Network television… Here to stay or gone tomorrow?
Hello all, my name is Wendy Miller. I am the VP of Corporate Relations for KMG. I wanted to write to you regarding an event I attended Friday night at De Paul’s Digital Cinema Theater (yes there’s a theater in the basement of 14 E. Jackson…who knew?). The event was put on by De Paul’s CDM (College of Computing and Digital Media) and the guest of honor was Jim Mc Kairnes, SVP of Development and Strategic Planning at CBS/Paramount. I was very interested in attending this event given the fact that I spent the last 12 years working as a television producer in Los Angeles. While listening to Mr. Mc Kairnes speak, it reminded me of how the current landscape of television affects us as marketers and advertisers.
For years, Mr. Mc Kairnes served as the SVP of Program Planning and Scheduling at CBS. Translation, he developed the strategy involved in scheduling CBS’s primetime programming. Strategizing an effective primetime line up used to be key to having a competitive advantage over the “other” networks. However, according to Mc Kairnes, the networks are now implementing less programming strategy and airing less compelling television as cable channels continue to poach viewers and further fragment the television audience. The highest viewed primetime shows on network television today wouldn’t even make it into the top 10 in 1970. The “appointment viewing” primetime network audience has only been further depleted with the help of TiVo, Hulu and more.
We can now make our own TV schedules rather than being dictated the terms of our television viewing habits by the networks. Mr. Mc Kairnes then polled the audience, “if I asked you your four favorite television shows, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell me WHEN they’re on”. Sadly, he was right. For Mr. Mc Kairnes, this is the sign of the times and what made the obsolescence of his programming/scheduling job at CBS an impending reality. We no longer race home and flip on the set so as to not miss our 7pm show. As marketers and advertisers, this should concern us. Doesn’t it seem like we’ve only recently honed our craft of finding our audience and figuring out which shows they’re watching? Now that we’ve found our television audience, are they even watching in real time or do they TiVo and then ad zap or just go to YouTube? Will this chase to get through to our target audience ever end? Is appointment viewing really dead? According to Mr. Mc Kairnes, unless the major networks can figure out how to better monetize alternate platforms (i.e.-the internet and DVR) that don’t currently bring in the ad dollars a primetime show can, then networks need to get their big primetime audiences back.
As the new VP of Development at CBS/Paramount, Mr. Mc Kairnes’ answer to this conundrum is quite simple, get good story and strong characters back into network television. Personally, I couldn’t agree more. We can’t solely place the blame on cable and technology for poaching network viewers. In my humble opinion, it might be time to get back to making more scripted television and give cheap train wreck TV a curtain call. Much of the” reality” genre must go. ABC, CBS, NBC and Rupert, you need to give viewers better reasons to watch television and therefore advertisers better reasons to spend, because Patti Blagojevich in the jungle just ain’t gonna cut it. But the question remains, do you think the networks can bring quality appointment viewing back? Can they give people a reason to switch the set on at 7 and take a program in, ads and all? I really hope I’m not the only one who thinks that the future of great television could come from great writers and not from some nut ball that owns a life size jiffy pop balloon and names his kid Falcon.
