FCC: Advertisers’ Demands May Hurt Network Ratings

[kechara420]

Duh!!

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA340673&display=Breaking+News


FCC: Advertisers’ Demands May Hurt Network Ratings


By Bill McConnell -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/9/2003 10:46:00 AM

Advertising-supported television may not give viewers what they want, two economists said in a new FCC study.

Studying the 1995 fall season, the FCC’s Keith Brown and Florida International University’s Roberto Cavazos found that advertisers shied away from "darker" network programming, such as news and crime dramas, and were willing to pay a premium for spots during sitcoms.

Of the programs in the broadcast sample, seven were newsmagazines, five were police dramas and 38 were sitcoms. The bad news for broadcasters: Viewers might prefer programs that portray the darker side of life. By programming for advertisers’ preferences rather than viewers’, broadcasters may have provided HBO and other cable programmers an opening to counterprogram in favor of viewers’ desires.

"The development and rapid spread of cable and satellite television," the authors concluded, "can be attributed at least in part to the market failures inherent in over-the-air, advertiser-supported television."

[10SCgal]

Hmm. Advertisers lean toward shows which don't arouse controversy, thereby avoiding some economic backlash if a segment of the population feels dissed by some show.

Entertainment execs want [good/bad/indifferent] quality programming to attract high ratings in turn to attract advertisers who will shell out those big bucks.

Hack entertainment producers want to please the Moneybags.

Creative producers want to see their vision come to life, followed by pleasing the audience and the Moneybags.

The audience wants to see something that speaks to them -- reflects them, their beliefs and their interests or piques them. If the audience sees something that doesn't reflect those things, they cry foul to the presenting venue, then take it out on the advertisers who .....

And round and round we go....

Frankly, if you want to bring home a paycheck, you're not going to see too much thinking outside the box here. That's true in any industry. Note that that's advertiser-supported and not public-supported TV (not PBS, more like HBO and Showtime -- you want it? It's gonna cost you).

And yet --

CSI. CSI: Miami. Law & Order up the wazoo. Becker (oops, how'd that one get in there?!).

There are levels of our society and political structure that are either so far removed from how most people live on a daily basis or whose values are little understood by an undereducated, overindulged public. I think the Bruckheimer and Wolf franchises go a long way toward addressing these curiosities -- and have managed to do so without raising a lot of hackles. I think that's because these shows don't delve too deeply or too often in personal lives (L&O reigns supreme on that) -- we watch what these characters DO -- not so much what they BELIEVE -- and then we witness what gets RESOLVED. It helps to eradicate opportunities for that nasty economic backlash to rear its ugly head which advertisers so loathe.

Still can't explain the popularity of Becker though. ...