The Emmy nominations are in, and cable TV done good this year -- very good.
Cable shows such as "Mad Men" and "Entourage" garnered a groundbreaking number of nods: Four of the six nominations for outstanding lead actor in a drama series, for example, went to cable TV actors; four out of five nominations for outstanding writing for a movie or miniseries went to cable programs . . . the list goes on.
The knee-jerk conclusion one might draw from this year's Emmy nominations is that network television is toast. Okay, so the networks have an excuse -- last year they grappled with the writers strike -- but conventional wisdom is that the viewers they lost aren't coming back.
"For some time, the trend has been that people are moving away from network [TV] to cable," says David Joyce, an analyst with Miller Tabak
& Co.
The nominations say a lot about the state of television, but they also say a lot about the value of piracy as a marketing tool. It's probably no coincidence that the most pirated cable programs of 2007 made it to the Emmy nomination table. Cable shows that have historically been totally inaccessible to non-subscribers are now readily available online for download and streaming (both legally and illegally), which could help grow traditional viewership.
"Some studies have shown that people who watch the shows on TV are more engaged since they can catch up with the shows online," says Joyce.
But popularity and critical acclaim still don't translate into a richly profitable program -- there's a history of canceled TV shows thatbelatedly get recognition from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
"Emmys are not financially significant," says David Joyce. "The Oscars may help sell DVDs, and they may extend a box office run, but Emmys are more of a look in the rear-view mirror."
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