Paley Center: MTVN’s McGrath: Younger Viewers Are Still Watching TV
In an interview with NYT TV reporter Bill Carter at the Paley Center, MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) CEO Judy McGrath insisted that despite appearances, TV viewing is still up among its young viewers. Carter prefaced his question about whether online was cannibalizing TV with an anecdote about his own kids watching less broadcast and cable programming.
McGrath responded that it’s always better to have your own content duke it out across platforms as opposed to being beat by a competitor, but she said even that is not the case for MTVN’s ratings. In her response to Carter’s assertion about diminishing viewership among younger demos, McGrath said, “Nielsen would tell you they’re watching more TV than ever. Plus, younger viewers are talking about shows, Twittering about programs. You imagine someone bringing a laptop to college these days, not a TV. But the TV numbers are up. A lot of that is due to HD, which has been huge for TV, especially among the college audience.”
Speaking of Twitter, McGrath’s point about the importance of comedy to younger viewers compared to music got some retweets when she said, “This is the dick-in-the-box generation and we have to develop for that.” (via @rafatali)
– Authentication: She didn’t have much to say on the topic, other than, “We’ve done a ton of homework on it and we will certainly be part of where the content industry goes. We think it makes sense, in that viewers can access content when and how they want it.”
– Epix: Rich Greenfield, formerly of Pali Research now with BTIG, asked McGrath how she feels about the HD channel Epix. “It’s a great new asset for Viacom. We’re not apart of it, and we distribute it happily.”
– Size doesn’t matter: It’s always the last questions that make you squirm. McGrath was looking for the airport when an audience member asked for her thoughts on the pending Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) deal and whether the combination of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) was a lot less formidable. McGrath, reluctantly, offered this statement: “I don’t think size matters. Comcast/NBCU has a lot of great assets. I think it’s important for us to be independent and to continue to have great programming. It will be interesting to watch either of those companies and what they come up with.”
The fact that Judy McGrath is still in charge of MTVN is an absolute joke, second only to Zucker’s reign of terror at NBCU. If McGrath was truly an expert in the younger generations, then this expertise would be borne out in higher ratings for MTV. Instead, the company’s hallmark channel continues its nosedive into obscurity–save for the brilliant Jersey Shore–while Nickelodeon keeps the ship afloat by aping the Disney Channel’s. Talk to anyone who works at MTVN and you’ll quickly learn that the company does not have one iota of digital strategy other than to knock everyone else’s (suing YouTube, jumping off Hulu yesterday). Innovation and a pioneering attitude, once hallmarks of the organization, are nothing more than an empty word on 1515 Broadway these days.