Networks lose ground in the fall TV season

Networks Lose Ground By Gary Levin, USA TODAY In a continuation of a steady trend, he big networks continue to lose viewers, only two new shows are successes, and there's not much excitement among fans. Prime-time viewership is up 2% this fall, but fans aren't going to the major networks their TV. MORE: How the major networks are faring SURVEY RESULTS: What you thought of the season so far •Last winter's writers' strike crimped development of new shows: Only 14 scripted series joined the schedule. •ABC and NBC lost big bets that viewers would return to five holdover series benched last winter during the strike (ABC's Pushing Daisies, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money, and NBC's Chuck and Life). •An electrifying presidential campaign has nearly tripled viewership for the three major cable news networks in October, draining potential audience, while other cable channels once leery of fall now compete aggressively. Univision and MyNetwork TV also have gained viewers. •And continued growth in streaming online and time-shifting with DVRs — now in 28% of homes — has stripped the immediacy from scripted TV viewing, and risks leaving once-loyal fans less so. At least one in four viewers of Fringe, Heroes, 90210 and The Office record and watch those shows later. The four biggest networks combined averaged 36.9 million prime-time viewers this fall, down 9%, compounding last year's losses. Among the bright spots, CBS has the smallest decline from last fall, the most new shows and this season's biggest new hit: The Mentalist, a twist on its familiar crime-drama formula, which is averaging nearly 16 million viewers behind NCIS. And remarkably, seven of the network's returning series have gained viewers over last fall, reversing a typical trend for long-running series. With Tina Fey's star on the rise, thanks to her Sarah Palin impression on Saturday Night Live, NBC's 30 Rock returned to series highs last week. But all of the fourth-place network's new series have had mediocre turnouts. ABC, heavily dependent on serialized dramas that target younger women, has seen losses, though it remains a close second among young-adult viewers. CW has narrowed its target to young women, and in that measure has something of a new hit with its 90210 remake. And Fox, always a laggard in fall, has seen declines in almost every returning show (and arecord-low World Series), though Fringe is helping the network bide its time. "They're waiting for 24 and (American) Idol in January," says Brad Adgate of ad buyer Horizon Media. "That changes the whole race." And programmers hope the end of election season will draw more viewers back to prime time, invigorating a ratings race that pales by comparison.

Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

'30 Rock' Hits Ratings High

Season premiere of critically-adored but ratings-starved sitcom delivered a 4.1 rating/10 share in the adult 18-49 demo in overnights

By B&C Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/31/2008 12:05:00 PM

CHART: Download primetime broadcast ratings from Oct. 20-26

Sarah Palin is apparently the gift that keeps on giving for NBC after 30 Rock returned to its highest rating ever Thursday night—a 4.1 rating/10 share in the adult 18-49 demo—according to preliminary Nielsen data.

That number was undoubtedly buoyed by curiosity tune-in thanks to Tina Fey’s wildly-popular impersonations of the Republican vice presidential candidate in recent weeks on Saturday Night Live.

The third-season premiere of the critically-adored but ratings-starved 30 Rock held up well out of its lead in of The Office (4.7/12).

Hulu's sharing tools, TV shows help it win online video fans
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY 10-29-08

LOS ANGELES — Hulu CEO Jason Kilar could give you a whole list of reasons his "premium" video site has seen such stunning growth, but the sharing tools would have to top it.

The Hulu service launched just a year ago and is the sixth-most-viewed online video channel, bypassing more established sites Veoh, Joost and Fancast, according to market tracker Nielsen Online.

Monthly traffic figures are few, since Hulu has been around for such a short time. But the service
showed nearly 150 million video streams in September, over one-third more than August's 107 million streams, according to Nielsen.

While that's a fraction of YouTube's 5.3 billion September video streams, Hulu clearly is onto something.

Kilar increased Hulu's visibility by cutting deals with big distributors such as Yahoo, MySpace and MSN. Fans can watch one of over 1,000 TV shows or movies, mostly from the Fox and NBC libraries, along with a handful of cable channels, including Comedy Central.

Two big omissions: CBS and ABC.

Kilar says he hopes to come to terms with both networks, which have deals with competing video services including Veoh, Fancast and AOL. In the meantime, he's made it easy for Hulu users to find those shows by adding links to CBS and ABC shows in Hulu searches.

NBC Universal and Fox parent News Corp. (NWS) formed Hulu in reaction to the unauthorized appearance on YouTube of clips fromFamily Guy and other shows, as fans posted clips from homemade recordings.

Dan Fawcett, president of Fox's digital media division, says Fox and NBC were "surprised" by Hulu's rapid growth. He says Fox anticipated that by now Hulu would be spending money on marketing, but that hasn't been needed. "It's all been via word of mouth."

'Lights' stays brilliant despite downsizin

By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

In tough times, you just have to make do with what you have.

