• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 17, 2004

It's a total horror show - or network - at NBC Universal Cable. That consideration actually stems from the problem child - what to do with Trio, the quirky 20 million subscriber cable network NBC inherited in the Universal Studios deal. An item in The Hollywood Reporter said a horror network could make good use of Universal's big horror film library, such as the "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" movies.

You don't like screams? How about clues? Another idea is that Trio could perhaps become a detective network - since Universal TV dramas also include "The Rockford Files," "Columbo," "Magnum, P.I.," "Kojak" and, more recently, "Monk."

Good reporting by the Los Angeles daily. But there is more to the story.

NBC would still need to pass muster with cable operators, who always have the veto power to drop a network entirely when a programmer changes format. Of course, for the right carriage fee, a cable operator will do anything.

NBC also might just give up. Other trades magazines, such as Broadcasting & Cable, have reported in NBC's recent carriage agreement with DirecTV, Trio wasn't part of the deal.

In the NBC-Universal merger, NBC gained significant cable properties with established and well-identified networks such as USA Network and the Sci-Fi Channel. But NBC marketing executives know a marketing problem when they see it - and a network such as Trio whose theme is an undistinguished "Pop, Culture, TV" doesn't sing -- enough.

Trio programming is a kind of a hodgepodge: Everything from old Ernie Kovacs shows to movies such as the "Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders" to "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" to music specials such as "Bond," the all-girl classical music quartet. Not much connection there.

Not that it matters in a world of appointment television. As we all know one good program -- "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" on Bravo or "Trading Spaces" on TLC -- and you've got yourself a business.

So Trio might want to consider going Solo.