CBS Apparently Hitting New Low

[TheBigA]

Isn't CBS making money off of the SEC games? So where is the money loss?

It's a big company. We're talking about different divisions within the same company.

 

[davideduardo]

No company I've ever worked for would just "not bother to sell" something. Every piece of real estate should make money in some way. Perhaps not as much, but you don't just throw in the towel.

I'm suspecting that this unsold block was a "loose end" caught between the conflicts of live sports and multiple time zones. CBS sells broad network coverage and they are not set up to sell small geographical areas because they deal with national accounts and their agencies.

And the agencies don't have discretionary budgets for a small zone on a Saturday night. They buy big zones, and don't have "loose" money for these situations.

The classic case is the odd-man-out of AZ part of the year due to not being in sync with the MST time zone. Going back many decades, the TV outlets there occasionally had to fill with local spots when the network just could not put a round peg in that square hole. The reason was that they could not get West Coast buys and they were off the zone for MST.

 

[TheBigA]

And the agencies don't have discretionary budgets for a small zone on a Saturday night. They buy big zones, and don't have "loose" money for these situations.

The way this gets handled in the radio world is with 1-800 numbers or what are called "scatter" ads, that aren't tied to a show or time, but just sell bulk audience. That way you're not just giving time away.

 

[Mediafrog+]

I'm suspecting that this unsold block was a "loose end" caught between the conflicts of live sports and multiple time zones. CBS sells broad network coverage and they are not set up to sell small geographical areas because they deal with national accounts and their agencies.

And the agencies don't have discretionary budgets for a small zone on a Saturday night. They buy big zones, and don't have "loose" money for these situations.

Thank you for pointing that out.

Newscasts, whether network or local, will from time to time be preempted (or should we say not scheduled) in favor of other programming that (hopefully) brings in more money. It is not a case of one network division "stealing" revenue from another. This has been going on since the beginning of television. Such scheduling is planned for and known well in advance when setting budgets and revenue projections.

CBS obviously doesn't want to deal with selling time on a "west coast only" newscast, and makes the internal breaks available for local sale. If local stations don't want to take advantage of that, the network provides PSA filler.

All part of the fluidity of TV scheduling. Not sure why that isn't being grasped here...?

 

[Don CT]

It's a big company. We're talking about different divisions within the same company.

When CBS has a Superbowl the money doesn't go to CBS Sports.

 

[gr8oldies]

The way this gets handled in the radio world is with 1-800 numbers or what are called "scatter" ads, that aren't tied to a show or time, but just sell bulk audience. That way you're not just giving time away.

Mike Lindell seems to buy every spare open spot in my area, including the cable channel that runs continuous reruns of the latest local news