be streamed online, Dish no longer feels it necessary for them to carry the network.
Below is a conversation Juenger has hypothesized for how carriage fee negotiations might happen between Viacom and multichannel video programming distributors:
Viacom: "We're here to talk about the next six years of 8 percent price increases, plus 2 percent for TV Everywhere rights."
MVPD: "Your ratings are down. 26 percent at Nick. And our subs can get your content on Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. We should be talking about how much less we should be paying you, not how much more."
Viacom: "We're investing heavily to restore our audiences."
MVPD: "Great, maybe the audience will come back. But we're not paying for it ahead of time."
Viacom: "We need 8 percent (plus 2 percent). Take it or leave it." ("What are you going to do, drop us?")
MVPD: At least threatens, with some credibility, to "leave it."
In addition, Juenger states that Viacom's stock would take a major hit as a result of the possibility of their networks being dropped.
Revival Projects
Fans of some of Nick's moderately-performing shows that ended far too soon have been organizing efforts to have their shows revived.
These include the following:
The Jimmy Neutron Revival Project has been discontinued, however, fans continue to sign the petitions and interact on the fan page.
There are thousands of fans involved in projects to convince Nickelodeon to have Hey Arnold!'s The Jungle Movie made and to have Invader Zim revived.
If you are interested in trying to get Nickelodeon back on track and are a fan of any of the three shows listed, follow the above groups and pages on Facebook for more information.
