TV Week published a longish interview with NBC chief Jeff Zucker today. Kudos to TV Week for not lobbing Zucker complete softballs. I found the whole interview interesting from his use of the word ‘panoply‘ to saying NBC only looks at 18-49 performance to saying they don’t focus on ratings and it’s not because there’s no outsized hit but because the difference between being 1st and 4th is incredibly minimal.
While we can wonder if the difference is all that minimal when you actually have an outsized hit (ask FOX, even with a waning Idol), but Zucker is probably correct for most timeslots. Then again it’s pretty clear that NBC generates less TV advertising revenue from its broadcast network during primetime than CBS, FOX or ABC. But Zucker’s comments about managing margins by putting on shows that are less expensive to make a lot of sense. Based on NBC’s 2008-2009 schedule it certainly does not appear NBC is motivated towards finding any out-sized hits.
I recommend clicking the link above and reading the full interview, but here’s a snippet on selling the Super Bowl ads at a 10% premium vs. last year:
TVWeek: A 10% starting price increase to $3 million for a Super Bowl spot? How was that decided? And how much do you think the last-minute spots will go for?
Mr. Zucker: I’m not going to suggest-I don’t know what the last spots will go for. Look, it is clear the Super Bowl is the preeminent program in all forms of popular culture, and the advertising prices are set according to what the market will bear. It’s clear that there’s nothing anywhere in the same league with the Super Bowl, and that’s how the rates get set.
The 10% increase isn’t very surprising (arbitrary perhaps, but not surprising) but it comes on the heels of the most-watched Super Bowl ever! A feat that will be particularly hard to pull off in consecutive years, unless against all odds, one of the participants is again 18-0 going into the final game.
Here’s the Silicon Alley Insider’s take from Michael Learmonth.
This confirmed some of suspicions of mine.
NBC doesn't care to be competitive in its entertainment division. This seems to be why so many clip shows and deal or no deals populate its schedule. Having so little marquee programing at the moment can't be good for the brand and seems like it would be tougher to sell ads.
Green week really does have nothing to do with the environment. It's just a shallow marketing gimmick.
They have the Olympics to help launch their fall schedule and it doesn't even look like they're not even going to try for a mega hit.
You have to wonder when GE is going to put its foot down and start to roll some heads. NBC must be losing big bucks, and it shows no sign of turning around. Marquee programs are great, but they only get you so far when you have no ratings standout on your schedule. NBC also over-relied on DoND which, like all game shows, has come to the point where it's flaming out. NBC is very like going to have another season where SVU is the top rated series, and coming from a series entering its 10th season, that's not a good sign.
NBC's only bright light over the past two seasons was Heroes, but where is that? Since it disappeared in November, nobody even talks about it anymore. That's one show that NBC really needed to get back on the schedule this spring, even for a 6 episode arc just to keep in in the viewing public's vernacular. As it stands when it left the air, there was enough viewer disatisfasction that it's very likely to take a deep plunge this fall.
Nobody's going to like these comments much, so I won't spell most of them out. I don't buy that the Womens' Entertainment spiel can get NBC out of what is for all practical purposes last. I heard for a month that Tina Fey was the next Jude Apetow who is the next what? Neil Simon? The idiot kickboxing movie has grossed as much as both Baby Mama and Sarah Marshall. Look at how Ironman, which every elitist mag from the New Yorker to Web sites in NYC and LA trashed, flattened all the so-called romantic comedies, which is as predictable each year as April rain. I also don't buy that the NBC President doesn't care who comes in first or fourth. Advertising with TV nets is about brand loyalty to whatever extent it isn't gobbled up by cable. Nobody associates Lifetime or Bravo with NBC, which is all about must-see-TV sitcoms and has been since the 1980's. This guy is not showing any of his cards, and that's because I don't think he has any. Look at 30 Rock – perpetual syncophants at USA Today are singing its funeral dirge.