Too many digital channels?

I got this off another forum about digital channels a few nights ago. 'Sky 1 was under 60k between 8pm and 10pm in what must surely go down as one of its quietest Monday nights on record. ITV2 peaked for the evening with 220k for the 9:30 episode of Family Guy. Dave's best came at 10pm for Dave Gorman (170k). E4 also struggled after Hollyoaks, with Coach Trip posting only 140k. Finally, BBC Four maxed out at 330k for Coast at 8pm.' Are there too many digital channels now? In the last few years there seems to be a saturation of digital channels with a lot of new channels launching in the past few years with Paramount Network launching last year and Smithsonian recently. Under 60k is fairly pathetic for Sky1. What ratings was Sky1 getting a few years ago? Even the FTA ones dont rate great mostly. How many have Discovery now? I know people have more options now with streaming and everything but that doesn't seem to be affecting the channel numbers. Very few channels are getting the chop there are more launching than getting the chop.

Simple reason is far more choice dilutes the audience ratings for the traditional TV viewing. Today you have 600 digital channels. You have Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and all the catch-up platforms, iPlayer, Hub, All4, Demand5, etc.

The only real reason BBC1 and ITV get semi-decent ratings at all in a totally digital world is because they have all the programmes people want to watch and they've all been on for years (Emmerdale started as Emmerdale Farm in I think 1972 and Coronation Street dates back to 1960) so they are pretty much granted appointment to view TV.

Realistically if channels weren't making any money from the ad revenue they wouldn't stay on air; there are exceptions to this rule (Sky News is the obvious example here, having never made a profit in the last 30 years). The benefit of more channels is basically to increase market share for ad revenue purposes (and maybe an extra outlet or two for programmes) which is what all the +1 channels do as they're just rebroadcasting what went out an hour earlier. But there is no requirement to show adverts on an independent channel - Disney Channel UK went for many years airing no adverts whatsoever.

Remember a lot of the digital channels particularly for Sky are behind the paywall as opposed to FTA so I presume there is some form of income for them from that arrangement? In a FTA arrangement its traditional ad-supported income.

Tru tv is the only channel to not cut the mustard, everything else is cost effective enough.

I’d imagine so. Wasn’t there a retransmission consent Squabble with the Discovery Channels? That’s how most channels operate here, even if they are making a few cents a subscriber.

The answer I always give to that question is 'are there too many magazines?'

They're very similar media, anyone with enough money can start a TV station or a magazine, and both have a pretty high limit on capacity - satellite space or shelf space.

And on both cases the market will decide which ones live and die and how they evolve ad change to fulfill a market

That's because it was part of the Sky Movies subscription back then. Buy both Sky Movies and The Movie Channel and you get Sky Movies Gold and Disney Channel bundled in. Disney switched to the entertainment pack when digital launched, I think.

Disney didn't go to the entertainment pack for years, not until around 2006 I don't think. Around the same time they closed down Toon Disney, launched Cinemagic, moved the cartoons there, and the channel became mostly live action sitcoms.

Then Cinemagic became Sky Movies Disney and the cartoons disappeared entirely.

By that point Fox Kids had become Jetix (they took it over in 2001 when Disney bought Saban, and renamed it in 2005). That's their cartoon channel. It's now called Disney XD (which it was renamed to in 2010).

Well I meant the older cartoons, the 80s/90s/00s ones that we used to get during GMTV.

Disney were so late to the "airing adverts" thing over here it was a shock when they started going it, presumably something happened on the other side of the pond so to speak when they ramped up their production levels of original content for Disney Channel (and later XD) through their It's A Laugh Productions company.

Of course over here it didn't launch until 1995, despite having been tooted since 1989. I notice poking around in the EPG Disney Channel is now 24/7, it (and Junior) used to close at midnight. (Nickelodeon seems to have stopped teleshopping after midnight too and gone 24/7 as well). It looks like its only CITV and the BBC children's channels that don't air 24/7 now.

That's scary if you think about it, considering we are in an age where children stay up late on their phones and it's hard to get them to go to sleep. Late night TV used to be the "graveyard hours", where everyone's asleep and all you see are repeats of older shows or Teleshopping.

Tru TV was rebranded as True Crime, and didn't actually close down.

You can't say that's the only channel to not cut the mustard. Countless channels have folded over years, including Diva TV, Film 24, Style Network, Men & Motors, Bravo, and more recently Vintage TV, Capital TV and Heart TV, to name but a few.