Jul 5, 2017

Viewers are abandoning Disney's channels

Damian Dovarganes / AP

"It's not just ESPN" is the to-the-point subhead of this Wall Street Journal front-pager, "Disney's Channels: Children Are Tuning Out ... Ratings have fallen significantly at Disney's biggest television brands, led by Disney Channel and Freeform, which reach children, teens and young adults," by Joe Flint and Ben Fritz:

"Disney Channel and Freeform ... [e]ach ... has lost about four million subscribers over the past three years, bringing them to about 90 million apiece."

Why it matters: "The shift to streaming services such as Netflix Inc. and web-based platforms like Google's YouTube is particularly pronounced among younger viewers."

"According to Nielsen, among people ages 2 through 34, prime-time viewing has dropped by 34% in the past five years."

Lingo: Disney Channel President Gary Marsh has a stiff-upper-lip term for young people dropping cable like a bad habit as they move to mobile: "migration."

Go deeper: From yesterday's Media Trends newsletter (sign up here) by Axios' Sara Fischer, "The skinny revolution": "All five of the largest Pay-TV providers in the U.S. are now experimenting with skinny bundles — a TV streaming package with fewer channels for less money. (The average skinny bundle is roughly $40/month while the average cable package in America is around $103/month.)"

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