“Fourth-ranked broadcaster NBC has quietly begun reimbursing advertisers an average of $500,000 each for failing to reach guaranteed ratings levels, the first time a network has taken such a step in years, media buyers said,” Reuters reports.
“Among the Big Four networks, NBC has the most serious ad shortfall, as its primetime ratings are down most dramatically. Meanwhile, none of its new series this season have caught on with viewers. Compounding buyers’ angst about NBC is the network’s plan to schedule more reality shows, including ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ and ‘American Gladiators,'” Reuters reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Two more pieces of crap for which we won’t bother firing up Transmission.
Reuters continues, “‘We’re trying to understand NBC’s recent moves,’ Starcom Entertainment exec vp Laura Caraccioli-Davis said. ‘We are concerned that it might be thinking about adopting a programming strategy like some of its sister cable networks. ‘American Gladiators’ and even some of the shows they have in development, like ‘Knight Rider,’ are remakes being dusted off rather than coming up with new creations. NBC used to be the upscale, quality network.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: All The Wrong Moves. Starring Jeff Zucker. So, how much longer will GE CEO Jeff Immelt let Zucker run NBC Universal into the ground?
If not for The Office, NBC need not exist.
They’re still on the air?
Speaking of NBC, I absolutely can not stand “My Name is Earl” – I felt dumber after watching that show.
Fortunately I have the ability to switch the channel…
I blocked all NBC channels from all my TVs and don’t miss it at all!
Do you think they will hire Hasselhoff?
I love transmission and torrent.to
oh ya, a program called tvshows
throw in visualhub and an appletv and I am a happy guy.
And Big Bang Theory is the best new show this year!
They are obviously in no position to play hardball with Apple and withdraw their content from iTunes…
What a really dumb move. Jeff Sucker is clearly not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Unbelievable!
NBC used to be the home for great shows like Friends, Cheers, and Seinfeld. Now it thinks bringing back American Gladiator is a good idea.
Thank god we don’t have Apple pushing us around any more! Forcing us to make a profit on iTunes downloads. Damn Apple. It’s all their fault.
Somebody dust off My Mother the Car — we need to get something on the air!
With the exception of “The Office” and “30 Rock,” the writing on NBC shows this year has been pathetic. “…Earl” went from not bad to awful. I had high hopes for a couple of their new shows, in particular “Bionic Woman” which has a great cast but horrible dialog and ridiculous plots. “Chuck” shows promise but is pretty uneven, even for a new show.
As far as their advertisers are concerned, my wife and I time shift everything on our ReplayTVs and skip commercials anyway. I’ve seen Apple’s commercials online. Good enough for me.
Maybe the mystical, magical Mr. Steveness can find a spare hour or two every day and run NBC?
I forgot “Heroes.” Still good.
Watching the mad dogs at NBC Universal lurch from bad decision to bad decision is almost pitiful.
They are going through a classic disintermediation, or at least, and radical reordering of the failing value chain in TV (and also music).
They will not be able to staunch the bleeding. They botched the industry shift.
The next act will be, as you note, for customers, shareholders and management board members to act on this mismanagement and have some scalps in their briefcases.
All Steve Jobs has to do is ……. nothing. Enjoy the Pelligrino in Oslo, Steve.
The only show I like is Chuck…..
Okay I see the strategy clearly: kill anything where you are the leader (iTunes, more affluent viewers, etc.). The mind boggles.
All good news for whoever suceeds Zucker though, he/she will definitely look like a hero.
One’s gotta wonder about GE vaunted management style. GE is supposed to insist on being #1 or #2 in a market. WTF?
If only SJ wasn’t so focused and disciplined… he could just offer to relieve GE of its NBCU burden.
But who needs those headaches?
I was loving NBC’s Monday nights. Chuck, Heroes, Journeyman were all fun shows. They just killed that line up with Howey Mandell’s Lets Make a Deal and what ever crap they have now. The execs think that everyone is beholden to them. eg. Viewers, Writers, Apple, and anyone else who can actually make or break them. Give the people the shows they want, reward good writing (or at least entertaining), and allow it to be distributed in a way and at a price that is marketable. Do these simple things and advertisers will be paying out the nose. Much better than trying to gouge viewers and paying back advertisers.
