Rochwatcher said:
Buying a few reruns like King of Queens, Raymond, etc. is a lot, lot cheapier than a newscast...that is for certain....and spots may be easier to sell for some of those shows than in news right now.
Um, no. If 7pm were the only newscast, maybe you'd have an argument there. But as Scott already mentioned, WHEC already has their people and resources in place to produce news at 5, 6 and 11. Assuming the 7pm show is produced by an existing producer, there's actually no additional expense involved with doing another show at 7pm.
When you plug in syndicated content -- whether it be fresh stuff like a game show, ET or a wannabe ET, or even sitcom reruns -- it's going to cost the station one way or another. In many cases, a cash payment is involved. Regardless of cash or not, all syndicated programs come with their own commercials built-in. That leaves local stations a limited, unchangeable amount of time to squeeze in their own local ads.
On the other hand, when you air local news, you control the entire half-hour -- both in terms of the programming and the commercials.
Got a busy sales period? Just drop a couple stories and expand the breaks for a few days. Got a sales slump? Shorten the breaks and air more news. You can't pull that off with Wheel, Jeopardy, ET, etc.; they can't be shortened or extended.
At the end of the day, the main point is 7pm news doesn't cost a penny, so
every single spot is pure profit for the station. Even if the ratings are dismal, as long as the station is making enough to beat the costs of running a syndie show, the show can still be considered a financial success.
Rochwatcher said:
As far as running the news at 10, it is not as simple as just asking NBC to delay Leno...the networks are extremely possessive of primetime--and would not just hand it over to help out WHEC or other affiliates..the chance of that happening would be very slim. Think of all the network ad revenue lost if that were to happen!
That's up for debate. It's a two-way street. The affiliates need the networks, and the networks need the affiliates. If Leno provides a mediocre lead-in for 11pm news, affiliates will be very upset. Most of the larger affiliates are O&O, so NBC will feel the pain from its own properties, where they stand to lose the most. If enough affiliates complain -- with NBC feeling the pain itself -- it would be tough for the network to deny those requests.
The only problem is that many of those large O&O markets already have a firmly-established 10pm newscast in place (NYC has
three stations doing hour-long shows), so it might be tough for the NBC affiliates to trump them, especially if they're only going 35 minutes. On the other hand, 10pm news on NBC could be very successful in markets lacking 10pm news... or in markets where a non-big-3 station has a 10pm news provided by a big-3 station (like the WROC/WUHF arrangement).
It would be very interesting if NBC does allow local news at 10, with Leno at 10:35... and it turns out to be a major success. Would the other major networks follow suit? And as a result, would we see the "original" 10pm news stations (ie. WPIX, WWOR, WNYW, other Fox/MyTV stations, etc.) moving to 11pm, to continue being different... or would they all stay put and duke it out at 10pm?
As long as ABC and CBS can come up with really good stuff at 10pm, they still have a chance. But NBC will be successful because Leno will be the "safe option" anytime people don't care for the other networks' 10pm offerings and/or during reruns. (I assume Leno will have new episodes more than just 22 weeks a year...) Better than all 3 networks being in reruns at the same time, which only encourages viewers to surf away through cable, or to turn off the set altogether.
