The combined weekly reach of Fayetteville, North Carolina's broadcast television stations has slipped to 62.7% of all adults, according to Nielsen. These stations include area television stations like WRAL, WECT, WTVD, and, WUNC.  

The combined Fayetteville TV audience now falls behind cable programming at 69.5% and just ahead of streaming platforms at 57.1%. To put this virtual dead heat into perspective, none of the three video media is a match for Fayetteville radio which reaches more than 81% of local adults every week.

But although the reach of broadcast TV, cable, and streaming are neck-and-neck, the share of time consumers spend with each of these media is dramatically different.

During the past seven days. according to Nielsen, only 65.7% of local consumers tuned in to Fayetteville, North Carolina area television stations like WRAL, WECT, WTVD, and, WUNC.  TV's diminishing reach among adults 18 and older has been eclipsed by the audience size for social media, cable, and Fayetteville radio. Furthermore, streaming video services such as Netflix, Hulu, Prime, and Disney+ are quickly reaching parity with over-the-air options.

The erosion of local TV station audiences is stunning when comparing prime-time ratings from the past.  In 1980, the highest-ranked TV show was Cheers with a 21.3 rating. The 30th-ranked show was The Wonder Years with a 14.2 rating.

Twenty years later, Survivor was the number one show with a 17.4 rating and Family Law was the 30th ranked show with an 8.8 rating.

Finally, in 2019, Sunday Night Football was the number one ranked show with a 10.9 rating. Survivor tied with Dancing With The Stars in 30th place with a 5.5 rating.

It is stunning to think that the number one TV show in 2019 had a 24% lower rating than the 30th-ranked show in 1980.

Every week, 333,567 Fayetteville, North Carolina consumers watch something on TV.

Not too many years ago, when a Fayetteville consumer sat down to watch TV, the program options were limited to what was on Raleigh stations WRAL, WECT, WTVD, WUNC, or, maybe, what was on a handful of cable channels.  That was then. This is now.

Today, according to Nielsen, each time a TV is turned on in a Fayetteville living room, the viewer has more than 817,000 options not only from broadcast stations and cable systems, but also from streaming video platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, YouTube, Amazon, Tubi, Crackle, and FreeVee.

Of course, Fayetteville consumers don't even need to sit down in front of their big-screen LCD, anymore. Most of the 817,000 available programs can also be viewed on their computers, tablets, gaming devices, and smartphones. But as far as viewers are concerned, though, it's all just television.

It wasn't too long ago when advertising on Fayetteville, NC area television stations was considered the gold standard for marketing by local business owners. But over the past few years, the number of viewers reached by Raleigh stations WRAL, WECT, WTVD, and, WUNC has plummeted. In all, only 66% of adult consumers now tune-in to at least one of these channels during the week, according to Nielsen.

The consumption of video content isn't diminishing among North Carolina consumers. What has changed, though, is how they are watching it.

In November, according to Nielsen, the share of time watching broadcast television has fallen behind other video options including cable programing and internet-delivered choices such as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and hundreds of other streaming networks.

Every week, according to Nielsen, 334,000 adult consumers in Fayetteville, North Carolina watch something on television. But, of course, the definition of what it means to watch TV has changed since the time when the number of available viewing options could be counted on the fingers of a single hand.

Today, Fayetteville consumers have a gargantuan number of viewing choices. This includes programs from stations like WRAL, WECT, WTVD, and, WUNC (now PBS NC). Or maybe cable and satellite systems like Spectrum, DISH, and DirecTV.. There's also content delivered over the internet from Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime.

No longer are Fayetteville consumers tied to the 21-inch Zenith in their living rooms. Instead, TV can be watched on giant LCDs, smartphones, and tablets from any room in the house, in the backseat of their cars, or practically anywhere else.

The best way to think about TV watching in Fayetteville is in terms of three buckets:

1. Over-the-air...including all broadcast channels
2. Cable...including all premium and non-premium programming
3. Internet...including all streaming services. This is also known as OTT or CTV

Here's how many Fayetteville adult viewers fall into each bucket. Remember, viewers are not limited to a single bucket.

Each week, according to Nielsen, 59.8% of Fayetteville, North Carolina consumers watch video programs that aren't delivered over-the-air by local TV stations.  They aren't coming from a local cable company or by satellite.  Instead, these programs are being streamed directly to viewers via an internet connection.

This type of streamed video content is called OTT (Over-The-Top-Television) or CTV (Connected-Television). These two terms are sometimes are often used interchangeably but do have a subtle difference.

OTT generally means the video is watched on a small device like a computer, tablet, or smartphone.  CTV, on the other hand, typically means the content is viewed on a smart-TV or a regular television using a streaming device like a Roku or Amazon stick.

In Fayetteville, OTT/CTV has exceeded the weekly reach of local newspapers and streaming audio services such as Pandora and Spotify. The medium is rapidly approaching the reach of local cable and broadcast TV stations.

Pay-TV is struggling to survive COVID-19.

Before the onset of the pandemic, Nielsen reported that 60% of Fayetteville area households received their television programs from cable systems, telephone companies, or satellite operators.  That number, however, is plummeting.

Pay-TV providers in the Fayetteville area include AT&T TV, Dish, Spectrum, and DirecTV.

"Cord-cutting, people dropping their cable and satellite TV subscriptions, pre-dates the onset of Covid-19. But the pandemic is exaggerating the trend, creating deeper issuers for programming that relies on those services for distribution," Eric Savitz wrote last week in Barron's.  This includes non-premium services like ESPN, TBS, TNT, USA, CNN, and Discovery.

"LightShed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield counts a loss of 1.96 million subscribers to cable, satellite TV, and virtual cable services combined in the first quarter," Savitz continued. "This is the worst combined quarterly drop ever, down 6% from a year ago."

Greenfield said in an interview with Barron’s that what is especially sobering is that most of the first quarter activity pre-dated the virus. The numbers are likely to get considerably worse in the second quarter.