Last week I wrote in space about why, while I believe the concept of a conservative/traditional values TV network is a good one with a large waiting market, I have doubts with the approach being taken by Kelsey Grammer’s new Right Network. Those problems included the name (too strident), the emphasis on politics (true values transcend politics) and distribution (which I believes requires a traditional TV venue).
I also suggested some entities which I believe could, with the necessary will, launch a traditional-values network. The list included News Corporation, Anschutz Film Group, P&G/Walmart and Comcast (particularly if its purchase of NBC-Universal goes through).
Since the prospects of what a company like Comcast could accomplish with an NBC (and its cable channels) are so tantalizing, I’d like to offer my, perhaps out-of-the-box, thoughts on how the network and its properties could be rethought and reorganized for maximum financial, creative and, dare I say, moral benefit.
So, here is my admittedly brazen five-point plan for turning NBC into a network that is poised for the future while building on its past. The same basic ideas, BTW, could also be applied to, say, ABC.
1. LESS MAY BE MORE
NBC-Universal channels consist of NBC on broadcast as well as USA, Syfy, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Telemundo and the Weather Channel on cable. But, with all those networks, it doesn’t have the programming to fill them — and, at the same time, NBC, USA and Syfy are often pretty much competing with each other.
Why not merge some of these operations — thereby lowering management and other costs while organizing programming in a way that is more easilly marketed.
Under my plan, Telemundo and the Weather Channel would continue as they are but the six other channels (including the broadcast network) would be merged into three. They would include:
The NBC Premiere Network: The broadcast network would offer first-run fair nearly all the time (7 days a week/52 weeks a year). The Today could be pretty much extended to run all day long with NBC Nightly News continuing at the dinner hour. Prime time would see a mix of quality TV series, movies and miniseries with almost no reruns while late night would continue with its comedy/talk programming (also with virtually no reruns).
NBC Encore: The former USA Network would see its successful slate of programs move to the mother ship and would instead be utilized as a venue to constantly rerun NBC’s prime time programming — thereby boosting its overall audience and ad revenue and making year-round programming more financially feasible. Advertisers could be allowed to buy into a show for its entire initial-run cycle making reaching a large desired audience easier and more cost effective.
During prime time hours, NBC Encore could offer reruns of classic TV series and movies (sort of the best of what TV Land and AMC used to do) so as not to directly compete with the broadcast network.
The Syfy Channel could be reduced to a four-hour block of high-quality science fiction and fantasy shows marketed as Syfy Sunday on the NBC Premiere Network while also being rerun multiple times on NBC Encore.
As for Bravo, anything (if anything) decent on that channel could be moved to NBC Premiere (again with reruns on NBC Encore)
MSNBC: NBC’s struggling joint venture with Microsoft would carry CNBC’s current business programming in the daytime and news/talk programming at night. Weekends would consist of a mix of news, talk and documentary programming as well as high-profile sports events from NBC Sports. NBC’s Sunday Night Football could potentially move to the network to help up its profile.
Both MSNBC and CNBC have obvious problems filling an entire weekly schedule so this idea would help tighten things up a bit (making the network more competitive) while also reducing costs.
In my view, the online home of all NBC shows should be NBC.com with viewers given the choice of watching an advertiser option for free (possibly carrying the same ads as the broadcast edition) or a no-ad option for a fee.
There’s a place for inexpensive reality shows (if they’re good), but
broadcast networks should not shy away from big, lush dramas that people talk
about. A Roots for this generation would go a long way toward restoring a
sense of excitement about network programming. There’s really no reason, for example, why John Adams had to air on HBO and not NBC.
By having an NBC Encore Channel (combined with NBC.com) the cumulative audience would be there to support such epics since it would be easier than ever for the audience to commit to long-form programming.
4. BRING BACK OPENING SEQUENCES
to run one so brief that it’s barely there. This is supposed to stop channel
surfing but, in reality, when they’re well done, they help viewers form an emotional connection to the shows they introduce.. And let’s not forget, when these songs play on the
radio, they’re like free advertising for the show. The same is true when they
play in your head.
To make them profitable why not have advertisers pay to run their website addresses on the bottom of the screen while the openings run.
While some in the media still seem to equate quality with “pushing the envelope,” at this point in our cultural history the envelope seems pretty much eviscerated.
Most people who work hard for a living in a world that is edgy enough don’t really want to come home and watch edgy shows that earn critical plaudits by denigrate their values. They’re tired of comedies and reality shows that are often just plain mean and stick-up-the-rear-end dramas in which moralistic secularists are constantly facing off against right-wing Bible-quoting extremist villains.
It’s not that there aren’t right-wing Bible-quoting extremist villains out there, it’s just that a very large portion of Americans take solace in the Bible and are tired of being stereotyped on television as a collections of wackos and racists. In other words, when a conservative minister shows up on Law & Order, does he always have to be the killer?
A network that would simply respect the lives and experiences of traditional religious Americans (along with all Americans) would find a grateful audience eager to watch its shows.
And these shows should not be “right wing” or “left wing,” just good solid well-written and produced comedies and dramas that remind us of the deeper values of faith, hope, love, forgiveness, tolerance, gratitude, community and personal responsibility.
You don’t have to look too far back to find such shows — though they are annoyingly rare currently.
On the comedy side, shows like Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier depicted flawed characters with essentially good hearts that most people could relate to a lot more than most of the emotionally-sterile single-camera comedies on the air today.
On the drama side, shows like NYPD Blue, JAG, Lost and, a bit further back, Quantum Leap told intelligent stories with the kind of heart and compassion missing from most current-day dramas.
All those shows achieved great popularity by connecting with a wide mainstream audience.
To paraphrase a famous Kevin Costner movie, “Build a positive schedule and the audience will come.”