“Maybe the mystical, magical Mr. Steveness can find a spare hour or two every day and run NBC?”
Since Disney owns ABC — possibly a conflict of interest there.
From the network that wouldn’t take an ad thanking our troops for their service.
NBC, careful who you piss off!
HEROS is the best show on television and the only reason why I watch NBC. The current CEO want be around for long… his vision concerning emerging technologies is obviously limited. With AT&T;and Verizon launching IPTV across the US, in 8~10 years, the traditional model of channel surfing will be thing of the past, people will search for their TV content by brand and title … those networks posted on iTunes (and few other sites) will have an early start.
What is this doing in MacDailyNews? The fact that NBC pulled its shows from iTunes doesn’t justify it.
I’m sorry, but 30 Rock is laugh out loud funny… and Chuck is fun… and The Office is The Office… other than that (btw, I watch it all free on their site, who cares about 15 second ads) who gives a GDS.
Maybe it was a good thing NBC left the iTunes store.
@stannyc
Pulling from iTunes isn’t that much of a stretch, considering iTunes downloads saved shows like The Office. Plus, Apple is clearly shaping up to be a player in the video content arena, so any shift that relates to it is at least marginally relevant.
@stannyc
Nothing we Mac fanboys love more than to stand around a rotting corpse and watch it decompose.
Also, with NBC’s upcoming stellar lineup of shows, I suspect my cable company Comcast will soon be moving them down the channel realm to a place between Spike TV and the Weather Channel.
‘Celebrity Apprentice’ and ‘American Gladiators’, can anyone say oxymoron alert, not as great as ‘Microsoft Works’ which even the balmy idiot abandoned, but close.
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NBC I have a TLA for you: RIP
monday on NBC was pretty good…I was definitely following the trio of shows (chuck, heroes and journeyman)
shame the writer’s strike is going to derail the good momentum Chuck was getting. That was a quality show.
heroes has been weaker this season
Journeyman was getting better and better but it’s a tough sell and will definitely be a causality of the strike.
in the end…NBC was against the juggernaut of “dancing with the stars”
Doesn’t this go back to the NBC management and the leadership of the guy at the top?
The one that is currently bucking iTunes?
Maybe it’s time the board has a house cleaning and find themselves a real leader and true programming whiz kid!
I unplugged my TVs a year ago. Just moved to a new place and the TVs didn’t come with. I actually read more as well as go for walks and do other things besides watch TV. I watch only one show now — via iTunes: South Park.
Heroes is a rip off of XMEN in every way. First season was ok, this season sucked. I am hoping the writer will keep his word of having it get back to what he intended. He already stated the fans were upset and that the draw out season and stupid plot turns was NBCs idea of having the show drag on.
Can they shut down the network and give all the money back to the stockholders??
Nice to know NBC is exploring all avenues for selling content that people won’t watch for free.
No surprise. V has been going downhill for quite some time. Pretty much the only TV I watch anymore is educational shows on the History or Discover channels, or sports. If I want pure entertainment, I’ll pick up a book or watch a movie.
“If not for The Office, NBC need not exist.” NBC (National Boob Club), had to copy The Office.
The English original is much better.
“Heroes is a rip off of XMEN.”
Next someone will be claiming Chuck is a rip off of Jake 2.0.
I watch a few NBC shows (Office, Earl, Chuck) but what worries about NBC problems is that they own USA and SciFi which actually have good shows (Monk, Psych, Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, etc.). I hate that the NBC mothership sucking drags down subsidiaries that are actually doing things right.
Why, I never!!!
It’s too bad about the dust-up with Apple. I really like NBC’s sci-fi-heavy lineup of “Heroes,” “Bionic Woman,” “Journeyman,” and, in a different genre, “Chuck.”
