Complete Coverage: NYC Television Week
Despite all the increased competition that broadcast networks are facing from the likes of cable and online platforms such as Netflix and Hulu, Patrick Moran, executive VP of ABC Studios, still remains bullish on broadcast television.
"Nothing still replaces a big, fat network hit," said Moran, during the State of Network TV panel Tuesday at TV Summit during NewBay Media's NYC Television Week. "I think it's going to be awhile before those things start to disappear."
The panel was moderated by B&C deputy editor Mike Malone.
"We've seen the power of network television recently," added Ted Chervin, partner at ICM. "We still remain bullish on it even though there are challenges out there."
From a Wall Street perspective, if broadcast wants to maintain its perch at the top of the TV landscape, especially online distributors like Netflix, they need to beat it at its own game.
"It needs to be accessible on every platform and it needs to be rated on every platform," said David Bank, managing director, equity research, RBC Capital Markets. "The distributors have to get far more aggressive in their deployment of TV Everywhere and essentially allow the viewer to be their own programmer."
Bank also called on Nielsen to get "more aggressive" in its cross platform ratings system, which is no doubt holding some of the TV Everywhere adoption back.
"If both of those things happen, boy, maybe Netflix won't even be relevant in five years."
