• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Ideas

MarcB

MarcB

It's amazing how much time I spend daydreaming at work while collecting the shopping carts from the parking lot and bring them inside the store. I spent the last few days figuring out how I'd re-do the networks owned by Viacom.

Comedy Central - Program it with Sitcoms from the 1980s-Present. That includes airing the sitcoms that currently air on TVLAND that were made after 1980 including the TVLAND original sitcoms including Hot in Cleavland, The Exes, and Happily Divorced. Along with the sitcoms airing on both MTV and BET. Keep the Comedy Central Original Programs - The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park, etc. - Why not? TBS seems to work focusing on comedies.

Spike TV - Program it all with dramas. - Why not? TNT seems to work focusing on dramas.

TVLand - Reformat it and show sitcoms and dramas from 1960-1979. Nothing newer than 1979 will air on TVLAND except for any show that came on the air in the 1970s and lasted into the early 1980s. Remove the movies.

VH-1 - Rebrand it The Viacom Reality Channel. Show all the reality shows that currently air on it as VH-1 along with the reality shows that air on CMT and MTV including Jersey Shore, The Real World, and Ture Life. Eliminate what little music videos they do show.

MTV2 - Rebrand it as MovieTime TV. Show all movies on it. Viacom has a huge movie library that they air across their networks.

CMT - Country Videos 24/7 ala what CMT Pure does now. Feature special blocks of Old School Country Videos.

CMT Pure - Rebrand it as MTV Retro. Show old school Videos from the 80s, 90s, 00s along with old school MTV programing.

MTV - Music videos in block formats. I.E. a block of all rock videos, a block of all hip-hop and r&B videos, a block of Top 40 videos.
 
Wow, that might actually be a clean sweep in diminishing the performance of all of them. ;)
 
Comedy Central more Comedies and some Talk Shows.

Spike TV Boxing,WWI,Truckers/Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders from CMT and other Men Shows.

TV Land Shows that have been Cancelled or Retired.

VH-1 to Realty Channel and bring back Mega Hits for the Video's.

CMT Country Shows and Movies

Food Network Todd Wilbur's Show

ABC Family TGIF on Friday's
 
Running blocks of music videos on MTV would surely diminish it. Young people don't wait for their favorite video to be played on TV anymore...they're available On Demand or online. MTV wisely made some moves to stay relevant. As for a VH1 Reality Channel, Fox tried a reality channel and couldn't make a go of it.
A Viacom movie channel would be cool.
 
Nickelodeon-Launch a 24/7 90's Are All That Channel
MTV-All music videos
TV Land-Older Shows such as I Love Lucy Leave It To Beaver The Munsters (Not shows that were just off the air)
 
MarcB said:
Comedy Central - Program it with Sitcoms from the 1980s-Present. That includes airing the sitcoms that currently air on TVLAND that were made after 1980 including the TVLAND original sitcoms including Hot in Cleavland, The Exes, and Happily Divorced. Along with the sitcoms airing on both MTV and BET. Keep the Comedy Central Original Programs - The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park, etc. - Why not? TBS seems to work focusing on comedies.
Click to expand...

Comedy Central targets 18-49 year old males. I don't think they would be interested in putting in outdated sitcoms from the '80's on Comedy Central, because the Comedy Central brand is too "edgy" for that and they would want a generally younger audience. Also, when you add current shows like The Daily Show combined with older shows, the audiences quite don't match. What Comedy Central is doing today is a great vehicle for The Daily Show and Colbert. TBS is also trying to gain some edge and attract a younger, male audience by including more current shows like The Big Bang Theory. Keep those sitcoms on TV Land, add more original programming and pick up the rights to some comedy blockbuster movies on Comedy Central. They should also allow a little less censorship on the network- it's a comedy channel for gods sake!

MarcB said:
Spike TV - Program it all with dramas. - Why not? TNT seems to work focusing on dramas.
Click to expand...

The price of producing original dramas is through the ceiling. Spike runs a pretty good "hodge podge" of everything male. I would try to refocus Spike to compete against History and Discovery with original programming similar to these two networks.

MarcB said:
TVLand - Reformat it and show sitcoms and dramas from 1960-1979. Nothing newer than 1979 will air on TVLAND except for any show that came on the air in the 1970s and lasted into the early 1980s. Remove the movies.
Click to expand...

By putting in older sitcoms, this would essentially drive away all the younger viewers from the network. I would try to push a lot of the shows that are currently on Nick at Nite onto TV Land and continue producing originals.

MarcB said:
VH-1 - Rebrand it The Viacom Reality Channel. Show all the reality shows that currently air on it as VH-1 along with the reality shows that air on CMT and MTV including Jersey Shore, The Real World, and Ture Life. Eliminate what little music videos they do show.
Click to expand...

The problem is that Viacom isn't a viewer friendly brand. VH1 is a great brand and it should be continued to be used. VH1 should continue to be focused on reality shows, but should also focus on bringing nostalgia from popular MTV shows in the 80's and 90's. I'm talking updated versions of Say What? Karaoke and Remote Control.

MarcB said:
MTV2 - Rebrand it as MovieTime TV. Show all movies on it. Viacom has a huge movie library that they air across their networks.
Click to expand...

