NBC cuts
Last week, NBC announced 700 job cuts and budget cuts of $US 750-million. News programming is the main casualty but scripted programming in the 7:00-8:00 PM timeslot is also being reduced significanlty in favour of more realty programming and games shows, both of which are cheaper to produce.
Here's the analysis I wrote at that time, some of which was quoted in the National Post on Oct. 20th:
News
There are so many alternatives to national network news broadcasts today, in the U.S., Canada and around the world, that the announcement that NBC is trimming news operations isn’t surprising. Twenty-four hour news operations can deliver content in a more timely fashion than the twice-a-day U.S. network news programs. And, of course, increasingly, people are turning to the Internet for news. On-line newspapers present breaking news throughout the day, as do the numerous news portals like Yahoo!, Google News and Sympatico. Today, these services offer video content in addition to the traditional textual content, making them more compelling than ever. And all of these forms of on-line content allow the consumer to choose which stories they do – and do not – wish to explore, unlike the fixed linear format of conventional news programs. Syndication technologies like RSS and ATOM allow Internet users to subscribe to news feeds on subjects that are of specific interest to them and this allows them not only to filter the content to that which is potentially of interest to them but also to be exposed to a much greater number of stories than can be covered in a conventional news program.
The result is that audiences can be well informed throughout the day without needing to wait for a scheduled news program. The loss of the iconic anchors for the U.S. network news programs – across all of the big three networks – has probably led to a loss of viewers who tuned in, almost out of habit, to hear the news from a familiar and trusted face.
News is becoming commoditized and it’s hard to make a profit on commodity items.
Scripted programming
Content consumers today have many more choices than ever before. The world that existed when David Sarnoff created NBC is long gone, as are the days when specialty channels (the so-called cable channels in the U.S.) represented only a minor viewership drain for the big networks. Today’s broadcast television world is highly fragmented, and that fragmentation is increasing dramatically through the alternate delivery channels of the Internet and mobile TV. But the Internet and mobile TV offer more than just an alternate way to watch conventional television content. More and more, we’re seeing content designed specifically for the Internet or for mobile consumption, and user-generated content on sites such as MySpace and YouTube is increasingly finding an audience. Advertisers haven’t missed this, and, although advertising spend across all media grew last year, nowhere was that growth greater than on the Internet – and nowhere was that growth weaker than in conventional television advertising. Scripted comedies and dramas are very expensive to produce, but they are also very expensive to launch, and few that do make it to air survive. By comparison, reality programming and games shows are cheap and they are therefore more profitable for the networks to run – and there’s clearly an audience appetite for these. NBC, and in Canada, Global have had considerable success with the game show Deal Or No Deal this year. In the past, Who Want’s To Be A Millionaire was a runaway success – even though network greed led to overexposure that ultimately killed it before its time. And, of course, Survivor continues to demonstrate the popularity of reality programming. Thus it isn’t at all surprising that Jeff Zucker says he will focus on cheaper programming.
With increased availability of Video On Demand (VOD) and Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), the viewer is assuming more of a self-programming role, and this may account for weakness in the early prime-time slot. Whereas in the past viewers might have to choose between the offerings of two rival networks in the same 10 PM timeslot, today it’s much easier for viewers to watch both by way of the time-shifting capabilities of VOD and PVRs. So, at 8:00 PM, the viewer may be watching the previous night’s 10 PM content. Platform shifting, too, becomes an option as viewers can increasingly watch the previous night’s primetime content on mobile or the Internet the following day. Indeed, this pattern has led to a redefinition of the ‘prime time’ concept. Conventional TV has a primetime, but so do the Internet and mobile viewing – and these primetimes occur at different times of the day (or different ‘day parts’ in the vernacular of the industry).
While NBC is first to publicly declare cutbacks on news programming and an intent to move away from scripted programming in the 8:00 – 9:00 timeslot, they likely won’t be the last – on either side of the 49th parallel. Our networks face the same fragmentation and financial challenges as those in the U.S.
A reduction in scripted programming content will have a ripple effect for Canadian networks. Canadian private broadcasters rely to varying degrees on dramatic programming from the U.S. as it is costs less to purchase this content than it does to produce comparable domestic content. If there’s a reduction in the volume of this type of programming south of the border, Canadian networks will either buy more of the cheaper programming commissioned by Zucker and his peers, or – and wouldn’t this be nice – invest in more Canadian content.