For the small town of Dillon, Texas, that entails dealing with a high school budget that has no money for books but a surplus for a scoreboard. And for fans of NBC's Friday Night Lights, that entails putting up with a deal that sends the show to DirecTV's 101 Network for a 13-episode fall run, to be followed, we're told, by an NBC run in January.

No, it's hardly ideal, particularly considering how few people will get the show in its first go-round. But without the deal, there'd be no Lights on at all, and that would be far worse.

This is, to be sure, a cut-down version of Lights, starting with that episode order. Roles have been reduced, and the show as a whole seems less populated — and a less true re-creation of small-town life.

On the upside, the stories in the first two episodes are a major improvement from last fall, as the show refocuses on the town and its team. (That's a particular blessing for Adrianne Palicki and Jesse Plemons, two wonderful actors who were trapped in the show's least-wonderful plot.) And with Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton in place on top, the cast as a whole remains strong.

There's no denying that the show looks a little worn, a victim perhaps of budget pressures that may have moved the series from cost-efficient to cheap. But even a reduced Lights is better than most TV series, and a reduced Lights was all we were going to get.

We'll just have to make the best of it.

Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Its Me

Introduction: Dr. J from BT Janes on Vimeo.

NATPE ’08: NBCU CEO Zucker Calls for Change

Keynote Speech Addresses Demise of Pilot Season and Upfronts, Analog-to-Digital Shift

By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/29/2008 2:11:00 PM

The writers' strike’s most lasting legacy will likely be the way it finally pushed the broadcast networks to reinvent their businesses, said Jeff Zucker, president and CEO of NBC Universal, during Tuesday's keynote speech at the annual gathering of the National Association of Television Program Executives in Las Vegas.

"Maybe what we are going through now is our industry's version of a forest fire. We didn't ask for it, and it is unfortunate to live through. But if we are lucky, it may very well leave behind fertile soil, clear ground and the opportunity for robust growth," Zucker said.

Two major initiatives NBCU is likely to get underway this
year: the demise of pilot season, with NBC Entertainment placing most
of its orders direct to series, following the company's more successful
cable model; and the elimination of a formal upfront presentation, with
NBCU executives instead visiting all major advertising agencies personally.

"This is not about making less programs: It's about making less waste," Zucker said. "We will still make a few pilots a year -- maybe five instead of 20. And it's about ordering direct to series the ones our creative executives believe in. The odds of success are just as great going straight to series as they are in making all of those pilots."

Zucker noted that NBC Entertainment West Coast co-presidents Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff would implement the plan, about which Hollywood has been talking for a few months.

"I know the argument … you never know where that hidden gem is going to come from. I'm hoping it will come from that gut decision that orders the series straight to air. For the price of that one $10 million pilot, we can order a full six-episode series. It's about time we start."

As for upfronts, NBC will continue to sell upfront ad inventory, but the way the company goes about that task will change.

"We believe the big show is a vestige of the last decade. Every year, the big question at the upfront presentation of our new schedule is: How fast can the show be over?" Zucker said.

"What matters is the new schedule and the rationale behind it. No one these days makes their buying decisions until they see the schedule and eventually see the shows. I can tell you we have not made a final decision, but we are very close. And again, we are looking to our own cable networks as a guide. Like those networks, if we do scrap the big presentation, we will be committed to going to every one of the major advertising agencies, in person, and every one of the major advertisers, to explain the schedule, explain the rationale and deliver episodes."

Meanwhile, Zucker said, NBCU is rethinking three broad areas: distribution, marketing and regulation.

NBCU needs to be everywhere, Zucker said, pointing out NBCU's multiple distribution outlets, such as Hulu and NBC.com. "Our challenge with all these ventures is to effectively monetize them so that we do not end up trading analog dollars for digital pennies,” he added. “This is the No. 1 challenge for everyone in this industry today." Following that, the industry's next biggest challenge "is to work with our advertising clients to create the next-generation video-advertising model," he said. "We are evolving the commercial form, with DVR-friendly [digital-video recorder] formats, pod innovations and new approaches to product integration,” Zucker added. “We are building on our 360 sales efforts, with expanded Internet extensions and vertical ad networks encompassing TV and the Internet."

Finally, Zucker called for a "new and improved regulatory framework," including an overhaul of the Federal Communications Commission.

"We need a careful policy review that looks at our system of national programming networks linked to strong local voices and asks about its present and its future --about its health and its
vitality,” he said. “But we have not seen this. Rather, we have seen a series of isolated and disconnected responses to regulatory passions of the moment.”

Zucker continued, “From my perspective, they appear to be ad hoc and reactive, based on outdated assumptions about broadcast networks and broadcast stations, rather than comprehensive, forward-looking and rooted in the reality of today's marketplace."