MTV2 pretty much serves as a male skewed version of MTV. I would like to keep around what MTV2 has right now.

MarcB said:
CMT - Country Videos 24/7 ala what CMT Pure does now. Feature special blocks of Old School Country Videos.
Click to expand...

Focus more on country oriented original programming. Start including scripted programming like MTV.

MarcB said:
MTV - Music videos in block formats. I.E. a block of all rock videos, a block of all hip-hop and r&B videos, a block of Top 40 videos.
Click to expand...

Keep original programming production rolling. Increase scripted programming to compete with ABC Family and The CW.
 
MarcB could not possibly day dream up a mess any worse than the direction these cable networks continue to go in.
 
In general:

The same 20 episodes of the same 20 sitcoms, an occasional movie, edited and time compressed - all littered with on-screen bugs and promos; don't forget plenty of infomercials to fill out the schedule.  Puree on high, fold in "image flavor packet" for the appropriate channel.  Serve with an "original drama" from time to time, and, in the case of Lifetime, a heaping tablespoon of MSG (for Men Suck Greatly). 

And there in a nutshell you have today's exciting world of cable television.  Do I miss it?  Nope.   Then again, I'm nearly 47 - past the demographic expiration date of most channels today.  I'm just now adjusting to the spiritual elixir Geritol ... mildly peppery to the nose, and a bouquet of old accordion wood.   Sleepy, but not offensive.   ;D

--Russell
 
The only one of these cable networks I watch with any frequency is Comedy Central, and I would hate to see anybody mess with it. It's not perfect, but it's fine the way it is. And they do program recent sitcoms like Scrubs. As somebody above pointed out, 80s (or older) sitcoms wouldn't really fit in with the demographic they are seeking.

Their strength is with their original programming - most notably The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report, South Park, etc. - but also the stand-up comedy specials and some of their other regular series. Even though they run shows I don't personally care for (Mencia, Tosh), I understand why they're popular, and I think they are worthy programs.

You could put The Yule Log on Spike and TV Land 365 days a year and it wouldn't make any difference to me - but leave Comedy Central alone.

Thank you.
 
MarcB said:
CMT Pure - Rebrand it as MTV Retro. Show old school Videos from the 80s, 90s, 00s along with old school MTV programing.
Click to expand...
Isn't that what VH-1 Classic is for? Could see VH-1 Classic renamed MTV Retro as VH-1 Classic was the network that aired MTV 30

MarcB said:
MTV - Music videos in block formats. I.E. a block of all rock videos, a block of all hip-hop and r&B videos, a block of Top 40 videos.
Click to expand...
Isn't that what MTV Hits and MTV Jams is for? MTV is making money with the Teen Mom, Jeresy Shore, True Life shows.
 
TBS to the Comedy Channel meaning the Channel fro Comedies?

MTVU to Today's Beach Hits and Shows?

HSN to FSN meaning Florida Shopping Network?

ABC Family to name with Orlando in it?
 
When I saw the thread title, I thought this thread would consist of suggestions for new series.

Didn't an R-I'er the other week suggest (probably off the wall) a cop series (I assume scripted noncomedy fictional) in which the villain gets away and remains at large at the end of the episode? A series about futile law enforcement IOW?

ixnay
 
Here's how I would reformat/rebrand some channels.....

TruTV Reality shows that DO NOT have to do with the legal system

A&E All Dramas

BIOGRAPHY Would pick up all the Reality shows & documentaries currently on A&E

Universal Sports Keep it as a diginet featuring Extreme sports only

Headline News News 24/7. I would encourage it being put on cable Channel 247 too (Nancy & Jane would either be moved to another one of my channels or no longer employed)

NFL REDZONE Classic NFL games 24/7 BROADCAST IN FULL LENGTH during the offseason, nightly replay of all NFL games not featured on NFL Network during football season during times when no live games are being played & commercial-free whip-around coverage of College Football games on Saturdays (I wouldn't waste the bandwidth without any programming at all on)

ESPN (All branches) Reduce the load of College Football FBS games only to marquee games. Also add games from some top ranked FCS teams like Fox College Sports does instead of hawking those off to their online channel

Speaking of which.....

ESPN 3 Make it a diginet but keep the current format

New & Returning channels I would form are.....

Court TV Courtroom programming other Reality shows having to do with the legal system which TruTV currently airs

That's all I can think of right now

Thoughts?

Cheers ;D
 
mgsports said:
HSN to FSN meaning Florida Shopping Network?
Click to expand...
One problem with that. FSN is Fox Sports Net (Even in Florida)

FSC (Florida Shopping Channel) would work though

Cheers ;D
 
Another one I thought of.....

G4 Tweak it whereas The Feed has a 30 minute newscast as well as the current 30 & 60 second versions it has now, add non-tech headlines from MSNBC since it's now owned by Comcast, move the Movies That Don't Suck to Saturday Late Nights (And run them ALL NIGHT too) & make Attack Of The Show more of a gadget feature show instead of something it's not (A newscast)

I'd also run an edition of America's Most Wanted profiling those who are wanted for computer crimes (Online pedophilia, identity theft, scam artists, etc)

Lastly, CHANGE THE NAME to something more creative

Cheers & 73 ;D
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom