Cable’s Rich Fall Harvest
Nets Keeps Originals Coming Beyond Labor Day
by Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn -- Multichannel News, 8/17/2008 8:00:00 PM
Summer may be winding down soon, but cable will keep the programming heat on with original scripted fare well into the fall.
In a year that has seen further audience erosion for the broadcast networks, due in part to the Writers Guild of America strike, an increasing number of cable programmers are going toe-to-toe with the networks and seizing the opportunity to lure viewers to their slate of new shows and returning favorites in September, October and November which, heretofore, has been the prime season for broadcasters.
“There’s only so much programming that you can run in the summer without cannibalizing it,” said Brad Adgate, senior vice president and director of research for Horizon Media. “I don’t think it’s in the interest of cable networks to kind of counter program each other. I think that they would prefer to stretch it out in the fall.”
There are additional reasons that account for cable’s move beyond summer.
First, consider the onslaught of Emmy nominations and critical acclaim that basic cable shows like AMC’s Mad Men and FX’s Damages have received recently — quality productions with A-level talent in front of and behind the camera that can compete with the best of broadcast or premium cable.
“You can’t overstate at this point the level of talent coming to [cable],” said Michael Wright, senior vice president of content creation for TNT, TBS and TCM. “Your shows are only as good as the people making them for you and now we’re just seeing these really top-of-their-game people, and when you have the talent coming, you have to make the next leap.”
Another reason fall is a desirable time to launch programming is that television usage levels tend to pick up after Labor Day, so there are more eyeballs to attract.
Just as important for ad-supported cablers is the simple fact that consumers buy products all year round. As programmers set their sights on a 52-week season, “you’re starting to see more of a level playing field between the audience delivery of cable networks and broadcast networks,” Adgate said.
“There’s no question that summer is still an amazing launch pad for cable,” said ABC Family president Paul Lee, noting the network’s success this season with The Secret Life of the American Teenager and past summer hits such as Greek and Kyle XY.
After an impressive second season, the network decided to premiere the third season of its African-American targeted drama Lincoln Heights on Sept. 16.
“Lincoln Heights came back in its second season and it was way above its first season, and suddenly there we were 34% up in 18-34s, and 19% up in 18-49s, so it gave us the confidence to say to our audience we can be a 12-month-a-year network,” said Lee.
ABC Family will also launch new series Samurai Girl on Sept. 5. The show stars Greek’s Jamie Chung as a teenager adopted by a wealthy family in Tokyo who must come to terms with her ancestral heritage as a Japanese warrior princess.
Still, venturing into the fall TV season poses some challenges for cable networks. TNT will be getting an early jump on the season with its premiere of Raising the Bar on Labor Day, Sept. 1. It’s the network’s first foray into fall and, despite the excitement surrounding creator Steven Bochco’s newest legal drama, Wright acknowledges the risk involved.
“We’re not naïve and we certainly recognize that you’re moving into a much more competitive landscape and that you will take a ratings hit,” he said.
“We’re going to have to condition our audience to expect to find original programming on TNT outside of the summer,” he said. “In order to make the argument that we are a broadcast substitute, we’re going to have to start programming beyond our comfort zone.”
Given the added clutter of the presidential campaign, competing with the candidates and their buys for radio and television air time, “we have to start early, with different types of messaging and create a level of frequency so that our target audience will receive our message five, six, seven times before they get to the first episode of the series,” said Jeff Gregor, chief marketing officer for TNT, TBS and TCM.
In addition to traditional media buys, Gregor is finding creative ways to promote Raising The Bar, including tollbooth takeovers on Labor Day.
“Because the show launches on Labor Day — a big travel day, which happens to also be a big TV day — we’re taking over toll booths in six or seven markets. So for a period of time on Labor Day, courtesy of Raising the Bar, your toll will be paid,” Gregor said. “We’re going to 'raise the bar’ for you.”
Clever marketing stunts aside, there is “the danger that some cable networks might overestimate the appeal of their shows,” St. Petersburg Times television and media critic Eric Deggans said. “They might have some good shows that get lost in the shuffle because there are several cable outlets debuting shows and a bunch of network favorites that are coming back with new episodes.”
