WHATS UP WITH PRIMETIME NETWORK TV

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WHATS UP WITH PRIMETIME NETWORK TV ?
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Chapter 1 ---THE TV LANDSCAPE
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A PLETHORA OF MEDIA OPTIONS

• Six major broadcast TV networks
• An average 75 cable networks per Cable household
• 13,898 radio stations
• 5,340 consumer magazines
• 1,457 daily newspapers
• 6,699 weekly newspapers
• 400,000 billboards
• Hundreds of thousands of commercial Internet sites

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Television Adjuncts

• ANCILLARY DEVICES EXPAND THE TV EXPERIENCE
• Remote controls and VCRs are ubiquitous,
  Cable/Satellite almost universal as well, and DVD
  ownership is now a majority.
• More than three-fourths of homes households more
  than one TV set.

98
91
75
of TV households
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Source Nielsen Television Audience 2003, Nielsen
Home Technology Report
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Usage by Medium

• A PLETHORA OF MEDIA OPTIONS ---
• but TV usage is paramount

Time Spent per Day by Medium- Adults 18
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ARE THEY FINALLY HERE?

• Video on Demand
• Interactive TV
• What is the purpose of a TV set
• to play a videogame (with people around the
  globe?)
• to show pre-recorded material, such a movies or
  recoded TV program
• to access High Definition programming
• to view TV programs as they air

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Chapter 2 ---INDECENCY
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THE US ELECTION RESULTS ARE INGore wins!Gore
ViolenceDefeatNudity Language
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IF IT IS BROADCASTwatch what you say or
revealIF IT IS ON CABLEpush that envelop,
baby!
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WATCH WHAT YOU SAY ---

• Quotes from everywhere about how nudity and
  language are now at the top of the list
• HBO believes in (Dirty Bomb) so thoroughly
  that it is sharing the film with PBS the only
  difference being a scene in the decontamination
  shower that was re-edited to reduce another kind
  of skin exposure
• FCC FINES CBS over Janet Jackson

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WATCH WHAT YOU SAY ---

• FCC FINES FOX over sexy reality series scenes
• The complaints to the FCC for Friends, The
  Simpsons and Gilmore Girls were filed by the
  Parents Television Council
• Despite buying Desperate Housewives at very
  inexpensive Upfront prices (XXX) has decided to
  pull its advertising from the megahit due to
  complaints
• Super Bowl 2005 anecdotes!

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• We are not editorializing, rather sharing
• the apparently growing impact this situation
• is having on the creative (and business)
• community in the USA

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• THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT MOSTOF THE
  AD-SUPPORTED SERIES ONCABLE THAT ARE ADULT
  HAVE SOME DEGREE OF TROUBLE ATTRACTINGHIGH
  SPENDING ADVERTISERS IN THE USA
• --- even NYPD Blue has this liability

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BUT HOW YOU GONNA KEEP THEM DOWN (EDITED and
EXPURGATED) BROADCAST, NOW THAT THEYVE SEEN

• - wackings on Sopranos
• - virtually all of the anatomy on Sex/City
• - watched any Nip/Tuck
• - sat through Carnivale
• - subject matter in L Word and Queer as Folk
• - realistic dialogue in HUFF

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CABLE KEEPS PUSHING THAT ENVELOPE

• LETS WATCH
• RESCUE ME
• (there are just too many clips from so many Cable
  series that I am hesitant to show with such a
  classy crowd )

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Chapter 3 ---SHOW BUSINE
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NEXT TOPIC ECONOMICS

• Producers lease shows to broadcasters based on
  deficit financing --- hoping for windfall
• After five year run from Broadcasters renegotiate
• Syndicating to local US stations
• Selling international rights
• Too few successful newcomers (too few episodes)
• Short-run failures turning up on Canada
• Moderate hits turning up on Cable
• Cable exports to Broadcast (Sex The City ----
  edited and re-shot)

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THE ECONOMIC VISE

• When you win, you could lose
• The Story of Friends and Dallas and ER
• Do I need affiliates to distribute programming
• Is there anything else I can own?
• Can I turn a hit series and make on DVD
• The X-Files schematic

