Does the Future of TV Lie Outside of the Box?

Just wanted to throw out a quick post about a topic that my friends and I spent a few minutes discussing tonight: How much of the appeal of a television show theses days comes from the show itself or the 'extra' content surrounding it?

FOX's new hit show, Glee, is the perfect example of this. Sure, the show itself is fabulous, but a lot of the show's charm comes from the 'extras' surrounding it. Not only can you watch Glee live on television but you can download the music from the show on iTunes or tweet @ the cast members to tell them how much you love the show (or if you hate it). FOX even has "tweet-peats", which are repeats of that week's episode that air on Fridays along with cast members' tweets across the bottom of the screen. They've even worked with Hitviews and recruited their YouTube stars to promote the show in an original way. Because I love Glee, here's a example of what the Hitview partnership has created:

Essentially, FOX has created a new level of accessibility for this show, and if the ratings continue to build it seems like it will only be a matter of time before other shows amp up their 'extras' in an attempt to build an extremely loyal fan base that consistently tunes in week to week.

Shocker: Most People Still Watch TV on Actual TVs

Good news broadcast networks, according to to a study from the Leichtman Research Group, 98% of television programs are still viewed on TV screens. Personally, I would have thought the number would be a lot lower. There is so much media attention put on the internet and how it's changing the way we are entertained, so it was shocking to find out that most people are choosing to watch TV the traditional way rather than just streaming it directly onto their computers.

While this study is definitely good news for broadcast networks and their advertisers, I think the problem that should be the most frightening for them isn't streaming content on the internet, but is audience fragmentation. With the number of niche cable networks that popped up in the last 10 years, the major networks should be less worried about how the viewers watch their shows than if they're watching them at all.

And then once they get people to actually tune in to watch a show live, how do the networks get them to sit through the commercials? In Sunday's New York Times, Alex Mindlin reported that "hit shows have most-missed ads". The reasoning behind this statement seems, at least to me, somewhat obvious: people watching hit-shows (by hit-show I mean critically-acclaimed, not the shows that the most people are watching) are much more invested in the story and want to skip the commercials to find out what happens next; whereas, people are just watching a show because there is nothing better on are much more likely to sit through the commercials. If it were me I would be much more eager to skip the commercials if I were watching 30 Rock than if I were watching Two and a Half Men.

NBC is trying a new strategy where they put actors in ads that air during their particular show. For example, "they put Tina Fey in American Express commercials, so you end up thinking it’s part of the show” (Mindlin). Honestly, viewers are not that stupid (or at least I hope they aren't that stupid). I'm not going to confuse an advertisement with the television show I'm watching. I think advertisers need to start realizing that the audience is a lot smarter than they think we are, and begin creating ads that acknowledge that.

Joss Whedon talks about the Business of TV

On monday I was lucky enough to attend a charity screening of Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" which was followed by a Q & A between Joss and Ira Glass (NPR's "This American Life"). During the event I took a couple of videos with my camera and have posted them below. In this first clip Joss talks about the difficulties that the networks are facing and the ways in which the current business model is changing:

I think the most interesting/most crucial point that Joss makes in the clip is that "the way people are entertained is changing". This is especially true in regard to internet content. So much of what people watch and how people spend their time is on the internet, and that is something that network television is going to have to accept, stop complaining about, and find new ways to please advertisers while still producing shows that people want to watch.

In this next clip Joss talks about using the internet to produce your own show/content without the financial support of a studio and the challenges that come with that:

I agree 100% with what Joss said about people not being ready to produce full length shows and movie just for with internet without the help of a studio or network. At this point for content like that to work it would need to have a big-name creator or actor attached to it. There isn't really any indie television shows the way there are in movies. I think the television business model is so structured that it almost makes it impossible for content like Dr. Horrible or The Guild, which is a YouTube short-form series, to find an audience. However, I do think that this is the direction that the business is moving in; it might be 10 or 25 years away but I think, especially with the rise of niche cable networks, that the business model is slowly evolving and that broadcast networks are losing more and more viewers each year to cable and the internet.

Jay Leno - The Future of Network Television?

For my first post I decided it might be a good idea to ease myself into the whole blogging thing, so I thought, "Hey, why not tackle the future of television?". You know, the simple stuff. For those of you who don't know this past Monday at 10 PM marked the premiere of The Jay Leno Show, NBC's guinea pig show to test if a late night talk show is still successful even if it airs during primetime. Though the network claimed to have rebooted and re-conceptualized the show for primetime it still follows the standard late night talk show template (monologue, interviews, then musical guest) , only now it's on at 10 instead of 11:30. Before I get further into a discussion of rating, money, and what both those things mean for NBC, here is a promo clip to give you an idea of what the show is all about incase you haven't watched it yet, or if you're like me, you don't want to.

With the rise of basic cable and the invention of the DVR, network television has had a rough couple of years, especially NBC. Under ex-chairman of NBC entertainment Ben Silverman, the network has had trouble producing hit television shows with high ratings, and as such, it consistently lands at the bottom of the four major broadcast networks. With it's poor finances, NBC needed a way to cut costs, ASAP. And along came Jay Leno, nearing the end of his run as host of The Tonight Show. The average one hour drama costs 3 million per episode to produce; Leno's show costs 2 million per week. It doesn't take a genius to see why the suits at NBC thought The Jay Leno Show was worth a shot.

Jump ahead five months and here we are after the first week of The Jay Leno Show. Quickly, before I start discussing rating and demographics, I want to recommend this website, which has a great explanation of the way television ratings are calculated. The show premiered to a massive 18.4 million people and 5.3/13 adults 18-49 rating. While a good number of people actually tuned in to watch the show, 60% of those people were over 50, which is not a demographic that advertisers are willing to shell out tons of cash to reach. Tuesday and Wednesday produced the expected drop in viewers but Thursday night yielded the most interesting ratings of the week. Leno slipped even further to 8.4 million and a 2.7 adults 18-49 rating. Though Leno still aired opposite repeats in the 10 o'clock slot, Thursday was the first night that all of the networks, minus ABC, aired new shows from 8-10. This is important when considering how Leno's ratings will fair in the coming months when the other networks bring back their fall shows. I suspect many people may have used the 10-11 time slot to watch shows that they DVRed earlier in the night instead of watching what the networks programmed at 10 o'clock.

Ultimately, one week is not enough time to call a show a failure, or even a success, based on ratings. It'll be interesting to see how Leno holds up against the new and returning dramas on the other networks. If his ratings continue to free fall, will Leno be able to bring in the kind of advertising money that a scripted dramas bring in, and ultimately make his show turn a profit? So far, only one thing is certain: NBC is saving money where other broadcast networks simply can't.