A new study from tech company Pacific Crest suggests that although the acclaim and popularity surrounding television series remain at an all-time high today, many shows are seeing their viewership drop.
While the overall industry is still set to outpace the 409 scripted shows that were released in 2015, in the last quarter, average viewership declined 20% year-over-year for new episodes among the top 200 series, Business Insider reports. And among children’s TV shows, viewership declined 30% in the third quarter among the top 500 series.
One of the networks to be hardest hit by this downward trend is AMC, which, as a result of a proliferation of serialized dramas across the television ecosphere, has seen its ratings decline significantly. “Average audiences for almost every returning AMC original in 2016 are down double-digits versus 2015,” Pacific Crest analysts wrote, per Business Insider. “This highlights the increase in competition for viewer time.” Other companies to be impacted include Lionsgate, Disney, and Viacom, Business Insider reports.
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“Outside of NBC [and the Olympics bump], advertising results were at or below expectations in aggregate, likely driven by weaker-than-anticipated viewership at most networks,” according to analysts. “Viewership trends will likely need to reverse for 2017 estimates to be attainable.”
