TCA 2013: NBC says "Flat is the New Up." Big Events are the Wave of the Future - Ed Martin

quotFlat is the new upquot NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt told critics and reporters over the weekend at the Summer 2013 Television Critics Association tour He was referring to his network39s ratings in the allimportant 1849 demographic year to date including the two months since the end of the traditional television season in May quotSeason to date we39re the only broadcast network flat from the previous seasonquot he declared The other broadcasters according to NBC are all downTo be more specific as Greenblatt went on to review after dominating the fourth quarter of 2012 to a degree nobody expected only to dramatically decline in the first quarter of this year NBC rebounded in the second quotAnd at this point in the summer we39re leading all of the broadcast networks if you exclude ABC39s NBA Finals boostquot he notedIt seems that summer is finally as important to the broadcasters as the rest of the year quotWhat39s the traditional season anymorequot Greenblatt asked quotIt39s an arbitrary number from September to May that was created by advertisers I don39t know how we ever got into that What39s the traditional season in cable Summer is the great season in cable We try to look at the whole year and when we add in the summer which is an important time period for us that39s the resultquotWe do know that network television declines consistently 4 to 7 percent every year It just is a fact It isn39t something that we39re happy about or proud of But I think in that environment which we know is very complicated these days I think holding your position is a good thing When you consider all programs we won 16 weeks of this past season compared to only 5 weeks of the previous season We improved 28 out of 43 weeks compared to the previous season which is more than double the number of weeks that CBS improved season to season and more than triple that ABC did and more than four times the improvement of Fox from year to year Even when you take out sports and we39re very happy to have all these great live sporting events but even when you factor sports out of it for all the networks we improved 30 of 43 weeks of the year so far That39s season to date including the summerquotGreenblatt also had good things to say about timeshifting quotIt39s interesting to see the sort of growth of some of our shows when you look at the L7 ratings We have eight series that grow by 50 percent or more in 1849 39Hannibal39 39Grimm39 39Revolution39 39Parenthood39 39Chicago Fire39 and a few others that are no longer on the schedule The 82 percent boost for 39Hannibal39 out of the time period is really significantquotMindful of the fact that most of NBC39s ratings growth has come from live programs and big events Greenblatt asserted that his network needs to produce more of them to counter the annual losses broadcast suffers to cable and other viewing and entertainment options quotWe need to be in the event businessquot he asserted quotI think you39re going to hear that from every broadcast network We look at events in many different ways Obviously there are a lot of live events and live is really important these days when you39re trying to fight the DVR and build the biggest audience you can for the premiere of a show We have a whole bunch of live events from football to the Olympics but also 39The Voice39 and 39America39s Got Talent39 We39re doing a big live game show in September for two weeks called 39Million Second Quiz39 We39re doing a big holiday family event a live broadcast of 39The Sound of Music39 in early December We have 39Saturday Night Live39 We have the daily late night shows which are not technically live but those shows are obviously taped the same day so they feel immediate and they feel of the moment We have a slew of specials coming this year several of which we will announce over the next few weeks again to that point of just having more and more eventsquotThe other way to do events is something that we39re moving into very aggressively which is the miniseries and the limited seriesquot Greenblatt continued quotIt39s a trend you39re going to see at all the networks as you39ve been hearing us announce various development deals over the last couple of months We39ve ramped up this area really quickly We announced a couple of weeks ago that we39re doing the sequel to History39s 39The Bible39 39AD After the Bible39 is actually the next big Mark Burnett event series We think that will be a big deal for us not this coming broadcast season but the following onequotGreenblatt revealed that NBC is developing five additional longform series A sixhour miniseries based on Cleopatra a fourhour miniseries based on the life of Hillary Clinton starring Diane Lane an updated remake of 39Rosemary39s Baby39 a limited series from Mark Burnett tentatively titled 39Plymouth39 about the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock and a new version of the Stephen King novel quotThe Tommyknockersquot quotThe Tommyknockersquot was previously adapted as a miniseries by ABC in 1993quotYou look at what happened with 39Under the Dome39quot Greenblatt reflected quotI have to give kudos to my friend CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler who saw this probably before all of us did but an event series based on 39Tommyknockers39 sounds really interesting to usquotIf you are receiving this report you are a registered member to Jack Myers Media Business Network or are receiving it as part of a registered corporate membership As a member Jack responds personally to your emails requests and comments He is available to speak at your company events In addition to Jack Myers Media Business Reports your membership underwrites MediaBizBloggerscom Women in Media Mentoring Initiative Jack Myers Wall St Report Jack Myers Video Media Report plus our exclusive industry economic forecasts trend forecasts and corporate performance research Redistribution in any form except among approved individuals within your company is 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TCA 2013: NBC says "Flat is the New Up." Big Events are the Wave of the Future - Ed Martin

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