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SkyBOX: From Leno to A Christmas Gift for All Time
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SkyBOX: From Leno to A Christmas Gift for All Time
by Evie Haskell
Smart money says that NBC's decision to move Jay Leno to a 10 p.m. time slot was ...
• A BRILLIANT MOVE! Because it saves the ailing net millions in what would otherwise be prime time programming and it keeps the popular talk show host from jumping to ABC.
• A SIGN OF BRAIN DEAD DESPERATION! Because Leno can never ever compete against such rival net dramas as CBS' multiple CSIs which also reign in that time slot.
• NEITHER HERE NOR THERE: Because in the end, it really doesn't matter.
That last opinion is, of course, my own. The way I see it Jay Leno moving to 10 p.m. or 6 p.m. or a slot on the Howard Stern show (well, maybe not this one) really doesn't matter. Because the real question isn't where Mr. Leno lands or which broadcaster "wins" the 10 p.m. prime time period. The real question is whether the broadcast television is today's latest "old media" dinosaur toddling its way into the same tar pit as the newspaper biz.
Despite Les Moonves' recent declaration that "the model ain't broke," the broadcasters' vital signs are not good. Not only are they steadily losing ratings ground against the cable nets, this season has set new lows with four out of five returning programs reporting smaller audiences than they had in 2007. Add to that the virtual demise of car advertising (long a mainstay of local TV), the fact that household DVRs are now multiplying like the old Star Trek Tribbles, the flight of ads to the internet and, oh yeah, the economic malaise of the entire nation and you've got one sick puppy sitting on billions of dollars worth of public spectrum.
So what to do? Well, the NAB is probably gonna howl but my suggestion is simple: Ditch that old "free" TV model. For one thing, TV isn't free: Today nearly nine out of every 10 households pays for their television via cable or satellite or telco "lines." Thus the public spectrum occupied by the broadcasters serves only a sliver of the population via over the air signals. For everyone else, the broadcasters are already charging for their "free" services via higher and higher "must carry" (known as "retransmission consent") fees. The old "pubic welfare" canard for giving away analog and (soon) all digital spectrum make about as much sense as putting a public crier in Times Square: With the latest news flashing in 6-foot neon letters and on 6-inch cell phones, the crier is pretty much beside the point.
So I say: Broadcasters - do your public duty! Do a TBS! Give the nation a Christmas gift for all time! Convert yourselves to "for pay" TV nets (which you already are); give back that public spectrum for which you have such little use; and (not incidentally) ditch the constraints of all those righteous do-gooders with regulatory glints in their eyes.
In the meantime, the government, which just might need a little revenue boost, can sell most of the spectrum, use some of the proceeds to subsidize information services (universal broadband, anyone?) for those in need and provide sufficient spectrum for vital emergency uses.
Now that's gotta be better than the tar pits.
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SkyBOX: From Leno to A Christmas Gift for All Time
by Evie Haskell
Smart money says that NBC's decision to move Jay Leno to a 10 p.m. time slot was ...
• A BRILLIANT MOVE! Because it saves the ailing net millions in what would otherwise be prime time programming and it keeps the popular talk show host from jumping to ABC.
• A SIGN OF BRAIN DEAD DESPERATION! Because Leno can never ever compete against such rival net dramas as CBS' multiple CSIs which also reign in that time slot.
• NEITHER HERE NOR THERE: Because in the end, it really doesn't matter.
That last opinion is, of course, my own. The way I see it Jay Leno moving to 10 p.m. or 6 p.m. or a slot on the Howard Stern show (well, maybe not this one) really doesn't matter. Because the real question isn't where Mr. Leno lands or which broadcaster "wins" the 10 p.m. prime time period. The real question is whether the broadcast television is today's latest "old media" dinosaur toddling its way into the same tar pit as the newspaper biz.
Despite Les Moonves' recent declaration that "the model ain't broke," the broadcasters' vital signs are not good. Not only are they steadily losing ratings ground against the cable nets, this season has set new lows with four out of five returning programs reporting smaller audiences than they had in 2007. Add to that the virtual demise of car advertising (long a mainstay of local TV), the fact that household DVRs are now multiplying like the old Star Trek Tribbles, the flight of ads to the internet and, oh yeah, the economic malaise of the entire nation and you've got one sick puppy sitting on billions of dollars worth of public spectrum.
So what to do? Well, the NAB is probably gonna howl but my suggestion is simple: Ditch that old "free" TV model. For one thing, TV isn't free: Today nearly nine out of every 10 households pays for their television via cable or satellite or telco "lines." Thus the public spectrum occupied by the broadcasters serves only a sliver of the population via over the air signals. For everyone else, the broadcasters are already charging for their "free" services via higher and higher "must carry" (known as "retransmission consent") fees. The old "pubic welfare" canard for giving away analog and (soon) all digital spectrum make about as much sense as putting a public crier in Times Square: With the latest news flashing in 6-foot neon letters and on 6-inch cell phones, the crier is pretty much beside the point.
So I say: Broadcasters - do your public duty! Do a TBS! Give the nation a Christmas gift for all time! Convert yourselves to "for pay" TV nets (which you already are); give back that public spectrum for which you have such little use; and (not incidentally) ditch the constraints of all those righteous do-gooders with regulatory glints in their eyes.
In the meantime, the government, which just might need a little revenue boost, can sell most of the spectrum, use some of the proceeds to subsidize information services (universal broadband, anyone?) for those in need and provide sufficient spectrum for vital emergency uses.
Now that's gotta be better than the tar pits.