Ratings for Sunday night’s “BET Awards” were down year over year, but they were high enough to lead Sunday’s cable TV ratings, delivering a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49, and 3.83 million viewers, down from 1.9 and 4.5 million in 2016.

The show likely stole a few eyeballs from the much-anticipated season 4 premiere of Starz hit series “Power” which opened a bit lower vs. last year’s premiere, with a 0.8 rating in adults 18-49 and 1.68 million viewers, down from a series-high 1.1 and 2.26 million for the season 3 premiere; although Sunday night’s live numbers are still inline with series averages.

Starz does add that they are seeing records views of the series and for the network overall, via their standalone streaming app and on demand with the “Power” season 4 premiere, which was made available at midnight on the day it was set to air (almost a full day early) on both the Starz App and on Starz On Demand, drawing 830,000 total plays (about half the number of viewers who watched live), representing a new premiere high.

Obviously more and more of you are not watching TV live – a problem that networks continue to work to find mutually-amicable solutions for: giving you, the viewer, the content you want whenever you want it, while still also making money, preferably increasing over time.

Starz says it’s enjoyed an almost 150% jump in new subscriber sign-ups for its standalone app, since “Power” season 3’s premiere weekend. It’s clearly their most popular show right now, so congrats to creator, producer, showrunner Courtney Kemp Agboh (and company) who, a couple of months ago, inked an exclusive multi-year overall deal, expanding her relationship with Starz and parent company Lionsgate, which allows Kemp to develop and produce new projects for Starz and other content through her End of Episode production company, while also continuing to serve in her current role as showrunner and executive producer on “Power.”