NBC Because they're demonstrably popular only in our elitist echo chamber?
Posted on 06/30/2014 10:28:18 AM PDT by ShadowAce
We live in a golden age of television. Never before have we had so much quality programming, or so many different ways to view it while sitting on the toilet. However, the things we like so much about the current state of television are actually strangling our favorite shows to death like Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds.
The business model that drives the creation of the shows we like is fairly straightforward: A network pays to make a show, and then we pay them back by watching the commercials attached to the show. It's basic, but it's an arrangement that's worked since your grandparents bought their first TV with the meager wages they earned after working impossible hours at the steel mill. So why do demonstrably popular shows like 30 Rock and Community struggle so hard?
NBC
Because they're demonstrably popular only in our elitist echo chamber?
It turns out that, although we may love a certain show and watch every episode, we aren't watching it quick enough. Whereas your grandparents had no choice but to watch a show right when it aired or else never see it ever again (keep in mind that reruns used to not be a thing), our DVR-spoiled asses are watching programs days or weeks after their original run. Ad revenues are only calculated from the first three days of views, so once that three-day period has passed, you might as well not even watch the show, as far as the networks are concerned.
Shows geared toward (comparatively) younger viewers like 30 Rock and Community eat up valuable prime-time real estate, and although they have a devoted core audience, that audience is most likely going to watch the episodes later on DVR or on the Internet through services like Hulu, where ad revenue is slashed. It's gotten so bad that NBC is now backing off of making quirky, narrow-interest comedies altogether and hedging their bets on bland, formulaic sitcoms with prerecorded laughter.
NBC
And these new, broader comedies have all been smashing successes.
CBS doesn't have that problem -- their average viewers are so old, they fart mummy dust as they happily watch their favorite shows (complete with commercials) the night they air. So we need to either learn to watch our favorite shows while they're actually on television or resign ourselves to an inevitable future of a Big Bang Theory/CSI mashup.
Five years ago, the Sci-Fi Channel took a gamble on the idea that Twitter and Facebook were going to convince young people to watch their terrible programming. They rebranded as Syfy and started feeding us films like Sharknado, which were specifically designed to be shared with ironic incredulity on social media. It seemed to work for a while, and since it was our best chance at eventually seeing Thrillosaurus Rex: Time-Traveling Dinosaur Detective, we embraced it.
Elenarts/iStock/Getty Images
"The best part is when he goes back 100 million years ... to the age of the other dinosaurs!"
However, making those joyously terrible movies is actually causing Syfy to implode. You see, even though movies like Sharknado and Ghost Shark draw a decent number of viewers and become trending topics across the Internet when they air, nobody is watching the channel in between those movies. Ever since Syfy rebranded itself and eschewed its traditional sci-fi programming, it began to hemorrhage all of the sci-fi fans who watched the network in the first place. Without those fans to keep the network afloat between releases of Crabquake and Testicular Rhino Dragon, Syfy is struggling to sustain itself.
AMC has spent a lot of time and money making HBO-quality adult-oriented programming. Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and The Walking Dead proved to be hits on a network that had previously been known for John Wayne movies and airing the Jaws sequels out of order. The problem is, those shows all have premium cable budgets, and while HBO and Netflix can afford to sink millions of dollars into Game of Thrones and House of Cards because of their subscription-based revenue model, AMC is still dependent on the "watch this episode the night it airs or else we're screwed" model that has torpedoed countless other equally popular but less expensive shows. Chasing the next Breaking Bad may end up being the meth-sculpted albatross that sinks them.
AMC
Leaving them enough cash for just one new show: Talking Talking Dead.
You see, making expensive shows is a huge gamble, with the potential to win big and lose just as massively. A few failed shows are all it takes to make the stock take a serious dump and throw the network into financial ruin. So when we stop watching The Walking Dead as much as we used to, or we don't bother tuning in to Halt and Catch Fire or The Turn at all (if you asked "What the hell are those shows?" you have proven this point exactly), AMC panics, because they can't afford to lose what they spent to make them. If none of their new season of shows takes off, AMC might be back to late-night airings of Revenge of the Nerds and Hackers by this time next year.