Ultimately, Deggans added, it’s the viewers who benefit most. “Not only do you get all your favorite network stuff, but you get some other new shows to make up for the fact that the networks are not going to have a lot of new product.”
The downside, according to FX president John Landgraf, is that “it’s bewildering to the consumer how much original programming there is.”
According to Landgraf, “audiences are absolutely barraged now with marketing messages for television series between five broadcast networks and about a dozen basic cable networks producing and marketing original programming, and now three premium channels with HBO and Showtime, and Starz entering the fray.”
With four series on tap, FX will be premiering the most original scripted fare of any other cable channel this fall. The Shield returns for its final season Sept. 2, making way for the season premiere of its biker drama, Sons of Anarchy on Sept. 3. The network recently announced the pick up of a new 13-episode half-hour comedy, Testees, premiering October 9 as a companion comedy to returning It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia which debuts Sept. 18.
“It’s extraordinarily difficult right now for anybody to get a sort of share of voice and get lightning in a bottle,” Landgraf said.
“It’s a new game for everybody, and there are new kids on the block in the fall, and I suspect that there’ll be new kids on the block in the summer in the opposite way,” said USA Network president Bonnie Hammer.
USA will launch the Debra Messing series Starter Wife Oct. 10 along with returning Law & Order: Criminal Intent, slated for new episodes in late October or early November.
“Where the business is changing is not that everybody’s scrambling to produce because we need more revenue, I think it’s more about the fact that the financial model of the business is changing and going to continue to change, “Hammer said. “We’re all producing interesting competitive quality shows, and we’ll see how it all plays out. I think we’re all looking and we’re all learning from one another, and we’re all taking very different risks than we did a few years ago.”
With digital video recorders and other changes in viewing habits, “people are going to watch what they want to watch and it’s all about the quality of the show and where they can invest in something that’s going to stick around,” said Sharon Hall, senior vice president of drama development for Sony Pictures Television.
Hall added that “the broadcast networks and the cable networks are almost indistinguishable to me as a developer because everybody’s looking for that unique voice and point of view now.”
HBO was the first to prove that cable could draw huge audiences during the broadcast season with limited Sunday night series like The Sopranos and Sex and the City.
The premium network will launch its shows two weeks ahead of most returning broadcast series, with the Sept. 7 premiere of the fifth season of Entourage, followed by the new Alan Ball vampire drama, True Blood.
“We’re aware that there’s a new TV season that starts every year with a lot of first-run shows, but seasonality isn’t very high up on our list,” said Dave Baldwin, executive vice president of programming for HBO. “In our business, it matters most if we can just make our subscribers and viewers know that we’ve got these new fresh shows. Whether they show up Sundays at 9 or multiplex channels or on demand or they play them back on their DVRs, we’re pretty open to any of that as long as they continue their subscription.”
Digital video recorder viewing is of great importance to Showtime, “and as you look at our business going forward those kinds of things smooth out some of the vagaries of whether the first week in August is a better time to launch than the first week in October,” said chairman and CEO Matt Blank.
Showtime will premiere its returning slate later in the fall, with Dexter and Californication on Sept. 28, in direct competition with the Sunday night premieres of Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy.
“It surprises me that Showtime isn’t launching a little earlier,” said Sacramento Bee television critic Rick Kushman. “People still only have so much time to watch TV, there’s still only so many hours, [recording] or not. This is something that HBO learned — that ratings actually do matter and it matters in buzz.”
The buzz factor is crucial to Starz as it launches new drama Crash, based on the Oscar winning film. The show premieres Oct. 17, well after broadcasters have already launched their shows.
“There was a lot of discussion about when we should premiere the show,” said Stephan Shelanski, executive vice president of programming for Starz Entertainment.
“For us it was a matter of which show fits better in which season. We pointed to Crash as a real important launch pad for our originals. Although we have launched with our comedies in January, we thought that a one hour original drama like Crash would work very well in the fall [and] stand up very well to what the networks and basic cable are doing.”
Recognizing that sampling will play a key role in the network’s efforts, “we’re going to be very aggressive about getting episodes one and two out in advance of our linear premiere,” Starz vice president of branding and marketing communications Kelly Bumann said.
According to Bumann, the series will be available via Starz on Demand and Encore on Demand, “so we can get people that don’t currently subscribe to Starz a taste and a reason to consider us.”
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