First, CBS boss Les Moonves admits: ”I’m a bit concerned about the state of network television generally.” Then NBC-Universal Chief Jeff Zucker admits that the last two years were ”more difficult.” And to add insult to injury, advertisers are convinced that the looming writers strike will permanently harm TV viewership:

The big concern for advertisers is that the broadcast networks - ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW - will lose even more of their already-shrinking audience.

“If ratings fall by 15, 20 or even 30 percent because we’re getting reruns or shows less appealing to viewers, that’s a big problem,” said one ad buyer. “There are advertisers who are depending on a certain level of ratings points a week.”

The networks are having a hard enough time delivering the viewers they promised advertisers.

They are still doling out millions in so-called “make-goods” - additional ad spots - to compensate advertisers for last year’s ratings shortfall.

Moreover, viewership is down for a lot of returning shows this season, and most new shows have debuted to lackluster ratings and little buzz. 

As if all of this wasn’t bad enough, the FCC is attempting to eliminate the last bastion of media ownership rules.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

The San Francisco Chronicle has an amusing piece that simultaneously disputes the death of TV while acknowledging the encroachment of online video:

Conventional wisdom these days has it that television is dying. Like most conventional wisdom, it’s dead wrong.

By almost any measure, television is alive and well. The number of TV households keeps growing - particularly among Latino, African American and Asian Pacific American audiences. Household viewing remains near an all-time high of more than eight hours a day. And television consumption continues to eclipse any other medium by a wide margin; with 90 percent of it still done at home where, on average, there now are more TV sets than people to watch them.

This opening salvo, quoting the enormity of TV watching as part of America’s media landscape, is a typical tactic for those who are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

What they fail to realize is that we are now at the peak of TV. If Americans are already watching eight (!) hours a day, can anyone realistically believe that it will go up to nine hours a day? People are completely maxed out on TV. There is nowhere to go but down.