Cable Misses Out on President’s State of The Union Address

The highly anticipated State of the Union address from President Obama aired last night across the usual plethora of cable channels, but were Americans watching?

According to an analysis by The Wrap, the State of the Union address was leaked on the Internet some 2 hours prior to the President’s speech and platforms, like Twitter, exploded with conversations from popular political commentators and writers, like Keith Olbermann, who has more than 200,000 followers.

Interestingly, President Obama joked with Secretary of State Clinton about the leaked speech, saying he wasn’t sure if he even needed to make it.

While most people probably still watched the speech on cable television, one wonders if the Internet stole a substantial amount of viewers. The leak shows the changing nature of how media can be distributed and that the Internet continues to establish itself as an attractive destination, though still a bit wild west, for what were once purely traditional cable events such as the State of the Union address.

Do you think the leak affected whether Americans watched the address on cable?