NBC News and the Extended Broadcast
Tonight, NBC Nightly News made history when, in the first time in its history, one advertiser (Philips electronics) was the sole sponsor of the show and gave us one minute, 15 seconds in ads instead of 7 minutes. NBC then asked us to comment and let them know our thoughts. This is what I wrote:
Clearly NBC is countering the problems facing TV news more forcefully than its counterparts at CBS and ABC with the move towards extended newscasts and the more strategic use of podcasts. The networks are trying to reach the "Accumulators"; those between the ages of the mid 30s to the mid 50s who find time to be their greatest asset and who make every effort to protect such.
I wrote about the problems facing the networks in detail in my blog at http://houstonbusinessdaily.blogspot.com/2006/11/meet-accumulators-and-how-to-reach.html. With the extended newscast and the podcasts, NBC is clearly showing its intention to be around in the 21st century. I will be discussing this in more detail at www.bizplusblog.com. Congratulations on the move, I think it will be win for Philips, NBC, and us viewers.
What else do I wish to add?
First, NBC intentions are not altruistic, but a desperate attempt to recoup the huge number of viewers in the 30s, 40s, and 50s who want their news when and how they want it, and are going else where to get it. I wrote about such in the Accumulator entry mentioned above. The average age of the typical evening news viewer is still 60 (not the prime group advertisers desire), this action by NBC will not change that fact, in my opinion.
Second, it costs a lot of money to produce national nightly news broadcasts. MSNBC laid off over 700 people a few months ago, due greatly to this problem. If people continue to go to the web, rather than TV, they will eventually abandon the latter as a news source and fill that time with some reality show that costs virtually nothing to produce. We will then get virtually all our news online where it can be updated quickly and produced cheaply. TV news will likely be dead entirely except for niche stations (e.g., Fox News, CNBC, etc.) and for the occasional local news broadcast.
You can see why I relegated these comments to my blog, I'm afraid NBC may not have liked what I had to say and they could have failed to include my comments. (Yes, I'm guilty of a little blatant self promotion, the occupational hazard of bloggers).
Clearly NBC is countering the problems facing TV news more forcefully than its counterparts at CBS and ABC with the move towards extended newscasts and the more strategic use of podcasts. The networks are trying to reach the "Accumulators"; those between the ages of the mid 30s to the mid 50s who find time to be their greatest asset and who make every effort to protect such.
I wrote about the problems facing the networks in detail in my blog at http://houstonbusinessdaily.blogspot.com/2006/11/meet-accumulators-and-how-to-reach.html. With the extended newscast and the podcasts, NBC is clearly showing its intention to be around in the 21st century. I will be discussing this in more detail at www.bizplusblog.com. Congratulations on the move, I think it will be win for Philips, NBC, and us viewers.
What else do I wish to add?
First, NBC intentions are not altruistic, but a desperate attempt to recoup the huge number of viewers in the 30s, 40s, and 50s who want their news when and how they want it, and are going else where to get it. I wrote about such in the Accumulator entry mentioned above. The average age of the typical evening news viewer is still 60 (not the prime group advertisers desire), this action by NBC will not change that fact, in my opinion.
Second, it costs a lot of money to produce national nightly news broadcasts. MSNBC laid off over 700 people a few months ago, due greatly to this problem. If people continue to go to the web, rather than TV, they will eventually abandon the latter as a news source and fill that time with some reality show that costs virtually nothing to produce. We will then get virtually all our news online where it can be updated quickly and produced cheaply. TV news will likely be dead entirely except for niche stations (e.g., Fox News, CNBC, etc.) and for the occasional local news broadcast.
You can see why I relegated these comments to my blog, I'm afraid NBC may not have liked what I had to say and they could have failed to include my comments. (Yes, I'm guilty of a little blatant self promotion, the occupational hazard of bloggers).
Labels: ABC News, CBS News, CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC News, Philips
posted by Kevin Price at 7:10 PM
2 Comments:
Great resource. keep it up!!Thanks a lot for interesting discussion, I found a lot of useful information!With the best regards!
David
Thank you, we always appreciate feedback. So far I have dozens of comments that I couldn't publish either because they were pure ads or simply inappropriate, so I enjoyed what you shared.
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