Article Recommendation - When TV Became Art

I just wanted to post a link to an awesome article by Emily Nussbaum that was recently published in New York Magazine titled "When TV became Art". The article doesn't really address the business aspects of the industry, but Nussbaum makes a really insightful observation about television earlier in the decade: "this was most central and importantly the first decade when television became recognizable as art, great art: collectible and life-changing and transformative and lasting". If you have some free time I highly recommend checking out the article, but be warned, it's very long so make sure you have time to read it all before you start.

GE and Vivendi Reach Deal About NBCU

Just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that GE and Vivendi have reached a deal for Vivendi to get 5.8 billion for its 20% stake in NBCU. This is really setting the stage for the Comcast-GE deal which will give the cable distributor a 51% stake in NBCU. Variety is reporting that the Comcast-GE deal could be announce by the end of this week at the earliest, though it may take up to a year for the deal to move through all the regulatory issues.

CBS Yanks 'Three Rivers'

The latest casualty of the fall 09 television was announced this morning as CBS yanked medical drama 'Three Rivers' off the air effective immediately. The 9 PM time slot on Sundays will be filled by repeats of crime procedurals beginning this week. This news is no surprise (the show's not very good) and the show's lead actor, Alex O'Loughlin, failed to attract his 'Moonlight' fans and create a stable fan base.

Even though 'Three Rivers' tanked in the ratings, CBS has had a very strong line-up among 25-54 year olds and overall viewers, particularly with freshman drama 'NCIS: L.A.'. The extra hour gives the Eye network the opportunity to launch one of its midseason shows in a stable time-slot or adjust it's line-up for the spring. Either way, this news by no means spells trouble for the network.

NBC's Zucker - "Whatever It Takes To Put On The Best TV"

At a Paley Center Event last week NBC CEO Jeff Zucker sat down for a Q & A with CNBC's Erin Burnett. One of first subject that Burnett brought up was the impending takeover by Comcast. Zucker stated that Comcast was assessing the strength of their assets and that over 75 percent of NBCU's profits come from its cable networks. This certainly isn't surprising considering the state of the NBC's broadcast shows over the past few years; however, it's still a shockingly high number that doesn't bode well for broadcast television.

When asked about The Jay Leno Show, Zucker attempted to stress that they're doing "whatever it takes to put on the best television...[and] quality content wins out". It seems to me that Zucker is just trying to cover up his previous statements to the press that put the emphasis on how cheap Leno's show is to produced rather than that it's quality television.

Zucker also confirmed that NBC is interested in FOX's push for retransmission fees, but that he expects it to be three or four years before that would become a viable business model. This is a step in the right direction, but the retransmission fees wouldn't be so important if NBC was able to actually produce shows that people want to watch. Even Zucker echoed that sentiment at the end of the Q &A when he said that "we've probably gotta do a better job... at being smarter" in primetime.

Execs Convene to Discuss Online Television

On Tuesday, NBC's Marc Graboff, CBS' Nancy Tellum, Warner Bros. Bruce Rosenblum, and the WGA's John Wells met at a B & C event to discuss streaming television for free online and the effect it's having on the industry. All of the panelists agreed that now is a crucial time for the television industry, and that they are responsible for finding a way to stop cord cutting. However, at the event none of them seemed to be able to provide any solutions.

Another topic that came up is DVR and the affect its had thus far. According to Graboff "none of us is getting compensated for time-shifting on DVRs...[and] it's a huge leak in the bucket". While DVR has had a negative financial effect on the broadcast industry, it is much less of a problem currently than everyone predicted. What the execs need to focus on is online television. This forum was a step in the right direction but I think that television executives need to start meeting more because the only way they are going to hash out a long term business model for the television industry is by coming together to address industry problems.