Digging In The Cellar
NBC is having to take the extraordinary step of refunding advertising payments to make up for failing to reach guaranteed audience targets. Other networks are also having to make good on declining audience numbers, but NBC is in the cellar and digging deeper. Part of it is lack of hit programs, but there may be other factors at work here as well.
NEW YORK (Media Week) – Fourth-ranked broadcaster NBC has quietly begun reimbursing advertisers an average of $500,000 each for failing to reach guaranteed ratings levels, the first time a network has taken such a step in years, media buyers said.
Networks usually offer make-goods — free advertising slots — in the event of such shortfalls. But NBC has none to give. In fact, no broadcast network has much ad inventory left between now and year's end — except for, perhaps, a handful of units the week between Christmas and New Year's, and that doesn't do much for advertisers chasing holiday shoppers.
CBS, ABC and Fox also are doling out make-goods, primarily for the first quarter. They have blamed softness on a new ratings formula, but media agencies disagree. None of the networks would comment.
The networks' problems emerged even before the Writers Guild of America went on strike November 5. The networks had enough first-run shows to get them through November, and repeats and replacement programming will not begin in earnest until January — when their problems will likely start to worsen…..
…..NBC program planning president Vince Manze countered that the network will air more scripted shows in the first quarter than it did a year earlier, so the perception that NBC is moving more heavily into reality is wrong.
"We will have about 85 hours of original, scripted, first-run programming in the first quarter," Manze said, citing the return of dramas "Law & Order," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (which previously aired on NBC's sister cable net USA Network) and "Medium."
In February, NBC will premiere midseason drama "Lipstick Jungle." It also has first-run episodes of "Law & Order: SVU," "ER," "Chuck," "Friday Night Lights," "Las Vegas," "Scrubs" and "My Name Is Earl" yet to air.
Perhaps it is the right time to pitch my idea for a television show. Called Law and Order: SUV, it stars an ensemble cast (a Hummer, an Escalade and a Rav-4) running down crimes in the Big Apple.
Hey, it couldn't possibly do any worse than they are right now.
By Jaded, December 11, 2007 @ 3:41 pm
glad to hear it. They are a traiterous network if there ever was one. They suck.
By NortonPete, December 11, 2007 @ 4:05 pm
I expect to see ads from used car lots in Queens NY running on the NBC national news. You know those spots with a guy in a chicken suit strutting around. The ads that normally run on local stations in Altoona, Pa for $100 a spot.
By feeblemind, December 11, 2007 @ 4:17 pm
Ratings plunge? Heh heh. I’m heartbroken.
By dianainsa, December 11, 2007 @ 11:51 pm
I used to enjoy ER way back before they started using the show for their anti-war agenda and pro-illegal amnesty. Law and Order are beyond the pale with their Left-wing politics.
Serves them right.