A lot has happened in 2024 impacting the future of many cable TV networks. These changes have forced some cable TV networks to make dramatic changes including Adult Swim to start airing at 5 PM on Cartoon Network. Warner Bros. Discovery has rebranded TruTV as a sports network and more.
What other networks are most likely to be changed or fully shut down in 2024? Now that we are almost halfway through 2024, my top five picks for networks most likely to shut down or be overhauled into something new are based on everything we know in May 2024…
#1 Boomerang—Boomerang is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a company that has been extremely aggressive 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 of the shows Boomerang used to offer. 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 FXX—Increasingly, these second-tier networks, like MTV2 and FXX, are in real trouble. Disney seems interested in using FX to help build content for Hulu. What does that mean for FXX especially after Spectrum, the largest cable TV company in the United States, dropped the channel last year?
FXX lost 17% of its audience in 2023 and averaged just 204,000 viewers during primetime. Moving its content to Hulu could help drive up subscription numbers. The channel may still be bringing in 204,000 viewers, but that content may be better used to drive up subscription numbers to the new Disney+ and Hulu streaming bundles.
These losses are expected to continue in 2024 as Spectrum no longer offers the network.
#3 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.
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.
#4 BET Her, BET Hip-Hop, BET Soul, & More—Recently, Paramount tried to sell BET and all its networks. That sale failed to find a buyer at a price that Paramount wanted. Now that Paramount will be keeping the networks, cuts are likely. We are unsure which of these networks are most likely to shut down, but one or more of them will likely not make it through the next few years.
Of all the smaller BET Networks, only BET Her showed up in Variety’s top 150 channels. With that, it 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 makes it unlikely some of them will survive much longer.
#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 thing 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 six most likely to shut down TV networks in 2024. What would you add to this list? Let me know…
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