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The Diversity of Cable
It’s that time of year when the cable TV industry raises funds to spur the development of more executives and leaders that don’t fit the young or old white guy mold.
It’s Diversity Week. Tonight is the night of the Walter Kaitz Foundation Annual Fundraising Dinner. The funds raised benefit The Emma Bowen Foundation, the National Association of Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) and Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT). They enable minority high school students to receive paid job-training and support from the cable industry; allow individuals from unusual backgrounds to participate in leadership development programs; and provide mentoring to women and minorities.
All of which is needed. Look around and it’s clear, as far as this industry has come, it hasn’t come far enough.
Still, how many industries shine the spotlight so brightly, even once a year, on developing diversity in thought, management and leadership?
And then, think about the industry itself. If there is any industry that has the capacity in its profit-making mode to produce diversity of thinking in this country, it is cable television.
Before it arrived, TV was a “vast wasteland” dominated by three broadcast networks. In the oligopolistic search for the greatest possible audience, minorities didn’t matter. Only majorities did. If you didn’t pull in 20% or 30% of potential adult viewers in the country for your program, you failed. Heck, at its peak, Batman pulled in 55% of the potential viewing audience. That’s diversity?
Now, you can succeed with fewer than 1 million viewers, depending on the niche, depending on the value.
Now, there are two networks – BET and TV One – aimed at African-Americans. Heck, there are two networks aimed at horse racing fans. There’s one for retirement living. One forrural living. Some day, there may even be one that succeeds (yes, I am certain, Stanley E. Hubbard, it’s yours at delivering high art, culture and entertainment.
As Time magazine has noted, in fact:
“Cable TV may never win mass audiences for many programs. Its leaders have no intention of even trying to do so. That would mean duplicating network fare—and who would pay to watch something akin to the shows he now sees free? The networks are unrivaled at concocting programs that appeal to tens of millions, but in the process they have ignored the specialized interests that every member of the TV audience also possesses. Cable TV, in contrast, offers for profit the potential choice of programs to suit every taste.”
That was written in May 1979. But that’s diversity. And that’s what cable delivers, on screen, today.