What is certain is that NBCU has embraced the coming digital shift: "We are in the middle of a wrenching analog-to-digital transition, marked by game-changing technological developments and profound shifts in consumer behavior,” Zucker said. “All of that demands a re-engineering of our businesses from top to bottom, both at the network level and at local stations.

© 2008, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Super Bowl - Big Business

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jan2008/pi20080128_435071.htm

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6525964.html?nid=3341

The Future of Television Conference

The Future of TV COnference held in NYC this past November brought together a myriad of industry professionals to talk about how TV must change to survive.

The Future of Television Conference

PBS Expands YouTube Presence

More Clips, Longer Clips, Off-PBS Clips Added to PBS-Branded YouTube Channel

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/16/2008 4:57:00 PM

PBS is expanding its program postings on YouTube, including a lot more of them, longer clips, more off-PBS clips from shows before they even get on PBS and more Web-only content.

PBS spokesman Kevin Dando said YouTube will ramp up its promotion of the content on the PBS-branded YouTube channel given that expanded presence, adding that the service is looking to help drive more water-cooler talk and tune-in to the shows.

YouTube advised PBS that surfers are spending more time on the
service, and with longer videos. So PBS' traditional 3-5-minute clips
will now be supplemented by 10-, 15- or 20-minute clips from shows like Frontline, Nature and Bill Moyers' Journal.

The network will also send an e-mail to bloggers about the clips, hoping that they will embed them in their sites, talk about them and help drive more traffic to the shows. But it is also about reaching the community with programming online, Dando said, not just trying to
send them to the TV set.

© 2008, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed ElsevierInc. All Rights Reserved.

Revision3, Digg Launch Internet TV Show

The Digg Reel Locates Best Videos on the Web

By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/17/2008
8:00:00 AM

Internet broadcaster Revision3 is launching a new Internet TV show Thursday in conjunction with popular Web site Digg. The show, The Digg Reel, provides a quick and quirky review of the best and brightest videos out on the Internet as determined by Digg’s loyal voters.

“When Digg launched the video section of Digg.com, it immediately became one of their most popular areas, but no one can watch all of it and 99.9% of it is terrible,” said Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3. “But Digg allows the community to highlight the best videos out there, and we put another layer on top of that, taking the top 6-8 every week and adding clever commentary from our host and site visitors.”

The Digg Reel is hosted by Jessica Corbin, who also hosts Revision3’s Tekzilla. Corbin and a producer select the clips and write the introductions, keeping the show’s pace light and quick. The show will be advertiser-sponsored, with Internet-domain registrar Dotster
serving as the launch sponsor.

“All of our stuff will be ad-supported,” Louderback said. “People want stuff on the Internet for free, and if it’s not, they’ll find a way to take it anyway.” He added, “The nice thing about this is that it’s a known quantity with an engaging and interested host and vetted content. Advertisers have a real issue with videos on user-generated sites because they never know what they are going to get. Here, we are creating an environment where they can be associated with cool user-generated videos. We’re finding that’s a really good experience for marketers and advertisers.”

Digg has become a central location for Web surfers who want to know what content is the most popular on the Web right now. Many articles and videos posted online give people the option to “Digg It!” through clicking a button. The top items are featured on the site, along with the amount of Diggs they’ve received.

Revision3 and Digg were each started by Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson and David Prager, although the two companies are separate now, with Louderback running Revision3.

The first episode of The Digg Reel is currently available, with subsequent episodes posting every Wednesday at 4 p.m. (EST). Revision3’s Internet shows are available on Apple’s iTunes, BitTorrent, DivX, YouTube, Zune Marketplace and PyroTV, among others.

© 2008, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

USA Today Expands TV Unit

USA Today Live Producing Cable Shows for Versus, Fuse, Mojo HD, New Seasons of Two Online-Video Series, One with TV Guide Network

By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/14/2008
12:01:00 AM

Gannett’s USA Today is expanding its burgeoning video-production unit, USA Today Live, producing new cable programs for Versus, Fuse and Mojo HD and new seasons of two online-video series, one in partnership with TV Guide Network.

The newspaper is looking to partner with broadcast networks and other studios on new projects in 2009, said Lauren Ashburn, managing editor for USA Today Live.

For Versus, it produced City Limits Fishing,a six-part series about secret fishing sites in U.S. cities, premiering Feb. 15.; for Fuse, 10 Great Reasons, an eight-part series paying tribute to musical guilty pleasures, debuting Feb. 19; and for Mojo HD, Gotta Get Gold, a 10-part series with Gannett Broadcasting that will showcase elite athletes over 10 consecutive days starting July 28.

USA Today Live was founded in 2000 to feed video content to the 22 Gannett stations, and it has produced series for Animal Planet, WE and HDNet. The Web shows getting second seasons are CelebWatch with Will Keck and CelebStyle. Keck, an entertainment reporter for the paper, will also appear on TV Guide Network.

"We’re able as a production group to cover so many topics because the paper does," Ashburn said.

© 2008, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.