Is Viacom dead right now?

[TMC1982]

I don't have time right now to really analyze each and every one of Viacom's channels right now (I'll leave that to TV Tropes' "network decay" pages), but to give you some food for thought, here are the Top 5 Basic Cable Networks of August 2018 (Prime Time)

Fox News (2,299,000) / +4 percent
MSNBC (1,845,000) / +1 percent
HGTV (1,363,000) / -5 percent
USA (1,326,000) / -12 percent
History (1,087,000) / +3 percent

​

MTV by the way, is all the way at 27 on the list, And as of November 2018,the list is still leaded by USA, FOX NEWS, MSNBC, HGTV, FX with the only Viacom channel leading is Nickelodeon. And even that seems very on and off.

 

[kanc]

For the primetime, Nick at Nite still continues to not do well and hanging in 0.5 total viewers average on primetime, even TVLand primetime is beating N@N which been like this since last year or so

Too bad we won't know total N@N total average day viewers since tvbythenumbers no longer post basic cable weekly ratings anymore.. TVnewser don't have those for N@N total average day.

 

[TMC1982]

Logo - Basically TV Land 2 now with virtually little LGBT programming

Comedy Central - Mostly built on reruns of South Park and The Office.

Nickelodeon - Essentially, the SpongeBob/Loud House channel. They've also pretty much given up on Nick @ Nite and are on autopilot.

VH1 - No original music programming, and basically BET light. It's more or less, the Love & Hip Hop/Basketball Wives channel.

MTV2 - No original music programming, and like VH1, essentially a watered down BET (sans HD). Most of the channel is comprised of old WB/UPN sitcoms from the '90s-early 2000s.

MTV - A botched TRL reboot combined with the same low-brow, trashy reality shows (Catfish, Jersey Shore, 16 & Pregnant, Teen Mom, Ridiculousness, Floribama Shore playing non-stop.

TV Land - Original content (whatever is left of it) being moved to Paramount Network, and going back to classic shows.

Paramount Network - Original content like Heathers, Waco, and American Woman tanking. And the channel itself is little else but made up of reruns of Mom and Friends.

 

[kanc]

Nick at Nite is NOT given up, viacom said in article they'll plan to strengthen lineup by first half 2019.

TvLand: only Younger get moved to paramount this spring, Teachers is the last original scripted to air in TvLand and will air starting Jan 15 for every week.

Paramount network also shows two and a half men along with friends and mom.

Nickelodeon: along with showing of spongebob and Loud House more, let's not forget paw patrol is big on nick jr block on nick.

 

[chocolate]

Viacom needs to get their crap together instead of copyright claiming and taking down videos on YouTube, they should fix their channels.

 

[TMC1982]

Viacom needs to get their crap together instead of copyright claiming and taking down videos on YouTube, they should fix their channels.

All of Viacom's channels are kind of the same, interchangeable way now. What I mean is that they play constant reruns (like the the same reruns of sitcoms, crime dramas, reality shows, and movies) and only show originals on or around the premiere day.

 

[chocolate]

All of Viacom's channels are kind of the same, interchangeable way now. What I mean is that they play constant reruns (like the the same reruns of sitcoms, crime dramas, reality shows, and movies) and only show originals on or around the premiere day.

They need to change that too!

 

[LinusFan303]

To be fair, reruns are the back bone of cable (minus cable news channels, some sports channels, and shopping chnanels) they have their viewers. Their plan to Paramount network the flagship did hurt Tv Land the most because they were really trying in the originals department. Now they are kind of drifting back to their original purpose of being Nick at Nite 2. Nick at Nite really doesn't need to do much it gets viewers and it's away to fill in the night time nick slots. I don't Viacom ever knows what to do for VH1 or MTV post music being on the channels era have been hard on these channels. You can't put the old music videos on the channels that won't work, you can't put new music on the channels because people will go this wasn't my Music! I personally watch Logo for the reruns of Alice (since it' only airs there and Antenna TV) , Mama's Family, and few others. That channel had to kind of drift because it was kind of niche idea for a channel.

I don't think Viacom is dead, not saying they are healthy . I think it was smart to focus on a few core channels as a business so there's not a thin spread so having Paramount as the flagship, Nick for the Kids family , MTV for whoever MTV is for, VH1 for stuff you don't want on other channels etc... and having channels for reruns balances it out a little more.

 

[Anti-Hero 69]

I'd personally say slim down a bit. Ditch some spin-offs, like MTV2 and Nicktoons and perhaps sell networks that aren't worth much to them, like CMT, TV Land, and Logo. Sony has a huge hole in their TV department that needs to be filled. wink wink

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

I wouldn't really say that they're dead since their current focus now is just the film side, as in Paramount than the TV side, as in MTV, VH1, TV Land, CMT, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, Comedy Central and BET.

 

[lowell]

I'd love to see Sony restructure the networks group if they buy CBS-Viacom. Maybe merge some networks like the MTV networks and VH1 into only 3 channels, CMT, TV Land, and Paramount Network into one channel, BET channels into only 2 channels, Pop and Logo into one channel, Nicktoons merge with TeenNick into one Nick rerun channel, and they should also use one of the closed channels to show original programming from their main UK broadcast network, Channel 5, which could compete with BBC America. Sony Movie Network could be called the Paramount Movie Channel if they do want to rename it. Definitely need to see the rerun channels show more old CBS-Viacom shows or more original programing. Sony Pictures Television could give CBS-Paramount Television a bigger production team to work with. Should they also restructure the Showtime, Movie Network, and Flix channels?