If you live in a city where your CBS station is owned by CBS itself, you’ve probably noticed something a little different. I’m talking about folks in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Denver, Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Dallas and Seattle.
For the last decade or so, these stations have been branding themselves as “CBS2” or whatever the channel number is. That’s been a big part of their identity. Well, all over the country, that’s changing. If the station’s call letters are well known, you’ll now know the station as “KCAL NEWS” or “WCBS NEWS.” If they’re not as well known, for example in Detroit, you’ll see the station branded as “CBS NEWS DETROIT.” In other words, the channel number is gone. What happened?
The amazing turnaround in channel numbers
For television’s first 60 years or so, channel numbers were thought of as incredibly important. Back in the days where TVs had different knobs for UHF and VHF, the goal was to be as low on the VHF dial as possible. A station on UHF was seen as less serious, perhaps even inferior.
This philosophy was so important that when TV went digital, a system called PSIP was created so that stations could pretend to keep their channel numbers. In most cases, TV stations moved channel numbers in the 2000s, but you’d never know it. The PSIP system meant that you could push channel 2 on your remote and get whatever used to be on channel 2, even if it was now on channel 18. This was something broadcasters pushed incredibly hard for. Now, it seems that one of the biggest broadcasters in the country is ready to change their position. They’re no longer advertising their channel number, instead relying on CBS branding. This is a huge change in the way broadcasters relate to their customers.
Why are channel numbers suddenly unimportant?
I think that broadcasters are finally coming around to the way people watch TV today. Fewer than 15% of people get their TV from an antenna. Those who do are incredibly committed to it, because there’s nothing better than getting the best quality television picture and dozens of channels, all for free. But, facts are facts. People get their video fix from pay-TV providers like DIRECTV and DISH, or they stream on their mobile devices. Whether they’re using traditional pay TV or streaming, there’s always some sort of visual guide and some sort of search function. That means it’s much less important to try to remember a channel number.
Really, it’s a generational divide. Baby Boomers and Generation X are still deeply rooted in the channel number mentality. But, for the increasing number of people born in the internet era, channel numbers just don’t mean anything. These are folks who have had the option for years to sort their channels alphabetically, and they can search for what they are looking for. As the internet kids keep growing, channel numbers will be less and less important to the broadcast industry in general.
My hot take on the whole thing
I grew up watching channel 9, channel 11, and channel 25. I was a geeky kid who knew station call letters but I was one of the rare ones. My world was dictated by channel numbers, especially because our old TV’s channel knobs weren’t that strong and would break if you used them too much. So getting from show to show efficiently wasn’t just a choice, it was important. I’m guessing that a lot of people who read this blog feel the same way.
But, in the last decade, I’ve rarely thought of channel numbers unless talking to someone my own age. I’ll say that something’s on “channel 4” rather than saying it’s on ABC. But mostly, I don’t think of networks much anymore. I think of shows. That may not be great news for the broadcast networks, but I don’t think twice about jumping from channel to channel. I also don’t think twice about jumping from antenna to pay TV to streaming TV. It’s about what I want to watch, and not about where I can find it.
What CBS seems to be doing
It seems that CBS’ latest branding exercise has a lot to do with trying to be seen as a local “news leader.” Broadcast TV still rules the world of local news, at least for people who get their news from reliable sources. If you get your news from social media, you’re probably not getting all the context you may need to understand what’s going on. “Citizen journalism” often means getting information sooner, but it doesn’t mean you’ll understand what you’re seeing.
CBS seems to want to remind boomers, GenX, and millennials that they are the best source for quality journalism. They’re emphasizing the word “NEWS” whenever they can, and they’re not using the channel number. After all, when you look in the guide, you’ll see “CBS NEWS DETROIT News at 5” and if you associate “CBS NEWS DETROIT” with a quality organization, that’s all that matters.
What do you think?
Is it time for all of us to forget channel numbers? Will it just happen anyway in the next several years without anyone doing anything about it? Or are we moving in the wrong direction? Leave a comment below and tell me what you think.
