The MTV Video Music Awards saw another year of diminished audience returns on Sunday night. Across 11 Viacom networks, the premiere telecast brought in 6.5 million viewers.
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Compared to last year’s show, which pulled a similar move by casting a wide net across the cable entertainment suite, the VMAs are down by more than 4 million viewers. All told, the 2015 show grossed just shy of 10 million viewers across all of the networks.
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With headlining performances by Beyonce, Rihanna and Britney Spears, this year’s VMAs mark a low for ratings on the main network, as well. Last year it brought 5 million viewers, falling from the 8.3 million in 2014.
The network was quick to point to more promising streaming data on Monday morning. A network release touted a 70 percent increase (62.8 million video starts) in streams from VMA day in 2015. Facebook streaming was up 938 percent.
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This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.