First, let’s get this week’s Big Media Story out of the way. No, ABC should not have suspended or fired Jimmy Kimmel.
No, Kimmel didn’t say what everyone seems to think he said. No, it is not necessary to praise someone who said the things Charlie Kirk said, nor is it necessary to produce nothing but hagiographies about him. And no, it is not a good thing for people to be shot and killed for their political beliefs, whatever they may be.
I wonder how many of you would do the right thing in this instance if you were the CEO of a broadcast company and your company had an acquisition needing approval by a federal agency, while the current administration was signaling that if you aired a certain host’s show, you might not get that approval. Put enough money on the line, and cowardice becomes an option. That’s where we are in America today, and we’ll unfortunately have plenty of time to talk about that as we circle the drain for at least the next three years.
One thing about the story that has gone largely unnoticed is how it reflects the network-affiliate relationship and how dramatically it has changed in what feels like the blink of an eye.
In television, having one of the big four network affiliations has always determined a station’s profitability and viability. Lose an affiliation and end up independent, and the valuation plummets, programming costs rise, and trouble looms. That’s not quite the case anymore, because broadcast television stations’ value has shriveled in an age when viewers stream their content.
Ask anyone on the street—even old-timers—what’s on CBS Wednesday nights, and they likely don’t know. Hell, you probably don’t know without looking it up. Ask them what channel ABC is on, and you’ll get a lot of puzzled stares (except in Philadelphia, where 6abc is one of the most familiar brands in the region and people will start singing the Action News theme unprompted).
It’s no longer about networks and stations; it’s about shows. It has always been about the shows, but now viewers search their Roku stick for which streaming service carries what they want to watch. Chances are, you can get your local news via streaming—live or on demand—rather than a broadcast or cable channel.
Even live sports coverage is slowly migrating to streaming, which frustrates fans who must figure out which platform has tonight’s game (“Is tonight’s game on Apple TV+, the Roku Channel, or that new ESPN thing we don’t get?”). Other than live events—mostly sports—the carrier is irrelevant. To the public, everything is on Netflix until proven otherwise, or on Roku, Google TV, or Fire TV’s home page. There are better ways to get what you want than watching local television channels.
Chances are you never stayed up late to watch Kimmel (or Colbert, or Meyers, or, heaven forbid, Gutfeld! —not really a late-night show, not really a comedian — or Fallon). Chances are you watched clips on YouTube, or entire episodes on the network’s website, Hulu, or another service.
If your local ABC affiliate is owned by Nexstar or Sinclair, and the show returns to the air but not on those affiliates, you might not notice any difference. The whole broadcast model is antiquated, and the networks know it. You can start taking bets now on which TV network will be the first to dump its broadcast affiliates and go all-in on streaming—a move that may coincide with local affiliates balking at paying ever-higher retransmission consent fees.
Consider WPLG-TV in Miami. Owned by Warren Buffett’s company, it decided ABC was asking too much and sent the network packing. ABC is now relegated to a digital subchannel in a second-rate position. This wasn’t the first case, and it won’t be the last.
The same dynamic applies to other media. Radio faces customizable music streamers and increased competition even in its stronghold—the car dashboard. If I want to hear the music I like, no local station in South Florida has it; it’s Spotify for me. If I want local news and talk, the broadcast stations here don’t offer much. Sports? OK, that’s still available. But that’s it, and I expect more teams to move from broadcast to streaming.
Newspapers? Many have cut back or eliminated print editions. You can’t buy the Newark Star-Ledger at your local Wawa or 7-Eleven anymore, but you can go to NJ.com and get the same thing. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution won’t have a printed edition after New Year’s. Movies in theaters still exist, but let’s be honest—you now wait for them to hit streaming.
Broadcast licenses aren’t sacred. Neither are printing presses or movie theaters. Times change, technology changes. If you’re — like practically everybody on LinkedIn claims to be — a “content creator,” there’s more opportunity than ever. But the public’s taste has changed (TikTok!), the distribution channels have changed, and marketing has changed. If you define yourself as a radio or TV personality, or a reporter, and you haven’t started thinking of yourself as a content creator, now would be a good time to start. Maybe those LinkedIn clones are onto something.
Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