Here's the analysis I wrote at that time, some of which was quoted in the National Post on Oct. 20th:
News
There are so many alternatives to national network news broadcasts today, in the U.S., Canada and around the world, that the announcement that NBC is trimming news operations isn’t surprising. Twenty-four hour news operations can deliver content in a more timely fashion than the twice-a-day U.S. network news programs. And, of course, increasingly, people are turning to the Internet for news. On-line newspapers present breaking news throughout the day, as do the numerous news portals like Yahoo!, Google News and Sympatico. Today, these services offer video content in addition to the traditional textual content, making them more compelling than ever. And all of these forms of on-line content allow the consumer to choose which stories they do – and do not – wish to explore, unlike the fixed linear format of conventional news programs. Syndication technologies like RSS and ATOM allow Internet users to subscribe to news feeds on subjects that are of specific interest to them and this allows them not only to filter the content to that which is potentially of interest to them but also to be exposed to a much greater number of stories than can be covered in a conventional news program.
The result is that audiences can be well informed throughout the day without needing to wait for a scheduled news program. The loss of the iconic anchors for the U.S. network news programs – across all of the big three networks – has probably led to a loss of viewers who tuned in, almost out of habit, to hear the news from a familiar and trusted face.
News is becoming commoditized and it’s hard to make a profit on commodity items.
Scripted programming
Content consumers today have many more choices than ever before. The world that existed when David Sarnoff created NBC is long gone, as are the days when specialty channels (the so-called cable channels in the U.S.) represented only a minor viewership drain for the big networks. Today’s broadcast television world is highly fragmented, and that fragmentation is increasing dramatically through the alternate delivery channels of the Internet and mobile TV. But the Internet and mobile TV offer more than just an alternate way to watch conventional television content. More and more, we’re seeing content designed specifically for the Internet or for mobile consumption, and user-generated content on sites such as MySpace and YouTube is increasingly finding an audience. Advertisers haven’t missed this, and, although advertising spend across all media grew last year, nowhere was that growth greater than on the Internet – and nowhere was that growth weaker than in conventional television advertising. Scripted comedies and dramas are very expensive to produce, but they are also very expensive to launch, and few that do make it to air survive. By comparison, reality programming and games shows are cheap and they are therefore more profitable for the networks to run – and there’s clearly an audience appetite for these. NBC, and in Canada, Global have had considerable success with the game show Deal Or No Deal this year. In the past, Who Want’s To Be A Millionaire was a runaway success – even though network greed led to overexposure that ultimately killed it before its time. And, of course, Survivor continues to demonstrate the popularity of reality programming. Thus it isn’t at all surprising that Jeff Zucker says he will focus on cheaper programming.
With increased availability of Video On Demand (VOD) and Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), the viewer is assuming more of a self-programming role, and this may account for weakness in the early prime-time slot. Whereas in the past viewers might have to choose between the offerings of two rival networks in the same 10 PM timeslot, today it’s much easier for viewers to watch both by way of the time-shifting capabilities of VOD and PVRs. So, at 8:00 PM, the viewer may be watching the previous night’s 10 PM content. Platform shifting, too, becomes an option as viewers can increasingly watch the previous night’s primetime content on mobile or the Internet the following day. Indeed, this pattern has led to a redefinition of the ‘prime time’ concept. Conventional TV has a primetime, but so do the Internet and mobile viewing – and these primetimes occur at different times of the day (or different ‘day parts’ in the vernacular of the industry).
While NBC is first to publicly declare cutbacks on news programming and an intent to move away from scripted programming in the 8:00 – 9:00 timeslot, they likely won’t be the last – on either side of the 49th parallel. Our networks face the same fragmentation and financial challenges as those in the U.S.
A reduction in scripted programming content will have a ripple effect for Canadian networks. Canadian private broadcasters rely to varying degrees on dramatic programming from the U.S. as it is costs less to purchase this content than it does to produce comparable domestic content. If there’s a reduction in the volume of this type of programming south of the border, Canadian networks will either buy more of the cheaper programming commissioned by Zucker and his peers, or – and wouldn’t this be nice – invest in more Canadian content.
posted by Alan Sawyer at
1:59 PM
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