Cable news channels fighting at own expense
Cory Bergman February 5th, 2007
In the last few months, as the cable news race has tightened, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC have stepped up their negative ads. Remember when Fox News called Anderson Cooper the “Paris Hilton of TV News?” Now CNN has fired back with a Flash ad (I saw it on Drudge) that explains how Cooper “called” Fox News on its incorrect story of Barrack Obama’s past. The ad ends with the line, “It’s called journalism.” MSNBC, which has historically stayed out of the mudslinging, has aired this spot which essentially points out that only normal people watch MSNBC. “These ads are kind of funny,” says MSNBC GM Dan Abrams. “Sometimes I see the vitriol exchange between some of the news competitors in this environment. We’re just having a little bit of fun with themes that certainly seem to resonate with viewers of these other networks…. This is just our effort at a little lighthearted retaliation.” Yes, but MSNBC is starting to go down that same road of Fox News and CNN ridiculing each other at their own expense. This isn’t politics when we have to decide at the end of the day to vote for someone. All this makes me want to do is to vote for no one and get all my news online. And I don’t think I’m the only one out there.
4 Comments Add your own
1. Darrien | February 5th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I had to turn Cable News off for the most part. I think its bad for your health.
2. Hussman | February 6th, 2007 at 6:41 am
Some people don’t have cable at all and are happy to have such.
3. Andrew Tyndall | February 6th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Do not underestimate the underlying economics of the cable news business. With such a high proportion of revenues derived from subscriber fees rather than advertising, the target audience for most of the publicity and promotion efforts by the cable news channels is the cable operators–not viewers. At the end of the day FNC and CNN must each make the case to cable operators that they are indispensable in any basic cable package. Once that has been accomplished, the channels are in the catbird seat when negotiating per-subscriber fees. And once that money is pocketed, who cares whether anyone actually watches the content?
4. Randy Hoffman | February 6th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Back in my news promotion days we in the creative services department use to refer to these as NRM (newsroom masturbation). Consultants liked to call them “proof of performance.” Everyone working in the news department loved them, but they did little to motivate new viewers. As our research showed back then, they we at best polarizing, at worst net-negative.
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