Commentary

TV Programs' Lead-In/Lead-Out?

In this growing on-demand TV world, TV producer Ben Silverman says a TV program’s “lead-in” is still a crucial component of promotion.

“Lead-in still matters... [for] old-school audience flow,” he said to CNBC on Monday.

Put a new TV show after the likes of “Empire,” “The Voice” or “Scandal,” and you’ll see some incremental TV viewer lift. Next season, CW’s “Jane the Virgin,” a Silverman show, will be on  Mondays at 9 p.m, following “Supergirl” at 8. That should be a big deal, says Silverman.

Many TV viewers continue to be in a lean-back TV mode, he says. So turn on the TV and let it play.

What about digital media? Though consumption of digital media for traditional TV shows keeps growing, around 50% of traditional TV homes still don’t have a DVR. So here you can find your traditional lead-in program benefits -- as well as for traditional TV advertisers.

advertisement

advertisement

Does a show on the homepage of Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon mean the same thing as a traditional lead-in/lead-out? Netflix will say because you watched “The Blacklist,” maybe you’ll like “NCIS” or “Homeland”? And it will tell you that onscreen.

But just watching an intense TV drama doesn’t mean you aren’t interested in comedies like “Life in Pieces” or “The Mindy Project."  Subscription video-on-demand services can offer us easy associations for our historical viewing patterns. But perhaps we need more complex suggestions.

Until then, traditional TV executives will continue to focus on placing one TV show before or after another -- lead-in/lead-out -- because research  suggests there is incremental TV viewing gain from this. Put a new TV show on after the Super Bowl -- any show -- if you don’t believe me.

Long term, this won’t be enough. Social media? Not even social media can power up a broadcast TV show from scratch.

Still, TV producers will continue to go with the flow.

1 comment about "TV Programs' Lead-In/Lead-Out? ".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, August 9, 2016 at 4:20 p.m.

    Of course audience flow is still with us as a significant part of any telecast's audience at the outset--- for about 2-4 minutes--- consists of people who watched the previous show on the same channel and didn't instantly switch channels the moment it ended.If they like what they see, they may stay. It works two ways, however. Sometimes you get a negative audience flow when the lead in and following shows aren't compatible and sometimes the demos are so different that there's almost no "lift" at all. Colbert's rating woes on CBS following the late news reports on local CBS affiliates is a good example. The newscasts play to a much older and, probably, a less hip audience than Colbert is after, which means that he gets little or no support from his lead in where attracting that all important 18-34 audience is concerned------unlike his prior Comedy Central experience.

Next story loading loading..