Commentary

Promotional Malpractice Will Cause Some New Shows To Fail

Last season, I started watching TNT’s “Animal Kingdom” and USA’s “Queen of the South,” as well as FX’s “Legion” and “Taboo.”

TNT’s “Last Ship” is one of my favorite shows, and I’m looking forward to its return later this summer.

My wife recently saw promos for TNT’s new “Claws,” and we just started watching that as well.

We did not discover any of these series through promotions on their host network.  It was a combination of seeing promos in movie theaters and on other networks.

Cable networks long ago realized the best way to grow their audience was to appeal to those who were watching similar shows on other networks.  They also understood that it didn’t really hurt them if other cable networks did the same. If everyone gained viewers, more advertising dollars would shift from broadcast to cable, and everyone would eventually benefit.  

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This made perfect sense 20 years ago.  At the time, cable networks were trying to compete with the much bigger, stronger, and more established broadcast networks.  They initially saw themselves more as allies than competitors.  

The broadcast networks, on the other hand, once controlled more than 90% of all television viewing, and traditionally have only seen one another as competitors.  They competed so fiercely for every rating point and to move up in the standings, that cross-promotion was unfathomable.  Unlike cable networks, the broadcasters also needed to answer to their affiliates, which would never go for something like that. Even when broadcasters started taking ads for cable networks, it was initially hard to get done, and typically not day and date.

The competitive video landscape today is worlds beyond where it was back then.  It is not the 1980s or 1990s anymore.  A broadcast hit on one network actually benefits all networks.  When an “Empire” or “This is Us” takes off, people start believing in the power of network TV again.  Except for the occasional cable phenomenon like “The Walking Dead,” no other platform is capable of generating the audience of a successful broadcast network series.  But while broadcast networks will accept advertising from their real competitors — ad-supported cable networks, HBO, Showtime, and even Netflix — they still stubbornly refuse to accept advertising from one another.

At this year’s broadcast upfront presentations, we heard a lot about how traditional television is still far superior to digital in reach, overall viewing, and impacting sales.  As the broadcast networks continue to correctly tout themselves as the best advertising vehicles, they still won’t advertise their own programming there.

In what other business does a company refuse to advertise its product to the largest and most easily measurable customers available? These aren’t just random consumers the broadcast networks are choosing not to pursue. These are their prime prospects, whom they know are already watching similar programming, who are at that moment at their most receptive toward receiving a message about other similar TV programs.

The new military drama, “Valor,” is not your typical CW show.  It also happens to be produced by CBS Television Studios.  Cross-promoting it on compatible CBS dramas like the new “SEAL Team,” not to mention the various “NCIS”’s, seems like a no-brainer.  If they do so, “Valor” can easily succeed.  If not, it’s probably doomed.  

Unfortunately, I’m guessing the latter is more likely. If I was a showrunner or actor on the show, that would be quite frustrating.  NBC’s new military drama, “Brave,” should also be cross-promoted with those shows.

ABC’s “Inhumans” and FOX’s “Gifted” are both co-produced by Marvel Television.  Why in the world wouldn’t they cross-promote one another, and also be promoted on ABC’s “Marvel Agents of Shield,” FOX’s “Gotham,” and even CW’s DC series, “Flash,” “Arrow,” and “Supergirl”?  

I have no doubt that if the broadcast networks started cross-promoting one another’s shows, new series viewer sampling (and subsequently, success rates) would rise dramatically. In today’s video environment, not to do so is nothing short of promotional malpractice.

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