rafimama's blog.

Last week a Credit Suisse analyst reported that paid TV services like Cable and Satellite will lose 200,000 subscribers next year citing that there is a generation of viewers called ‘Cord-Nevers’ that will never subscribe for those services. 

In a follow up article titled, “TV’s Scariest Generation: The Cable-Nevers’, Bernard Gershon digs deeper into this new generation:

Cord-nevers - This is the most troubling group for the traditional operators. They are graduating college, leaving the nest and have become comfortable finding their viewing choices online. They don’t recognize networks - they know “shows.”

Before ‘on-demand’ viewing became prominent, the only way to ensure a viewer would have access to their favorite content was to bucket them into networks.   This was the great allure of cable.  A channel dedicated to music, comedy, sports, cooking, etc.  Cable networks found that there was a growing number of viewers interested in niche content and that those viewers would watch their network as long as they knew that they could find content that would appeal to them on that specific channel at any given time.  They were the Independents.  They were underdogs.

Now that viewers can watch pretty much anything they want on demand, the position on the dial is less important.  I can’t remember if ‘Mad Men’ is on AMC or Bravo.  Or if ‘It’s Always Sunny..’ is on Fox or FX or TBS… no idea.  

The new generation of viewers know shows, not networks.  

This will continue to be true for network TV programs as well as independently produced web series.  It won’t matter if a show was created for FX, TBS, HBO, or if it was distributed online only.   Great shows will reach their audience no matter how remote and quirky they are.  As long independent web series continue to be creative and unique in their approach to creating content, these cord-nevers will find the content they want.