TCA: FX CEO John Landgraf Says “There’s Too Much Narrative”

FX Networksamp8217 CEO John Landgraf continues to stand out among a shrinking number of top network executives who frequently acknowledge the role that critics and reporters play in generating awareness of shows and the overall value of their coverageamp160 amp8220I will reiterate that a television brand like FX which aims to make every show we program good and worth watching truly needs you the critics to help audiences navigate towards whatamp8217s best in television rather than simply the most convenientamp8221 he said at the top of his session on Fridayamp160 That has a lot to do with what can only be described these days as content overloadFor some time now Landgraf has included in his remarks to the TCA valuable updates on the evergrowing number of television series being producedamp160 Friday he provided a midyear updateamp160 amp8220Three hundred and nineteen scripted programs have been released so far in the US up 5 from the 305 that had come out by this time last yearamp8221 he beganamp160 amp8220Basic cableamp8217s tally is down 11 from 114 to 102 amp160Broadcastamp8217s tally is down 5 from 120 to 114amp160 amp160Streaming televisionamp8217s tally is up 46 from 52 to 76 amp160And premium cableamp8217s tally is up 42 from 19 to 27amp8221Also adding value to his session something not all network presidents are known to do Landgraf made several programming announcements including a tenepisode limited series production of the classic novel and broadcast miniseries Shogun that will tell the story from multiple Eastern and Western perspectives and FXamp8217s first ongoing docuseries The Weekly produced with The New York Times and Hulu which will amp8220take viewers into some of our worldamp8217s most compelling and surprising stories along with the journalists who investigate and report them for the Timesamp8221 he saidamp160 Each edition of The Weekly will stream exclusively on Hulu beginning the day after it premieres on FXLandgraf also provided details of the upcoming fourth season of Fargo which will star Chris Rock in the story tensions between two criminal syndicates in 1950 Kansas City MissouriThe elephant in the room of course was the upcoming acquisition of Fox by The Walt Disney Company which Landgraf first addressed in January at the Winter 2018 TCA touramp160 amp8220I donamp8217t know much more than you do but I can read the public comments of Disneyamp8221 he saidamp160 amp8220Part of the logic of this transaction is to scale up their own streaming servicesamp160 I think one of the things thatamp8217s driving this extraordinary level of investment in television content and other forms of content right now is this kind of epic battle between various now very large companies that are going to be competing in the streaming businessamp160 As long as that competition is red hot and as long as those services are scaling up thereamp8217s likely to be a fairly substantial increasing investment in scripted contentamp8220Youamp8217re going to see a lot of continued profusion in content and as Iamp8217ve said before that worries meamp8221 he continuedamp160 amp8220I once said to this group that I thought there was too much televisionamp160 Actually in many ways thatamp8217s too narrowamp160 I think thereamp8217s too much storyamp160 Thereamp8217s too much narrativeamp160 The profusion of stories is very good if you want to talk about innovation and diversity which I think are very important values but I think itamp8217s very hard if youamp8217re talking about trying to surprise and delight the audience because they just have access to much more content than they can ever consume in a lifetime and everything seems vaguely familiar to them amp160Thatamp8217s something that we struggle with a little bitamp8221Landgraf pointed out that regardless of the seismic shifts in the consumption of scripted content amp8220live TV is still overwhelmingly the most consumed form of television in the United States and most of that happens through channelsamp160 Streaming services really havenamp8217t made much of an impact on live TV but theyamp8217ve made a substantial impact on scripted TV both in terms of making their own scripted programming and in terms of where people watch scripted content amp160So just as you can see Amazon and Netflix and other streamers scaling up their efforts you can see ATampampT buying Time Warner and deciding that Time Warner Media is going to be a part of ATampampTamp8217s efforts to scale up its streaming effortsamp8221Regarding FX wanting to explore new programming genres as it will do with The Weekly one critic asked amp8220Over many years youamp8217ve spent a lot of time and effort to kind of cultivate a certain FX feel do you want to keep that amp160How far from what you do now do you want to go amp160Are you thinking about certain genres first and how much of it is related to the Disney acquisition when you think about thisamp8221amp8220I canamp8217t say itamp8217s related to the Disney acquisition because they donamp8217t own us yet and I donamp8217t have any marching orders from themamp8221 Landgraf repliedamp160 amp8220Our job right now is to run our businesses for the Fox shareholders as best we see fit and to hope that the way weamp8217re choosing to run our businesses dovetails with what Disney wants to do with these businesses after the acquisition closesamp8220I would relate it to a debate that happened publicly after a town hall between WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey and HBO Chairman and CEO Richard Plepler was reportedamp8221 he continuedamp160 amp8220Stankey was saying that HBO is going to have to get bigger and that raised a lot of questions about will that dilute the brandamp160 One thing I will say is Iamp8217ve seen a lot of activity at HBO amp160Iamp8217ve seen them announce a lot of new showsamp160 My guess is they had those shows in development and they were sort of waiting for new marching orders from ATampampT after the close amp160They all seem like they would fit really well in the HBO brandamp8220I find itamp160very encouraging thatamp160HBOamp8217s Casey Bloys comes to TCA and says amp8216Weamp8217re not going to change the basic nature of what HBO is amp160Weamp8217re just going to try more thingsamp8217amp160 You canamp8217t get infinitely bigger without diffusing the brand amp160I mean I certainly admire much of the really good programming that Netflix makes and you canamp8217t not admire the fact that they got the most Emmy nominations of any service this year 112 to HBOamp8217s 108amp160 But I would also say that their business model is to be all things to all people right amp160Weamp8217re going to make as much as possible everything every human being would ever want to watch everywhere on planet earth amp160In the context of that theyamp8217re making the kinds of programs that HBO makes the kind of program that FX makes but theyamp8217re making all kinds of other programs too amp160And I just donamp8217t see that as our role amp160I donamp8217t see us as trying to make the same programming as a broadcast network or a network that is primarily focused on reality programming amp160I donamp8217t think youamp8217re going to see a competition reality program on FX or a structured reality programamp8221Click on the social media tiles above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively those of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggersamp160

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT | BECOME A THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONTRIBUTOR

TCA: FX CEO John Landgraf Says “There’s Too Much Narrative”

Author

Publish date

Channel

Archived in

Ed Martin

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT | BECOME A THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONTRIBUTOR

TCA: FX CEO John Landgraf Says “There’s Too Much Narrative”

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Ed Martin

Cookies