The Evolution of Diginets

About 15 years ago, I was still living at home with my parents (though getting ready to move out). At this time, they didn’t have cable television… and it was painful for me. What they did have was a newly minted digital converter box. My dad was over the moon. Four times as many channels! All for free!

Despite his enthusiasm, I was left unimpressed.

Today, we should all be impressed. See, back in 2009 all analog channels went dark and transitioned to a digital signal. That little digital converter box allowed for televisions manufactured prior to 2007 to receive this new digital signal. All TVs built post-2007 included this technology.

One of the advantages for broadcasters making this switch was the additional bandwidth they were provided. With this extra bandwidth, a local station could multicast, which meant broadcasting additional content within a single frequency. This content was often in the news format. And for advertisers and ad agencies, they were mostly uninterested in this unknown and difficult to navigate content.

Enter Diginets.

Back in 2008-2009, I was sitting in a conference room listening to a pitch about a “new digital network” looking to scale beyond 2 or 3 markets. At the time I thought they were crazy pitching the idea of linking together this new bandwidth across multiple markets. They were a little-known network, called MeTV. Flash forward to today, MeTV ranks among the most-watched networks of 2020.

Turns out I was crazy.

These days, no media plan is created without the consideration of a Diginet. They’re a good fit for a variety of reasons, including for viewers they’re FREE. No expensive cable or satellite packages required (my dad was right!). In the early days, these Diginets leaned into “nostalgic” programming. Leveraging their own libraries of content, they were able to inexpensively fill their schedule.

Currently, we’re seeing a new era of Diginets built with the intent to mimic cable networks and draw the ever-growing, cord-cutting population. It’s actually hard not to find an audience tuning into these networks. Sports? Covered. News? Covered. Movies? Covered. Classic shows? Covered. If there’s a genre, there is a Diginet specific to it.

As more Diginets are born, it’s further proof that the media landscape is becoming more and more fragmented. By utilizing these properties, it offers us additional avenues to run our clients’ commercials and keep the marketplace in check. The average TV viewer doesn’t know they’re watching a Diginet. To them, they’re just enjoying another favorite show on another network. And in the end, that’s all that matters.

While Diginets may not get a lot of press and fanfare, they certainly have evolved. Viewership has grown tremendously over the years. Content continues to expand. And from a media perspective, they are undeniably an effective piece of our planning and strategy. Kudos to my Dad… he was ahead of his time.