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They are TV's ghosts — networks that somehow survive with little reason to watch them anymore

Cable television is filled with ghosts. They're networks that somehow survive as shadows of themselves, with schedules clogged with reruns and devoid of any real innovation.

To illustrate how fast habits are changing, a survey taken in January by the digital marketing agency Adtaxi found that 73% of viewers turned to streaming before cable or broadcast when they sat down to watch TV. Reclining before a big screen with a remote control, searching for something to do, is an activity fading with the times, says John Landgraf, chairman of FX Content & Productions and a big-picture thinker of the media industry. Nickelodeon and MTV are among the brands having a harder time; S&P Global last week put their parent company, Paramount, on a negative credit watch, citing “the deterioration of the linear television ecosystem.”

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