>>18383761But you also can't ignore the broader context of TV vs radio, and the fact portable radios weren't really a thing. The family gathered in front of the family radio or the family TV, and that's where they listened to (or watched) broadcasts. There was no Lil Jimmy going to his bedroom to listen to his own show, and the wife in the laundry room listening to her show, and so on. Things needed to cater to a family audience because that was the majority audience. These days, the idea of the entire family, husband, wife, 2 kids, sitting around to watch an entire episode of CSI or a baseball game is laughable.
And that's a major part of why broadcasters aren't nearly as worried about ratings as they used to be. It used to be 10 million rating meant exactly 10 million households watching. Now you can have 3 different TVs in the same house at the same time, all justifying Mom/Dad keeping the cable/sat subscription going, which is all cable/sat companies really give a shit about. Whether a TV station sells ads for $10k each or $13k each is their own problem.