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THE CONSOLIDATION OF CREATIVITY

• Disney GE/NBC/UNIVERSAL News Corporation
• Sony Time Warner Viacom
• The great majority of programming aired on the
  major Broadcast networks (and exported up North)
  are products of these studios (and their
  divisions)
• Independent creative is increasingly rare (and,
  like all such studio work, very expensive)

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THE GOAL IS TO CONTROL AS MUCH OFTHE PROCESS
AS POSSIBLE IN ORDER TO

• A) Insure a superior product
• B) Keep as many talented people happily
  employed as humanly possible
• C) To keep the stock price up by optimizing
  profits
• D) To keep my job

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• GIVEN THIS ECONOMIC REALITY
• THE TV GENRE BEST SUITED FOR
• DEVELOPMENT MAY BE

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Procedural Drama at Its Zenith

• The Law Order franchise ( 4 arriving shortly
  )
• The CSI franchise
• These series occupy soon-to-be 7 hours of
  programming weekly and continue to pull enviable
  audience levels, attract topnotch advertisers ---
  and the veterans are doing very well in
  syndication (as well as being repurposed on
  Cable)

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THE SELF-CONTAINED DRAMA

• Continuous story-line dangerous as demands
  habitual viewing in increasingly competitive TV
  environment
• And the ADD factor
• Crime dramas always popular and in vogue
• The self-contained hour-long problem solved
• Occasional arcs
• Rare cross-overs
• And unlike the poor performance that most dramas
  suffer when in reruns, this genre has proven to
  be a solid ratings success

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• HOT OFF THE DVD BURNER ---
• NUMBERS
• MEDIUM
• BLIND JUSTICE

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Chapter 4 ---COMEDY IN CRISIS

• Do you think Im funny, huh, do yah?

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COMEDY IN CRISIS

• FRIENDS
• FRASIER
• SEX THE CITY
• EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND
• And today we have

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AND TODAY WE HAVE NEW TALENT WITH NEW IDEAS

• JOEY!
• LISTEN UP!

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We have been through cycles before ---only
dramas are hitsonly comedies are hitsonly
reality holds promisea sci-fi series cannot draw
large numbers,nor a game show, nor
animation,nor .
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Chapter 5 ---TO PROVE THE POINT
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• DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
• Comedy? Satire? Sexy? Hour-long!

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• LOST
• Drama? Adventure?
• Science Fiction?
• And both series telecast on
• arguably the most troubled of the
• four major broadcast networks

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BREAKOUT HITS PULL IN ALL TYPES OF VIEWERS
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Chapter 6 ---IS ANYBODY WATCHING MY
COMMERCIALS ANYMORE?
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PRODUCT INTEGRATION vs. DVRs

• ONE METHOD FOR COMBATING
• CONSUMER EMPOWERMENT, AKA ---
• ACTIVE COMMERCIAL EXPOSURE

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BURGER KING, ANYONE ?
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Epilogue ---And finally!
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WHO GAVE THE GO-AHEAD TO THESE

• Four almost unknowns performers are cast as
  post-30 singles, with often irritating character
  traits, in stories revolving around nothing
• To compete with the star-studded medical drama
  that CBS is using to highlight its Fall schedule,
  NBC turns to a very similar new series replete
  with unknown actors and actresses
• A virtually unknown foreign producer sets 16
  strangers on a small island and simply turns on
  the camera as they compete for a one million
  (taxable) prize
• Although only half of all Americans actually
  vote, the network elects to bring an expensive
  ensemble on the very subject to Prime
• A crass youthful comedian, virtually unknown, is
  the mom in yet another sitcom centered on family
  life (but among the working class this time)
• A youthful Nebraska comedian takes over the 90
  minute late night slot, five evenings weekly,
  from the venerable Jack Paar

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When it comes to show biz, nobody knows
anything.
2-time Oscar winning screenwriter, and forty
year industry observer, William Goldman