A lot has happened in 2024 impacting the future of many cable TV networks. These events have forced some cable TV networks to make dramatic changes including Adult Swim, which starts at 5 PM on Cartoon Network. Warner Bros. Discovery has rebranded TruTV as a sports network. Boomerang has suddenly found its parent company launching a competitor that’s free over-the-air in partnership with MeTV.
We have also seen several small news networks with NewsNet and Scripps News both shut down recently.
Earlier this week, two cable TV networks shut down: the Pac-12 Networks shut down and the Longhorn Network shut down and relaunched as a smaller free streaming channel.
Now that we are halfway through 2024, my top picks for networks most likely to shut down or be overhauled into something new are based on everything we know at the end of September 2024.
#1 Boomerang—Boomerang is unchanged but still very important. It is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a company that has been aggressively focusing on Max, its new streaming service. To make it even tougher on Boomerang, MeTV is partnering with Warner Bros. Discovery to launch MeTV Toons, a 24/7 classic cartoons network with many former Boomerang shows. The big difference here is MeTV Toons will be free with an antenna in many parts of the United States.
Boomerang lost 21% of its audience in 2023, and its average audience during primetime is just 41,000 people, according to a report by Variety. The question now is how can Boomerang survive MeTV Toons and cord cutting?
#2 BET Her, BET Hip-Hop, BET Soul, & More—Jumping up to #2 from #4 last month are the BET networks. After a recent failed attempt to sell BET and all its networks, Paramount is reportedly trying again to find cash. Look for BET to be sold soon or some of its unprofitable parts to be shut down.
Of all the smaller BET Networks, only BET Her showed up in Variety’s top 150 channels. BET Her lost 7% of its audience in 2023 and has just 41,000 viewers during primetime. With the other channels not registering in the top 150 channels, it is unlikely some of them will survive much longer.
#3 Small Cable News Networks—A growing number of news networks launched over the last few years to take advantage of advertisers looking for live content. Now according to Scripps News advertisers are starting to pull back on news networks in 2024. This has resulted in several shutting down. Look for one or more news networks to run out of money in 2024.
#4 MTV 2, MTV Classic, and Other MTV Channels—Look for Paramount to start consolidating its smaller channels like MTV 2 into MTV and Paramount+. Increasingly the younger audience MTV targeted is moving away from cable TV to online services.
This comes as MTV News was shut down last year and its websites wiped of all content.
MTV 2 had just 48,000 viewers on average during primetime in 2023, a drop of 13%. Other MTV networks failed to even show up in the top 150 channels on Variety’s list of most watched channels in 2023.
#5 Freeform—Recently, Disney surprisingly agreed to drop Freeform from Spectrum, the second-largest cable TV provider in the United States. This makes the network vulnerable as it is almost exclusively reruns. With Disney+ the place to watch most of these programs already shutting down, Freeform is a lot more likely today to shut down than it was a few months ago.
Final Thoughts
Of all the networks, Boomerang is now the one we think has the most questions about its future after the announcement of Warner Bros. Discovery’s partnership to launch MeTV Toons. Warner Bros. Discovery has shown it is willing to make major changes to popular brands. This likely could include this classic cartoon network.
Look for us to regularly post updates to this list, as things are rapidly changing.
These are my top picks of TV networks most likely to shut down in 2024. What would you add to this list? Let me know…