When NBC programming head Ben Silverman, recently said, "We're managing for margin and not for ratings," media insider Shelly Palmer heard one thing. He says it was a signal that this is the
end of broadcast television.
Investing in programming and ratings, not margins, is the only thing that will turn the business around, Palmer writes. "The recipe for profitable
broadcast television is simple: Develop large audiences that you can accurately measure, and sell them to advertisers who need to reach them."
If, on the other hand, "you want to sunset an organization and squeeze every last dime out of it before it gives up the ghost," manage for margins, he says. In most of the 113 million television households, there is a TV in more than one room. TV technology is everywhere; "it's the programming that's nowhere," he says.
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