First off, I love it when I beat traditional media with analysis. The NYTimes basically says the same thing that I did in my last post, the Leno move signals a big change in TV.
That post has a comment that has gotten me thinking. Brandon J. Mendelson wrote:
Eventually, NBC, Fox, and the others will free the beast (their affiliates) and allow them more programming hours. That’s where you’re going to find new original programming.
And he’s right! Everyone of those locally owned affiliates will eventually be unleashed and will become poised to compete with the mothership networks as well.
Up until now I’ve been thinking about it in the reverse. That the affiliates would be begging the networks for more programming. But the local stations seem to be getting antsy with the crappy programming that doesn’t reflect their locality.
From DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com:
“I’d much rather have NBC give me a program with strong ratings,” says KSHB/KMCI VP/General Manager Craig Allison. “But if that doesn’t happen, I think this does present an opportunity. We’ll take it and make lemonade out of it—we know how to do that.” Now, isn’t that a ringing endorsement of Zucker’s track record? Sheesh.
These stations already have ad sales teams, they already produce hours of extremely localized content (i.e., the News) and they started out back in the day with local entertainment shows that have now gone away. If the local show equals or slightly beats the network produced show, then it’s a big win for the local station. They get to keep all of the ad revenue, they build a local and loyal audience.
And they also get to build a new business model. Right now I watch several network shows, but never watch a local affiliate. The last time I did, was with the recent fires here in SoCal, and then I just watched on their website. With more unique and local content, these stations will continue to be vital businesses, if they are just the place to get the shows that are available everywhere else, then they are doomed.
I can see a future where local affiliates start dabbling more and more into homegrown entertainment content that has a strong multiplatform approach, then if it gets successful, rolling it out into syndication for other stations around their region (and country if it’s a broad enough show) to pick up.
Sure unprogrammed airtime is also going to mean more reruns and other dead content. But with the means of production so cheap and the channels of distribution are plentiful (they can always put it on their website), you know that a few stations are going to experiment, and then a few more.
If I were in the hinterlands (i.e., not New York, Chicago, or LA) and doing new media, I would make a hyperlocal show, build an audience through the cafe and school circuit, and then try to sell it as a latenight show to a local affiliate.
Bill Streeter are you listening? 
1 Comment
December 14, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Yep something I’ve put feelers out on. But it seems to take a while for these old school TV types to come around. But I have to say that they seem to be much more open to ideas now that the digital TV boom is about to lower on them, than they were a year ago. So suffice it to say that it’s being talked about. I’ll let you know if I actually ink a deal at some point.