One of the main reasons DVR took off was because it allowed us to watch our shows whenever we wanted and skip over all those annoying commercial breaks. That attitude continued when networks began putting their shows on the Internet, because if the current generation believes in one principle above anything else, it's that no one should ever have to pay for anything and all forms of entertainment should be funded by good will and charity. And that attitude is destroying the entertainment industry, your favorite TV shows included.
Michael Buckner-Rommel Demano/Getty Entertainment-/Getty
Stop trying to Kickstart a My So Called Life revival.
You see, young people disproportionately watch their television online, which represents a substantial cut in ad revenue compared to what a traditional broadcast generates. Between 80 and 85 percent of online ads are skipped when the viewer is given the option, so the advertisers who are willing to support Internet broadcasts will only pay a fraction of what they would to put an ad on television. That said, even if we hit "Skip This Ad" after the first five seconds, we are still watching part of the ad, which is worth something to the advertisers. What's really killing content is when we refuse to watch the ads at all.
Most Internet viewers use some kind of ad-blocking software, which completely circumvents advertising -- Adblock Plus alone has 60 million users. Since the current generation is also watching much more of their TV online, this means that a huge number of people who regularly watch a specific show are essentially refusing to support it. This is sort of like watching a trombone-playing circus bear juggle unicycles for an hour and then refusing to take 30 seconds to toss him a fish.
NBC
Which would have been a scene in Community Season 6, but now it won't, and it's YOUR fault.
One-third of those 60 million Adblock Plus users are people age 20 to 29, which you may notice are the exact same people that start Internet petitions and social media campaigns when their favorite shows are in danger of cancellation and write protracted blog posts lamenting the lack of quality content on television. Do you really want to see a sixth season of Community? Quit writing petitions and start watching some Lexus ads.
Deadliest Catch and Antiques Roadshow are on Netflix streaming. Don’t know about the others, but they are probably coming.
All the shows I need were paid for 30 to 50 years ago (Danger Man, Burns and Allen, Rockford Files, Logan’s Run, the Prisoner, the Fugitive, the Odd Couple, Perry Mason, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies, Dick van Dyke, I Love Lucy). Like Mozart and Scott Joplin, many of these now belong to mankind.
I watched Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles at the appointed time, and the cancelled it anyway. Firefly was extremely good, but it was cancelled anyway. I admit I never actually even heard of it until after it was cancelled, but it was better than the original Star Trek, IMO. I watch The Walking Dead and I have actually bought episodes that I missed. I subscribe to HBO just so that I can watch Game of Thrones.
I will never watch SyFy. They can’t just change the spelling of an entire genre and get away with it.
On most cable channels, the value of advertising is so low that they have almost a 1 to 1 ratio of programs to commercials. They take a one-hour show which used to be 48 minutes of programming and add 30 minutes of additional commercials to fill a 90-minute time slot. That is 42 minutes of commercials. You have to take a lot of snack breaks and go to the bathroom quite frequently in order for that to pay off. If ever time were being wasted, it is in watching commercials about reverse mortgages and antidepressants.
DVR’s haven’t helped much either. You can’t avoid seeing the commercials you are trying to skip. Plus, they make advertisers less inclined to pay for the time because they know we will skip them if we can. This decreases the value of time for advertising, causing more advertising to be needed to cover the cost of syndication and development.
Still, we need to have a variety of programming options to keep the lazy and indolent occupied so that they don’t get bored and start burglarizing, robbing and raping.
I am amazed that Networks still tolerate the way Nielsen handles ratings. I don’t know of anyone who watches TV live. I record everything or will go to HBOGO etc.
And I almost never get attached to anything on the Big Networks as they are guaranteed to cancel it.
However, there is some GREAT television our there all over the place.
They’re going to have to find a new revenue model or die. Passive advertising is no longer all that effective.
I suggest designing mouseover/touchscreen access to pricing and availability of clothing, furniture or anything else used in a show. Just tap the screen over that great leather sofa on Big Bang Theory, for instance. Popular shows drive popular culture.
It has the advantage of unobtrusiveness to those who are not interested, and once known, ready access to those who are. It would be product placement nirvana.
Before crying too much over the networks’ lean revenues, consider that channels get a fee per subscriber from cable and satellite providers in addition to roughly 20 minutes per hour of ad revenue.
