Commentary

Hardly Heroes At TBS, Nat Geo -- But Heading In Right Direction

by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, August 4, 2016

I read a story this week about how at the Summer 2016 Television Critics Association tour, National Geographic, TNT and TBS announced with great pride that they were soon going to reduce the amount of commercial time each hour.

While this is good news for anyone who has not stopped watching those cable channels precisely because they historically have had an excessive number of commercials, the spin put on these announcements was nearly bizarre enough to qualify for a Donald Trump Award (presented each year to someone who says one thing, but means the opposite).

Said Nat Geo CEO Courteney Monroe: “An important component of our new premium strategy is ensuring that we deliver a premium viewing experience for our audience...so... we are reducing our commercial load up to 50 percent…. Also, with fewer advertising messages on each of these shows, it’s a much more premium environment for advertising partners, so you can charge a premium for that.”

Kevin Reilly, President of TNT and TBS, said he thinks Turner has “really taken the lead position on television with limited commercial interruption... We just had to commit to saying we are going to be the best. We’re going to be the gold standard on commercial television."

It was only a year ago that Turner’s TBS was said to be "cramming even more commercial time into shows... to counter a widespread ratings shortfall sparked by a dramatic drop in viewership.” Only two years ago, it was outed for using compression technology to speed up reruns of “Seinfeld” and other shows to achieve a higher volume of ads. TNT was said to employ the approach as well.

Commercial ratings across cable channels have been down every month since May 2014, according to Nielsen numbers crunched by MoffettNathanson. Even worse, the ratings declines show no signs of leveling off. Last year, seven of the top 10 basic-cable networks saw prime-time audience declines, especially among younger viewers.

So while the networks want to spin it that by cutting commercial time, they are doing something on the cutting edge of improving their user experience, the fact is they are really only starting to repair the damage they have historically done to their viewer experience. I know that I stopped watching anything live on TBS long ago because of the annoying commercial load — and I know at least one MediaPost TV writer who feels the same way.

These cable nets never championed the user experience, until in the face of declining viewership (and presumably, reduced ad sales), they have been forced to finally admit that they had been excessive in the past.

Nevertheless, I wish them the very best of luck. I think it’s a smart move, and I hope it sets an example for a whole lot of other cable nets also guilty of commercial overload.

advertising, cable tv, tv

5 comments about "Hardly Heroes At TBS, Nat Geo -- But Heading In Right Direction".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, August 5, 2016 at 10:36 a.m.
Decreasing their commercial load by " up to 50%" could translate into only a 2% or 5% decrease, couldn't it? So how many fewer commercials are actually being carried on average---not "up to"? I suspect that in the end we will be underwhelmed by the amount.
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James Smith from J. R. Smith Group, August 5, 2016 at 10:40 a.m.

George: Agreed on the kudos for spot load reduction for those nets. But will those efforts simply reduce break time, reduce the number of breaks, reduce other break clutter, or a combo? Break "architecture" is more complex than some might think. Just wish certain channels, like NatGeo, would get back to their programming roots and away from marginal reality stuff. Quality programming, consistent with the media brand's image is at the heart of solid user experience.

Jon Swallen from Kantar Media, August 5, 2016 at 12:40 p.m.

These reductions in ad load tend to be limited to a few select programs which dilutes their practical significance even as it makes for good PR. Here's an actual recent example, using Kantar Media commercial monitoring data. TNT has promoting the orignal primetime series "Animal Kingdom" as having limited commercial interruptions.And in fact, the show has been averaging 9-10 mintues of ad time per hour (including network promos and local ad time). Meanwhile other original primetime series on TNT such as "Last Ship" and "Murder In The First", have been averaging 17+ minutes per hour.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, August 5, 2016 at 2:13 p.m.

James, the cable channels and, for that matter, the broadcast networks, have no choice but to use much cheaper reality fare as a cost reducing expedient. If a proper accounting were done, you'd find that they lose their collective shirts on the "quality" stuff as its ratings aren't anything like high enough to compensate for the higher production cost. Reality shows, newsmagazines,talkers and lots of reruns are where their profits are made.

George Simpson from George H. Simpson Communications, August 5, 2016 at 5:26 p.m.

One gets the feeling that the nets don't think promos count as ads....ask the consumer...