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NBC Considers Cutting Back Programming Hours in Prime Time

DavidEduardo said:
<...>I wonder if those who pay for inclusion in that mailer evaluate the ROI. I don't think anyone in my neighborhood actually takes them home.
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One would think you're buying name recognition for the cost of printing and sending out 50,000 of those sheets every month or two in the mail.

With the economy being as queasy as it is, if there's not a coupon, I'm probably not stopping there for lunch.
 
Are newspapers still delivered to homes by a kid on a bike? I never see them on doorsteps, driveways, etc. I wouldn't even know where to buy a printed copy. I never see those coin boxes anymore, either
 
KilowattKat said:
Are newspapers still delivered to homes by a kid on a bike? I never see them on doorsteps, driveways, etc. I wouldn't even know where to buy a printed copy. I never see those coin boxes anymore, either
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Hehehe...

Even 20 years ago, motor routes with ~250 papers at a time was the norm around here.

Coin box newsstands were subject to theft, so they were eliminated a decade or two ago as well.

Nearly all grocery and convenience stores near me have them available - just inside the doorways.
 
kwthom said:
Hehehe...

Even 20 years ago, motor routes with ~250 papers at a time was the norm around here.

Coin box newsstands were subject to theft, so they were eliminated a decade or two ago as well.

Nearly all grocery and convenience stores near me have them available - just inside the doorways.
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The last time I saw a printed copy of the San Diego Union Tribune, the price was a dollar, maybe 15-20 pages, and the overall size of it was cut in half.

Maybe I'll purchase a copy just to experience getting black ink on my fingers once again..
 
CommunicationsMajor said:
I agree I don't like the sob stories either. Sometimes the story is longer than the event they are going to show. And why does NBC show so much diving during the summer games?
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Because it's a popular event? And most viewers like to know more about the athlete's backgrounds.
CommunicationsMajor said:
They also lost the rights to The Triple Crown of Horse Racing to FOX.
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Actually it was up for renewal and NBC passed.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Comcast/NBC has a giant albatross around it's neck:
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And you would be incorrect. Explained below:
Joseph_Gallant said:
Once as big a TV event as almost any, the last two Olympics (the 2021 Summer games in Tokyo and this past February's Winter games in Beijing) saw ratings only half of the 2016 Summer games in Rio and the 2018 Winter games in Pyongchang, South Korea, inspite if the fact that there were favorable time differences with the U.S. East Coast that allowed much of NBC's prime time coverage to be live in all four cases (for Pyongchang, Tokyo, and Beijing, many key events were held in the morning, which allowed for live prime time coverage in the 'States).
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Hell of a run-on sentence. Did it ever occur to you that the disruption during a pandemic, including having to postpone the entire games by a year may have had an effect on traditional TV viewership? Also, Olympics on Peacock did very well this past games, so if you combined viewership via streaming and traditional network TV, viewership was about the same as the past two games.
Joseph_Gallant said:
The next two Olympics (the 2024 Summer games in Paris and the 2026 Winter games in Milan, Italy) may be worse ratingswise as there will be no live prime time coverage available. NBC will be able to go back to their old formula of "slice and dice", with all of America's gold medals that day being shown in the final hour of prime time.
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Something you clearly don't comprehend; is several of the popular events are happening in not only in a different time zone than EST, CST, or PST-US, many happen at the same times. NBC are recording each of the games live, editing them for time, then airing on linear TV during prime when the most viewers are doing appointment viewing, while others are placed on other NBC cable channels like CNBC and Bravo. The rest, and live, are streamed on Peacock. In the case of this past games during a pandemic; that's how the families that weren't allowed to attend the games in person, watched their family members compete.
Joseph_Gallant said:
Ratings for the 2028 Summer games should be much better as they will be held in Los Angeles, and a domestic Olympics should get strong ratings, as almost everything from 11 A.M. through 3 A.M. EDT (8 A.M.-12 Midnight PDT) being live.
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Ratings after midnight aren't important. Olympic sponsors buy time during the broadcasts as part of a package, not because of overnight ratings.
Joseph_Gallant said:
NBC also has a long-term deal with the NFL and a deal just signed with the Big Ten college sports conference. I would think they will at least break even, due to the popularity of football, especially the NFL.
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The Olympics are a completely separate division of NBC Sports. NFL games don't necessarily feed the Olympics, or visa versa.
Joseph_Gallant said:
I don't think any of these are nearly as profitable to NBC as the NFL might be, but then again, I don't think any of NBC's sports properties outside the Olympics are in danger of losing money either.
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You just called them an "albatross". Which is it? And albatross or profitable?
 
KilowattKat said:
Are newspapers still delivered to homes by a kid on a bike? I never see them on doorsteps, driveways, etc. I wouldn't even know where to buy a printed copy. I never see those coin boxes anymore, either
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In the late 80's the Phoenix newspapers replaced all the kid's routes with adults due to the killing of a delivery girl on her collection route. I don't know if Sandy Ago did something similar or not. Even the free circulars are now distributed by adults.
 
