The Apocalypse of Legacy Media

Cable news is losing both audience share and financial stability, with no clear prospect for reversing these declines as the cable ecosystem itself continues to erode. The old cable news model is unlikely to survive in its current form much longer.

The pharma industry spent $5.15 billion on national TV ads last year, according to real-time TV ad tracker (source iSpot.tv). . Eventually, the Pharma Bucks that have been propping up the industry will decrease significantly, as cable TV News becomes increasingly irrelevant.

Pharma ads accounted for nearly 25% of advertising minutes through May 2025 for all Major cable and broadcast networks (NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox News).

For now, pharma advertising has not yet begun a mass pullout from cable TV news. Still, the possibility now hangs over the industry. At present, cable news remains one of the few strongholds for pharma ad dollars, but this dominance is no longer assured.

In fact, the Trump administration has indicated a clear intention to crack down on pharmaceutical advertising, particularly in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) segment, which is traditionally seen on television and other broadcast media.

Key actions and proposals under discussion include:

• Making DTC advertising more expensive: The administration is considering ending the tax deductibility of direct-to-consumer pharma ad spending, which would significantly raise costs for drugmakers engaging in these campaigns (1, 2.).

• Increasing regulatory hurdles: Proposals are under review to require more extensive disclosures of drug side effects in ads, likely resulting in longer, more costly ad placements (1, 2.).

• No outright ban yet: Although a complete ban on DTC pharma advertising isn’t currently being planned, probably because of potential First Amendment legal challenges, the emphasis is on tightening legal and financial restrictions instead of banning it immediately.

• High-level leadership support: Key administration officials, including HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have publicly called for a ban on pharma TV advertising, and President Trump has criticized pharma advertising in the past (3). Such stances have contributed to the momentum behind regulatory proposals.

• Legislative support: There is bipartisan interest in more tightly regulating pharma ads. Senators Bernie Sanders and Angus King have introduced legislation to ban direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising across all major media outlets (1).

Trends in the Cable News Industry both point to a decrease in the significance of this media as well as in traditional ratings. This has also led to a more conservative shift in cable news programming, which is only now beginning to take effect.

Fox News continues to dominate cable news ratings, maintaining its lead over NBC/MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN, with the network holding 99 of the top 100 cable news telecasts in the week of May 12, 2025.2 In comparison, MSNBC and CNN experienced significant declines in viewership, with MSNBC down twenty-nine percent in total viewers and forty percent in the key demographics in primetime, while CNN dropped sixteen percent in total viewers and eleven percent during primetime.

CBS has been purchased by conservative David Ellison, who has fired Stephen Colbert. David Ellison is an American film producer, former actor, and the founder and CEO of Skydance Media, a major entertainment company. He was born on January 9, 1983, in Santa Clara County, California, and is the son of Oracle Corporation co-founder Larry Ellison and Barbara Boothe Ellison.

CBS has not yet officially changed hands, so the firing of Stephen Colbert may or may not have been at Ellison’s request. But the suspicious timing leads many to believe that Ellison had a role in the decision to fire.

All government funding for PBS and NPR, including their local affiliates, has been eliminated by recent Congressional votes. Trump has not yet signed the rescissions package into law, but it has been sent to his desk for signature after final passage by Congress. This will lead to a significant reduction in local programming; however, it is believed that national programming will survive due to other revenue streams.

NBC/MSNBC are being spun out from Comcast. Mark Lazarus is the incoming CEO of Versant, the soon-to-be publicly traded company spun off from NBC Universal. Versant (formerly SpinCo) will now be operationally above MSNBC. Versant’s new boss, Lazarus, has indicated in private communications that he believes the public perception of MSNBC is that Republicans cannot get a fair shake from the network. He wants to change that (4), and he has suggested the network should offer more balanced viewpoints. However, the current CEO of MSNBC is still very progressive. So, time will tell what influence Lazarus will have on MSNBC programming.

CNN is being spun off as a separate company from Warner Bros./Discovery’s streaming/studio assets. CNN is now undergoing major staff layoffs and has already introduced sweeping programming changes for 2025. However, whether CNN will shift to the center-right is anyone’s guess.

In June 2025, The Washington Post, under the guidance of Jeff Bezos, named Adam O’Neal, former Washington correspondent at The Economist, as its new head of opinion content. O’Neal emphasized a philosophy of optimism and focus on personal freedom and free markets, echoing Bezos’ vision.

The Los Angeles Times’ editorial stance has undergone a dramatic change in late 2024 and 2025 under the ownership of Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. The most significant developments include a shift toward “Fair and Balanced” and the firing and restructuring of the entire editorial board. The LA Times, under Soon-Shioung has indicated that there will be an explicit shift to feature conservative, centrist, and liberal voices. Soon-Shiong has also expressed a desire to increase conservative voices in the Times’ opinion section, citing concerns the publication had become an “echo chamber” for the political left (5)

Most mainstream media outlets recognize that audience capture is what will keep this industry alive. As there is a more conservative mood among the general populace, slowly but surely, mainstream media is being forced to keep up. People do not want to hear a one-sided, progressive primordial scream coming from their TVs. If they don’t change their overtly socialist, DEI stances, they will continue to wither.

Likewise, seamlessly melding cable networks with streaming services will be the future of the industry. But that again requires liberal voices to be quelled, as they do not represent the center field, let alone the conservative voice.

Without relevancy, cable news is a dying dinosaur and will be replaced. The king is starving and on his last legs: long live the new king – alternative media.

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