Spike’s Rebranding as Paramount Network Is the Latest Maneuver in Cable’s Battle for Viewers

Viacom will relaunch the net on Jan. 18

Oxygen rolled out the yellow crime-scene tape and ripped-from-the-headlines stories and invited armchair detectives to test their sleuthing skills in a recent rebrand of the NBCUniversal-owned cable channel. Unofficial tagline: It’s not your grandmother’s true-crime network.

This comes on the heels of other full-scale makeovers (A+E’s H2 to Viceland) and shifts in focus (USA dropped airy, “blue-sky” dramas and went gritty and dark, TruTV leaned away from low-brow reality and into comedy) as cable networks battle for viewers spending less time with linear TV and more with streaming services, social media and digital entertainment.

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This story first appeared in the Sept. 25, 2017, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.