Hollywood Reporter: Viacom CEO Phillipe Dauman said that Netflix wasn't responsible for the recent ratings drop.
Asked on Viacom's quarterly earnings conference call if Netflix was to blame for the viewership decline, which contributed to an advertising revenue decline in the final quarter of 2011, he said: "We don't think that the availability of the limited amount of Nick library content on Netflix…has had a significant impact."
Highlighting that the company gets data on streams, he said that the number of Netflix subscribers and Nickelodeon content streams were "pretty much the same" in the summer and the fall. "It certainly does not account for the ratings drop that we saw," Dauman said.
On the other hand, it can increase interest in some shows: http://huff.to/zw9Tpu
'How I Met Your Mother' Is Having Its Best Ratings Year Ever
This has been a big year for the comedy that launches CBS' Monday nights. Ratings are the best they've ever been, up 19 percent over last season, and it has the youngest average audience on the network's prime-time schedule.
"There's almost no scientific explanation and we couldn't have counted on that," Thomas said.
Time may make viewers more invested in the lives of Ted (Josh Radnor), horndog buddy Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), Ted and Barney's ex Robin (Cobie Smulders) and the married couple Marshall and Lily (Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan).
Another likely contributor is the boomerang effect of syndication making more people familiar with the series. "How I Met Your Mother," which just filmed its 150th episode, has been seen outside of prime time on local broadcast stations the past few years. Last year it was also on Lifetime, the cable network targeted at women, and this fall added FX, which is popular with young men.
Posted by: ClydesMP | February 05, 2012 at 03:30 PM
Maybe it's because no one wants their kids watching stupid Dora the Explora
Posted by: Ritch | February 06, 2012 at 05:18 PM
The only Nickelodeon content I've been watching has been the DVD of the old show "Hey Dude", and the clips of classic bumpers on YouTube.
Posted by: Galagatron | February 08, 2012 at 07:31 AM