Anderson Cooper Hires New "Super Agent" As CNN Gets Ready to Can Its Expensive Ratings-Poison Anti-Talent

For the first time ever, more people are watching TV via internet streaming than are watching TV through broadcast or cable, combined.

More Americans are watching TV via streaming platforms than both broadcast and cable combined for the first time ever.

The finding comes from Nielson's monthly Gauge report, which was launched four years ago to provide insight on what viewers are watching, as well as how they are watching it. The latest report found that streaming accounted for 44.8% of total TV viewership in May--the largest share on record. Meanwhile, broadcast and cable TV only made up 20.1% and 24.1%, respectively, for a total of 44.2%.

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Previously, the Gauge reported another big milestone for streaming platforms. In July 2022, for the first time, streaming topped cable viewership. At the time, it accounted for 34.8% of viewership while cable made up 34.4%. Broadcast made up 21.6%. However today, the combined total for both cable and broadcast viewing still falls behind the percentage of monthly streamers.

So everyone knows the cable channels and broadcast networks are dying, and dying quickly. Every year from now forward, they will see big yearly declines in viewership.

The broadcast channels will probably survive, diminished but still in business, as they just shift over to streaming.

But the cable channels? With everyone cutting the cord, they can no longer depend on all those forced fees from consumers for a hundred channels they never, ever watch.

I cut mine when I got sick of paying for ESPN, which I never watch, but takes something like one third of your cable bill payment. And the idea that I was paying for CNN and MSNBC -- and Fox, too -- just cinched it.

To hell with these channels. I'm not paying $100 a month just because every once in a while I watch Dual Survivor or Reno 911.

You might know that Warner-Discovery is in deep debt it can't get out of -- $40 billion in fact.

Warner-Discovery is taking all of the companies that might actually be profitable one day -- its streaming services and its movie studio -- and keeping them.

All the basket-case cable channels will be put into a new company called Global Networks. This company will contain the dying CNN and other POS channels, and will also be filled with, get this, most of Warner-Discovery's $40 billion in debt.

I guess they'll try to sell this Lehman Bros. tranche of sub-sub-sub-subprime properties to some sucker out there. But who's going to buy expensive, dying cable channels while also assuming the huge amount of debt?

It might be one of those free sales -- if you take on the debt, you can have these dying channels for free.

But... that's not free. That's taking on billions in debt to own dying channels.

Warner-Discovery is in such dire straits that even its CEO is taking a huge paycut.

CEOs do not take paycuts. Except if the company is in real trouble, and they have to cut everything, even their own pay.

Physical Media Forever @VHSDVDBLURAY4K

Warner Bros. Discovery is cutting CEO David Zaslav's pay after shareholder backlash

-Salary from $22M to $6M
-Stock bonus target will shrink from $23.5M to $7.5M per year

With that background, you now appreciate why Vanderbilt-fortune nepo-baby and Deep State catspaw Anderson Cooper, is suddenly seeking new representation.

If Zazlav is cutting his own salary from $22 million to $6 million, what are the odds that Anderson Cooper gets to keep his $18 million?

Before you answer: The guy they've put in charge of the Basket of Deplorables cable channels is known in the industry as a slash-and-burn hatchet man that you bring in to fire lots of people to keep a company from bankruptcy.

Coincidentally enough.

You know why I think he's taking a paycut?

So he can turn to people like Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper and demand they take a paycut, too.

A dark cloud hangs over CNN headquarters as staffers brace for layoffs and a likely sale of the network amid another reshuffling by its parents company.

'I'd say the mood remains really grim,' a CNN employee told Fox News, in the wake of last week's restructuring announcement from Warner Bros. Discovery.

'People are uncertain.'

Meanwhile, CNN mainstay Anderson Cooper just signed with a new talent agency for the first time in decades - a move Variety reported was is a surefire sign he is open to new opportunities.

LOL. "He's open to new opportunities." Sure.

Another guy who's just itching to get into this Podcast Game that everyone's talking about!

I can't wait to see the semen-hued Nepo Baby read ads for Squarspace, Fum, and Factor.

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The staffer added: 'I think they've telegraphed clearly that more cuts are coming.'

The insider noted that Wiedenfels' 'remit is not to grow stuff.'

'This company is a cash-flow giant with shrinking revenue. Like that's the deal,' the source said. 'It's merely a matter of how fast it shrinks. That's why the assets were split.'

Wiedenfels has already managed to reduce WBD's $55billion debt by $21 billion in less than two years.

His appointment by WBC CEO David Zaslav comes after several rounds of layoffs at his behest.

Less than five months ago, CNN laid off 200 staffers - all from its struggling TV division. WBD has engaged in repeated rounds as well.

A staffer told the Daily Mail at the time of the most recent CNN firings that the network had become 'bloated' after Warner Bros.' merger with Discovery in 2021.

'And we don't have streaming yet so - it's hard to imagine it doesn't get worse,' the CNN source further told Fox, referring to an anticipated portion of CNN CEO Mark Thompson's long-in-the works restructuring plan.

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'Zaslav killed this place. He killed it,' the source said.

'The last few years under Zas has been a disaster in terms of what he has done,' the person added.

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A third staffer who spoke to Fox also appeared to believe a collapse at CNN is imminent.

'I'm trying to figure out what I'll do next when the whole thing collapses, but I don't even know when that will be,' the source said.

Cry moar.

This Fox News report mentions that the Basket of Deplorable Channels company will be saddled with the bulk of Warner-Discovery's massive debt.

It also says:

Industry critics like Puck correspondent Dylan Byers have predicted doom and gloom for the future of CNN, suggesting it will meet the fate of HLN, which he has noted "no longer exists."

I sure hope Andrew Breitbart is looking down and laughing in a not-approved-by-God kind of way.

Via WDW_Pro.

posted by Ace at 12:22 PM

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