Part of what is killing tv programming is their fast finger cancellations. Why get invested in a series if it gets cancelled and ends with a cliff-hanger?
Another thing that is killing some networks is their programming filled with political/social agenda issues and sorry programs. Last season some 29 programs were cancelled or ended their runs. This season nearly 40 programs were cancelled. Several of those cancellations came after only 2 to 5 broadcasts.
Supernatural, Chuck and Castle were three programs that nearly got cancelled at the end of their first season. Ironically, the networks did renew them. Now, Supernatural has been on about a decade with a consistent audience. Similarly, Castle has managed some of the highest ratings over the competition and is heading for its 7th season. Chuck saw 5 seasons.
Television providers need to find ways to adapt to the internet and new technologies. They have had it pretty cushy for the last 70 years. Even their nostalgia channels are goldmines — massive numbers of commercials for products created in the last century.
There was a time when AMC, Sundance, IFC and others offered really good programing. Then they went commercial and went to crap.
TNT, TBS and others had decent movies even with commercials. Now they also have gone to crap.
Out of 250 channels, I watch TCM, STARZ movies, WESTERN channel, MGMHD, SONYHD AND HDNM.
I guess I’m picky but that’s me.
The best way to kill the misanthropic connection is to tell the psychopaths to end the cable/satellite subscription and to stop paying them for the brainwashing.
-PJ
LOL, par for the course.
***hemorrhage all of the sci-fi fans who watched the network in the first place.***
I was thrilled to see the Si-Fi channel come on hoping to see some of the great old horror, si-fi movies from the past. Instead we got crap movies so bad they were unwatchable.
Standard plot: Young diversity of people trapped on an island, swamp, planet. Instead of looking out to see where they were, what dangers they faced, what was on the other side of the island, they get into a fight over who will be the leader,or Alpha Male while the dangerous “creatures” slowly kill some them off.
You don’t need a Roku.
I personally have 3 and enjoy them greatly.
Funny, for “free” TV, I had to pay a cable company, who, at least supposedly, was paying providers for content.
Heck, I remember the original selling of cable was you were paying for content, so no commercials.
That didn’t last long.
Hint: sell TV channels ala-carte, and even shows ala-carte, and you’d have something. Netflix proves it’s possible to do so at a profit. . .
Just because the Networks haven’t updated their business model, is no requirement for me to support it. . .
Commercials are bad enough. But many times they run the same commercial again during the same break. Some of those commercial break periods are up to 8 minutes long. Or there are breaks every 5 minutes or so.
Internet servers, Hulu and Crackle, are bad about that. A couple of years ago I tried to watch a movie and its sequal on Crackle. Every 10 minutes the movies interrupted for a commercial — the same commercial. Some 28 times that same damn commercial. I think I have only watched one movie on Crackle since then.
Additionally, I find those Internet services like Hulu and Crackle seem to jam and refuse to load about half-way through. The only option is to restart. The programmers still have work to do on them before they are viable.
What DOES TV have to offer? Haven’t watched in 25 years.
I don't even do that for sports anymore. On Sunday afternoons in the fall, I do yard work and then watch a typical NFL game in about an hour while fast-forwarding all the ads and half-time nonsense.
TV shows...if they aren't on Netflix or Amazon Prime, they don't get watched. I don't even bother DVR'ing TV shows anymore.
Time for a new business model.
The answer to all their points is for the advertisers to be partners with the developers.
That’s exactly how it was done when TV was a new media.
Agree..a one hour show has about 20 minutes of ads, promo, intros, credits, and previews of next week..I record everything...and then I start watching it on the DVR about 20 minutes later..if I do it right...I finish up exactly when the show ends...
It's not The Turn, it's just TURN, and it was great. Hope they do another season. Halt and Catch Fire is good, too, but definitely for a more adult audience. Hubby and I have been watching both of these.
Networks stepped on their own feet.
Hulu started — with a few commercials and old TV programs.
Networks saw Hulu was making a few $$$ off the old TV programs, so they decided to compete.
WB, for example, started offering their old TV programs. Now, they still offer the old programs — for a monthly fee.
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