Posted on 12/17/2007 12:12:13 PM PST by abb
The slow but steady erosion in the power of primetime television is about to change the fundamental structure and financial clout of broadcast TV's perennial cash cow, warn advertisers, which pump more than $9 billion a year into the three-hour nightly window. With its waning audience, lack of a breakout hit in two seasons and with the writers' strike about to render the TV landscape barren of any new scripted shows, media planners and ad buyers are predicting:
* The decades-long three-hour primetime window could shrink by one-third to just two hours a night.
* The growth of less-expensive reality shows over the past several years will continue to accelerate.
*The standard TV season, from September to May, as well as the upfront ad-selling season will disappear.
"The network model is starting to break," said Gary Carr, the director of national broadcast with TargetCast, a firm that buys and places ads for clients.
"What's going to happen is lower quality programming, lower ratings and more competition," said Barry Lowenthal, president of Media Kitchen the media planning arm of ad agency Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners.
The comments come days after ratings-challenged NBC was forced to do the unthinkable - give cash back to advertisers because it couldn't deliver the ratings points it promised during the "upfront" sales season in May.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
ping
“The American press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies and more lies!” —Baghdad Bob
What’s funny is, he’s right....
Back in the day I think there was a short writer’s strike everytime the need came for a ‘Small Wonder’ script.
When the cable was out for a while we actually watched the primary networks.
It is not possible to have lower quality programming.
Only a drooling imbecile could stand an hour of it.
The best entertainment was Mooing at the Soaps and swearing at the "News".
The only things that I’ve watched recently were reruns of “Firefly” and “Batman: the Animated Series” that I hadn’t seen the first time around, and “Tin Man” on Sci-fi, which I actually enjoyed. It could’ve been a little better, but it could’ve been much, much worse. It wasn’t a typical re-imaging or updating at all. The funny thing is that the “Tin Man” wasn’t really the main character at all, and it wasn’t about him (although he did have a substantial part of the story line).
The fact that those shows can be seen as "the good old days" really tells the tale. I can't watch anything on network TV with my kids nowadays.
These also don't require writers, actors or directors, in the usual sense, and therefore are exempt from the usual contract negotiations.
Oh yay, more "Dateline" and "20/20"
Almost all of my TV viewing involves the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the Science Channel and similar cable stations.
I almost never watch the 3 networks. Their natioal news is slanted leftward, and most of their shows (sitcoms, “reality shows”) are aimed at people with room temperature IQs.
I'm optimistic about it. The key point is that there will be fewer eyeballs watching, even if the crap is lower quality. And I'd rather these couch potatoes watch more "Fear Factor" than be subject to high-budget "West Wing"-esque propaganda.
ROTLMAO!
When I was in college I was introduced to "Small Wonder" via reruns on a local station.
I think my initiation was something like this: "Hey, dude, we got some beers and we're going to watch the worst show ever put on television!"
He wasn't wrong.
I remember thinking that you could see Tiffany Brissette dying a little inside as she delivered her ridiculous lines in her robot voice.
Yet she seemed to retain much more of her human dignity in comparison to her other co-stars.
Have no idea what they have on their evening shows. Sitcomm’s make me want to puke they are really, really low IQ. trash..
The word cheap comes to mind. That’s all they producing now is cheap programing “Reality shows”.
Many of those cable originals are very good. Some stretch a bit in their language and nudity, but some are excellent without that.
I am surprised the regular networks haven’t tried to pick them up and extend their seasons, as they tend to be 5 to 12 week series.
Psyc, The Closer, Burn Notice are just some cable originals that are interesting and not really family unfriendly.
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