Is your favorite television channel or program on the way out? Sam Champion and Al Roker have both made big names for themselves in the world of television though they have been offered opportunities to continue working with the Weather Channel, these cuts are a symptom. Television is watched less these days. There’s a reason for it too.
Cable and Satellite programming providers have been making a lot of money for many years, but whenever companies are making a lot of money, other companies start looking for ways to offer a better product. Enter NetFlix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and a host of others who offer viewing from the Internet. And now computers, laptops, and SmartPhones can stream fast enough television, as we know it, may be on their slow march to Tombstone. The big networks and affiliates have already started getting their channels online and available to their viewing public. Network television channels have varying wait times before you can watch their shows online, but if you are patient, most of what you enjoy from them is available there. So cable and satellite companies have less income for buying programming from the smaller cable channels. Voila’ Al Roker and Sam Champion lose their Weather Channel shows, along with 50 or more employees of the channel losing their jobs. What does that tell you as a business owner, or a PR firm representing business owners? Develop your strategies for publicity focused increasingly on digital and mobile. Even with any television ads or PR you do currently, make it mobile-friendly as well. Digital and mobile are not a trend that will disappear soon. They are taking over the world. Ten years ago if something was happening, and people were around, they might be using their phones to call others. But today, when something is happening, look around at the people and what they are doing. How many do you see with their iPhones up and pointing the camera lens to catch the action? What’s more, it takes only a moment or two for uploading the video or pictures and posting on their social media accounts. We wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn there are several pictures of Sam or Al taken by bystanders and posted on social media the very day they got the word. Mobile is changing our society in ways we have not yet begun to realize. But we do know digital and mobile are the best places to improve your abilities and move your company and clients forward faster.