CTListener said:
Hey, he got a great deal on toilet paper, didn't he? Don't be an a**wipe! :LOL:
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Ah, a memory moment for me.

In the mid and late 60's in Ecuador, outside public toilets ("rest room" was certainly not the proper name for those...) there would be a person selling nicely cut up strips of the local newspapers to be used as wipes. Several strips were S/. 0.10, or about half a US penny.

I used to have a one-sheet in my station's media kit that showed "your print investment ends up here!" with a picture of an old lady selling newspaper strips outside a toilet. It got lots of laughs, but my purpose was to have the salespeople from the newspapers talk about my radio stations instead of their paper!
 
DavidEduardo said:
Ah, a memory moment for me.

In the mid and late 60's in Ecuador, outside public toilets ("rest room" was certainly not the proper name for those...) there would be a person selling nicely cut up strips of the local newspapers to be used as wipes. Several strips were S/. 0.10, or about half a US penny.

I used to have a one-sheet in my station's media kit that showed "your print investment ends up here!" with a picture of an old lady selling newspaper strips outside a toilet. It got lots of laughs, but my purpose was to have the salespeople from the newspapers talk about my radio stations instead of their paper!
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At a station I worked at and somewhat co-ran, we crashed the newspaper's out-of-town sales consultant's seminar, and passed out our own fliers just outside. For whatever reason, our weekend talk guy had booked this sales consultant. First of all, he was angry about our stunt, and we said "why in the name of Sam Hill do we want you on the radio to tell people to advertise in the newspaper?"
 
Maybe back OT a little:

ATSC 3.0 DTV to the rescue, just use UHF 14 to UHF 20 for DTV in the USA and sell UHF 21 to UHF 36.

ATSC 3.0 could be used transmit a large number of HDTV (the current 1080i and 720p) and SDTV programs in these 7 channels.

Maybe the radio transition from Network radio to music/news/talk/sports radio could be a model for TV - no TV Networks, just TV station group owners making purchases of TV shows directly from the TV show creators (similar to the way the current TV Networks do).

The local station group owners could partner with the cable news channels for national/world/breaking news and perhaps produce a regional/local news program.

This approach would probably cut down on the number of "free"/ad supported TV programs in a TV market, back in the mid-1960s (when my family got a TV), ABC, CBS, NBC seemed like enough.


Kirk Bayne
 
kfbkfb said:
Maybe the radio transition from Network radio to music/news/talk/sports radio could be a model for TV - no TV Networks, just TV station group owners making purchases of TV shows directly from the TV show creators (similar to the way the current TV Networks do).
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They do that now with syndication. When you watch Jeopardy, that local TV station bought the rights to air that show directly from the producing company.
 
Of course, but is there a need for TV Networks?

The big radio station group owners buy radio shows for most/all of the stations they own without needing a 1930s/40s style of national radio Network, TV station group owners don't, IMHO, need TV Networks, they could just buy all of their TV shows directly from the creators.


Kirk Bayne
 
kfbkfb said:
Of course, but is there a need for TV Networks?
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TV networks provide programming and national news that otherwise wouldn't be available to local stations.
kfbkfb said:
The big radio station group owners buy radio shows for most/all of the stations they own without needing a 1930s/40s style of national radio Network, TV station group owners don't, IMHO, need TV Networks, they could just buy all of their TV shows directly from the creators.
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In many cases, the network is the one who funds and creates the programming.

Just as it was with radio back in the day; TV networks owned the stations they broadcasted on. Today you have a combination of non-network-owned network affiliate's with access to a certain network programming, along with the identity and exclusive rights to that programming within their market, and stations that are owned by a network. Those stations are called O&O stations (Owned and Operated). NBCUniversal has several O&O's accross the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Same goes with ABC/Disney. Affiliated stations get their revenue from local breaks in network programming, local newscasts, and open 'paid programming' slots. O&O stations are the network, with all the revenue going to the parent company.
 
kfbkfb said:
The big radio station group owners buy radio shows for most/all of the stations they own without needing a 1930s/40s style of national radio Network,
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Maybe you don't know, but there are 24/7 radio format services from several companies available. They offer hosted programming in whatever format a station wants. So they may not be as visible as they were in the 30s/40s, but they still exist and are carried by thousands of radio stations.

kfbkfb said:
TV station group owners don't, IMHO, need TV Networks, they could just buy all of their TV shows directly from the creators.
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The big TV group owners can also create their own programming and become their own networks. Some are already doing that. But it gets down to who offers the programs people want to see? There are lots of ways to do the same thing. But if you want to watch the Super Bowl, it's only on network TV.
 
kfbkfb said:
How about a unified streaming service - TotalEverything247+

IMHO, it would be useful to have at least 1 (ATSC 1.0 or 3.0) DTV signal OTA in each TV market, just in case the local broadband service breaks down.


Kirk Bayne
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You know Kirk, reading your posts is like watching a bad Jackie Chan movie. You fire off an idea, then we get to watch you fly backwards upside down. And yet, you get back up and fire off another idea..
 
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