How might this situation be different if NBC had provided ALL their shows, old and new, worldwide on iTunes (and others) for downloading to AppleTV. Others would be clamouring to join them, and AppleTV would have sold 4 million rather than 400K. Plus made $150m profit rather than $15m.
Ahh… what might have been. Meanwhile Apple’s plans are delayed by only 12 months.
“NBC (National Boob Club)”
Oh, you mean the other one. Whew.
Nuthin’ Butt Crap !!!
So, I watched bionic woman for about 10 min online. What I noticed right away was that they used a cellphone to communicate with her. My question is, why wouldn’t they just implant some kind of communicator in her jawbone or skull? Am I wrong about this or does the writers suck.
$1.99 per tv episode was just the sweet spot for NBC shows on iTunes.
Doesn’t surprise me with one of their cable channels named MSNBC
Hasn’t been a good show on NBC since Johnny Carson retired from the Tonight Show.
“I’m not sure that we’d still have the show on the air” without the iTunes boost, says Angela Bromstead, president of NBC Universal Television Studio, which owns and produces “The Office.” “The network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of happened at a great time.”
How are they judging potential today?
How are they going to help promote new shows without iTunes?
Do they think that iTunes will not help the competition?
I’ll bet they could use some of the revenue iTunes would have brought them.
Fire Zucker, add all content to iTunes.
Zucker has no future. In the world of network executives, guys like this who can’t produce ratings are history. And this is one of the worst falls from grace of any major television network in history. At times NBC Universal’s own Telemundo network has beaten NBC in the ratings. That is pathetic. Zucker WILL be FIRED.
I’ll bet once Zucker is gone you’ll see the likes of Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and House back on iTunes. I love irony.
fm
Heros first Season was good-until that very weak ending. Season 2 is horrible.
The Office sucks-either version, American or British. Totally unwatchable.
Bionic Woman had promise, but the plots and characters are ridiculous. A woman running around with $60 million worth of implants working for a secret intelligence agency and she is going to dictate how she operates and what hours she works?
Chuck-nerd escapist fantasy crap. Not even very interesting nerd escapist fantasy crap.
Only things near interesting are 30 Rock and Scrubs.
Other shows like Psych, Battlestar, etc. were purchased via iTunes-now I bit torrent them since NBC doesn’t want my money.
Karma kicks ass!
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Goodbye MDN. This has nothing to do w/ Mac News, and as usual is full of your extreme and jaded fanboyism. I’m a hardcore fanboy myself, I’m getting an apple logo tattoo in a couple weeks in fact… but this sites choice of news and the schoolyard name calling style MDN takes have grown quite annoying.
MacNN FTW
Wait … isn’t that an NBC-online ad at the top of the page?
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Battlestar was NBC? And Psych?
Chuck may be “escapist fantasy”, but it’s pretty good at it. Pretty girl forced to notice you (the geek), all the tech toys (including an iPhone) … what more IS there to life?
30 Rock is excellent. Maybe because Tina Fey is every bit the smart lady she portrays on screen. And she isn’t afraid to be the butt of the joke.
Dave
If we fail miserably we might get fired. But at the top of the heap, they have golden parachutes.
I bet if/when Zucker gets canned, he will still walk away with more cash than any 50 of us could earn in our combined lifetimes.
In big business, failure is still a windfall.
Sorry, but Knight Rider kicks @$$!!!
I’m still waiting for them to bring back the A-Team.
I love it when a plan comes together!
NBC is one reason I don’t watch TV, My Name is Earl is a poor implementation of ‘The Trailer Park Boys’ and I was shocked (but what did I really expect?) to find out that NBC’s ‘The Office’ is almost identical to BBC’s? ‘The Office’. I like Britcoms (Fawlty Towers anyone?) and shoulda known something was fishy for NBC to have a hit show nowadays.
Some time ago, I did need to buy a house for my organization but I didn’t have enough cash and could not buy anything. Thank God my friend proposed to try to take the personal loans at reliable bank. Therefore, I acted so and was happy with my secured loan.