In other news . . . the fallout
Feb. 6th, 2004 11:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlh1-NBC cut a quick shot of an elderly patient's breast from the episode of ER that ran last night. They said they felt it was appropriate (and it would air after 10:30pm) but in the current climate they didn't want to cause their affiliates any headaches.
2-CBS pressured Janet to pull out of the Grammys. She wasn't going to perform (they are very strict about performing only songs that have been nominated, and she didn't release anything last year) but she was going to introduce a Luther Vandross tribute. CBS is also using a video delay to ensure there are no surprises during the show.
3-The NFL decided to take pop out of the halftime show for this Sunday's Pro Bowl in Honolulu, substituting hula dancers, traditional drummers, and local singers for a planned JC Chasez performance. He may still be singing the anthem, though.
4-Advertisers like Pepsi are angry because the halftime show has overshadowed the ads, which almost no one is talking about.
5-Some idiot woman in Tennessee has filed a class-action lawsuit claiming the incident caused everyone injury.
Another little bit of American television economics for you. The networks do not actually air their own shows. They pay individual stations, or affiliates, in each "market" or city in the country to broadcast the shows on their stations. Networks do not own all the stations in their "network" of stations due to anti-trust laws.
There are other companies that own several stations in groups; this, again, is limited by FCC regulation so that one company can't own too many stations. This regulation has been loosened a great deal over the past 15 years, resulting in the very regrettable consolodation of media ownership in the US. However, when the regulation was to be all but lifted in some changes to FCC regulations, there was such an unexpected upsurge of grass-roots opposition that they had to roll them back. Americans want to keep at least the illusion that their local television or radio station is another local small business, like it was back in the day. Hence, affiliates are very sensitive to community pressure, particularly in the bible belt where folks are concerned about loose urban morals corrupting their God-fearing youth. (Anyone who has seen the movie Hairspray will recall the station manager's firm opposition to integration on the Corny Collins Show because "Baltimore is not ready".)
By the way, the airwaves still technically belong to the people, and the broadcasters merely have a license to broadcast over them. That's why the affiliates and the networks are so nervous about what the FCC does--you could, as a broadcaster, lose your license to broadcast if you are found in violation. So between the FCC and the angry local citizens in some markets, the affiliates are feeling under a lot of pressure. (This is also why cable gets away with what it does; cable doesn't use the airwaves to broadcast its programming and therefore doesn't have a license to lose.)
Okay. So given this, you can see that between a pissed off NFL, an investigatory FCC, and nervous affiliates, CBS is in a bad place. And if the NFL is pissed that makes the affiliates even angrier, as weekend football gives them a highly rated lead into their evening news, which is where the affiliates make the majority of their money because it is cheap, locally produced programming. (Both network and syndicated shows (like reruns of Seinfeld) have many ads sold nationally, leaving fewer spots for the local salespeople.)
Networks have made a devil's bargain over the past 20 years. They want to be "edgy" to attract the sort of young, urban, sophisticated consumers that advertisers want (not only for their higher disposable income but also because they are hard to find which always makes someone more valuable), but they can't be too edgy or they'll alienate Middle America.
Red states and blue states, man. We are so clearly two countries, it's ridiculous.
2-CBS pressured Janet to pull out of the Grammys. She wasn't going to perform (they are very strict about performing only songs that have been nominated, and she didn't release anything last year) but she was going to introduce a Luther Vandross tribute. CBS is also using a video delay to ensure there are no surprises during the show.
3-The NFL decided to take pop out of the halftime show for this Sunday's Pro Bowl in Honolulu, substituting hula dancers, traditional drummers, and local singers for a planned JC Chasez performance. He may still be singing the anthem, though.
4-Advertisers like Pepsi are angry because the halftime show has overshadowed the ads, which almost no one is talking about.
5-Some idiot woman in Tennessee has filed a class-action lawsuit claiming the incident caused everyone injury.
Another little bit of American television economics for you. The networks do not actually air their own shows. They pay individual stations, or affiliates, in each "market" or city in the country to broadcast the shows on their stations. Networks do not own all the stations in their "network" of stations due to anti-trust laws.
There are other companies that own several stations in groups; this, again, is limited by FCC regulation so that one company can't own too many stations. This regulation has been loosened a great deal over the past 15 years, resulting in the very regrettable consolodation of media ownership in the US. However, when the regulation was to be all but lifted in some changes to FCC regulations, there was such an unexpected upsurge of grass-roots opposition that they had to roll them back. Americans want to keep at least the illusion that their local television or radio station is another local small business, like it was back in the day. Hence, affiliates are very sensitive to community pressure, particularly in the bible belt where folks are concerned about loose urban morals corrupting their God-fearing youth. (Anyone who has seen the movie Hairspray will recall the station manager's firm opposition to integration on the Corny Collins Show because "Baltimore is not ready".)
By the way, the airwaves still technically belong to the people, and the broadcasters merely have a license to broadcast over them. That's why the affiliates and the networks are so nervous about what the FCC does--you could, as a broadcaster, lose your license to broadcast if you are found in violation. So between the FCC and the angry local citizens in some markets, the affiliates are feeling under a lot of pressure. (This is also why cable gets away with what it does; cable doesn't use the airwaves to broadcast its programming and therefore doesn't have a license to lose.)
Okay. So given this, you can see that between a pissed off NFL, an investigatory FCC, and nervous affiliates, CBS is in a bad place. And if the NFL is pissed that makes the affiliates even angrier, as weekend football gives them a highly rated lead into their evening news, which is where the affiliates make the majority of their money because it is cheap, locally produced programming. (Both network and syndicated shows (like reruns of Seinfeld) have many ads sold nationally, leaving fewer spots for the local salespeople.)
Networks have made a devil's bargain over the past 20 years. They want to be "edgy" to attract the sort of young, urban, sophisticated consumers that advertisers want (not only for their higher disposable income but also because they are hard to find which always makes someone more valuable), but they can't be too edgy or they'll alienate Middle America.
Red states and blue states, man. We are so clearly two countries, it's ridiculous.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-06 10:07 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 10:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-06 10:28 am (UTC)You got to hand it to the NY Post, though: Huge photo of Janet Jackson, huge headline in red: "TIT FOR TAT!" Can't really argue with that. (Ricin blamed on union protesters? CIA lies to Congress on behalf of White House? You mean there was *other* news this week?)
RE red and blue states: In my more optimistic moments, I note that from year to year the red and blue move around quite a lot. Frex, word has it that Nevada and Arizona might go blue this year, apparently due to huge migration of retirees from urban states. Or something. So yes, we are two nations in more ways than one, but we are not always the *same* two nations. Keeps it interesting, no?