Cross-Platform but Still No Cross-Network TV Series Promotion

By Steve Sternberg - Baseline Intelligence

The May Sweeps is coming to an end, and the broadcast networks will be airing mostly repeats and reality. As many viewers are turning to cable in search of first-run scripted series, the broadcast networks are starting to promote their new fall shows.

With average broadcast ratings declining, particularly in the summer, simply promoting yourself on your own air is no longer good enough. Unfortunately, the broadcast networks are totally disinclined to do the one thing that would have an immediate positive impact: promote one another’s new series.

Wouldn’t FOX’s new Lonestar, which is not going after the typical FOX audience, benefit by being promoted in, let’s say, NBC’s Law & Order: SVU? And wouldn’t NBC’s The Event benefit by being likewise promoted on Fringe? Or the 24 series finale? This kind of reciprocal approach would benefit everyone.

But here’s the real problem. The broadcast networks don’t see all broadcast networks gaining viewers as a good thing. The only thing that really matters to them is the network standings - being number one. If you were to ask a second place network if they would rather lose 10% of their viewers and move into first place (because everyone else lost 20%), or gain 10% and remain in second place, they would almost certainly choose losing viewers and being number one.

Does anyone else see the problem here? The whole upfront buying system is designed for each network to try to lose fewer viewers than its competitors. In the 1970s and early 1980s, when the broadcast networks accounted for 90% of the viewing audience year-round, it worked quite well. In today’s media world, however, an upfront marketplace that rewards being number one, yet does not punish declining ratings, is more than anachronistic, it’s nuts.

Fifteen years ago, the average rating of the Big Four broadcast networks was about 12 times as high as the average of the top 10 rated cable networks. Today it’s only about five times higher. Guess which group has been cross-promoting among networks?

There’s no law that says broadcast ratings have to go down every year. But there are 26 new shows coming on this fall, with another 13 shows moving into new time slots. There are also a dozen or so new shows slated for mid-season. Twenty years ago, I could have told you off the top of my head at any time during the season what was on and when. Today I have to use a schedule grid to remember what’s on. And I do this for a living.

While industry insiders who talk about this stuff all the time might have a general idea of what’s on television, the average viewer at home has probably not even heard of a third of the series that are currently on the broadcast networks.

Earlier this season, I mentioned to a friend of mine that Lie to Me was one of my favorite shows. He’d never heard of it. Guess he’s not a regular FOX viewer. But what if Lie to Me had been promoted on ABC, CBS, and NBC? Its ratings could easily be 10% higher.

I was just discussing some new ABC pilots I was watching with my wife, and mentioned that ABC was looking for another Castle. Well, she had never heard of Castle. But had the network promoted it on NCIS or The Good Wife, which we watch all the time, she might have at least checked it out.

Right now, all the ancillary promos for new series probably wash out any advantage one show gets compared to another. If every broadcast network advertised on every other broadcast network, any advantage for a single show might also be washed out. But if everyone gained 10% more viewers for their new series in the process, everyone wins.

It’s clearer than ever that the best promotion for new series is actual on-air promos on traditional television. You don’t need to do extensive research. You don’t have to prove the sky is blue. When someone is watching television, they are in the mood to watch television. There is simply no question that they are also in the mood to be more receptive to promotions for other television programs - certainly more so than when they are listening to radio, reading something, or going online.

Now is the perfect time to change this last taboo. While networks like to claim otherwise, they now appeal to largely the same audience (except the CW). The average median ages of ABC, CBS, and NBC viewers are within 5 years of one another. FOX viewers are only about five years younger than ABC and NBC.

To just decide not to promote your new products to the largest pool of available and willing consumers makes no sense. The broadcast networks need to start realizing that a rising tide lifts all boats.

I have no doubt that if all the broadcast networks promoted their new shows on all the other broadcast networks, every new show would get more viewer sampling than they otherwise would. How can that be a bad thing?