David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. NBC: Need Begets Change
It’s official: Though Fox and CBS are still planning the booze-drenched parties known as May upfronts in New York, NBC has abandoned the practice, preferring to put their money into one-on-one dog-and-pony shows for advertisers. Well, sort of: They’re still planning a May 12 “spotlight event,” but that’ll be more about selling bells and whistles (mobile and other platforms, interactive, their green initiative, the Olympics, cable, etc.) than the network’s upcoming season.
Plus: They’re announcing a year-round schedule of original programming in April, well ahead of the traditional May upfronts. That’s a necessarily aggressive tactic for a network that’s long been mired in last place among the Big Four and actually doesn’t reek of the usual flop sweat that seems to have inspired so many network decisions of late.
“A business-as-usual approach no longer applies in today's multi-platform media environment,” NBC-U CEO Jeff Zucker said for the 38th time in the past year. “The traditional primetime presentation shines a light on only one piece of what our company has to offer. This new approach gives our clients an early look at NBC's scheduling strategy and allows us to showcase the full suite of creative advertising solutions and customized services that NBC Universal is uniquely positioned to provide to the marketplace.”
As a rule, I tend not to trust anyone who can smoothly drop the phrase “full suite of creative advertising solutions” into polite conversation.
As for the year-round schedule, NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman said, “There is an insatiable desire for new content year round, and we want to satisfy that need and be efficient at the same time.” He tag-teamed the statement over to his co-chair Marc Graboff, who added, “By getting a jump start on the season we can start the dialogue now and continue it throughout the year, ensuring a productive process with our clients that allows for more robust, integrated campaigns.”
As a rule, I tend not to trust anyone who can smoothly drop the phrase “robust, integrated campaigns” into polite conversation.
Obviously, this is pretty ambitious: Fox tried the same thing a few years back; it crashed and burned. But for the broadcast networks to remain relevant, year-round original programming is necessary and actually has been so for several years; the networks just haven’t figured out how to convince viewers that what they put on in the summer isn’t dreck they’re burning off.
And that task won’t get any easier, since NBC’s year-round schedule – partially by dint of the writers strike putting the kibosh on development of new scripted series – will no doubt include a lot more pulse-pounding reality programming of the “My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad” ilk, so it’s hard to say how excited anyone should be getting about it.
Oh, and another NBC executive issued a quote employing the phrases, “a more powerful connection between our clients and consumers,” “innovative, targeted and custom marketing solutions,” and “define more effective metrics,” but I’ll spare you that one.
Comments
This is the closest I can find to my quesiton.
I used to use MyWay.com/TV for nightly TV listings. Mainly because I could click on the NBC episode of Law & Order and it would give me a list of day/time repeats on other networks such as Bravo, USA and/or TNT.
This is how I found "24" repeats on FX six years ago and was very thankful for such. Or "Studio 60" repating on Bravo four days after the NBC airing.
It has become unreliable. I happen to find the 2nd episode of Lipstick Jungle on Oxygen Tuesday.
Does anyone know of a reliable website that offers this ype of listings: NBC's deal with Bravo or Fox with FX, Cashmere Media somewhere?, etc.
This is going to become even more problematic when the new episodes come back in March and April.
Posted by: BG Stine | February 21, 2008 11:44 AM