Graboff: TV’s future could be in the past
Don Day July 2nd, 2007
NBC’s Marc Graboff had a fast chat with Fortune Magazine to talk about his new role running NBC with Hollywood hot shot Ben Silverman. Fortune half-jokingly asked if reinventing the broadcast TV model could mean a return to sponsor-branded programs of yore like Texaco Star Theater. Graboff noted anything is possible - and cited examples like Pond’s face cream presenting USA’s “The Starter Wife” - complete with a product integration deal He also says Silverman will handle the duties of finding new hit shows, while he’ll take care “of everything else.” And you’ll never guess what show from another network he covets… Yeah, American Idol.
2 Comments Add your own
1. Steve Boriss | July 3rd, 2007 at 7:47 am
Given recent developments, this seems like a reasonable direction for advertising to take, but it does put into question the need for networks. We are already seeing the Internet disaggregating content such that the natural unit of the record album is now the song and the natural unit of news is now the story. If the natural unit of a broadcast network is the program, and advertisers can attach their material to programs, and producers can distribute their program without networks, why do we need networks? Moreover, why do we need their local TV affiliates? (Steve Boriss, TheFutureOfNews.com)
2. discreet_chaos | July 3rd, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Steve - Promotion…
Last night, I was watching a syndicated Frasier rerun on my local Fox affliate and twice during the broadcast, they ran a promo for Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton’s fall show. All of these vlogs and YouTubes are cute and they get a few viewers, but right now, nothing beats the endorsement and promotion of a television network and their local affiliates.
I’m sure that someday, we’ll get to the millions of channels (with nothing on), but we’re not there yet and in fact, we’re not even close.
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