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More Signs of the Cable-pocalypse

Amid the backdrop of historic cable asset write-downs, the flipside of NBC’s staggering Olympics ratings success is that people watched less of the Games on cable. Sound like a familiar story?

paris olympics surfing 2024
Peacock had a great run, streaming 23.5 billion minutes of the Paris Olympics, up 40 percent from all the prior Summer and Winter Olympics combined. Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
John Ourand
August 16, 2024

I probably don’t have to remind you, loyal reader, that we are living through the Cable-pocalypse: ESPN is laying off perfectly competent anchors as it goes full-blown D.T.C.; Diamond Sports is hanging on by a thread; last week David Zaslav wrote down the value of his cable assets by $9.1 billion… and Paramount wrote down its old Viacom portfolio by $6 billion just a day later. Last week, my partner Matt Belloni authored a piece entitled Hollywood Finally Faces the Cable-pocalypse devoted to the linear meltdown. The big one, it seems, is coming.