(10-17-2018 03:49 PM)McKinney Wrote:  

(10-17-2018 03:15 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  Before the Big East broke up they had interest in the BE TV rights back in 2011 or so, or whenever that was. From what I understand, the plan they were working on would have utilized TBS, TNT, Tru, and NBA TV to show games. So it is possible. But I doubt they would want anything but big market teams.

Ironically I always thought NFL Network would be a good option. Years ago they used to carry a bowl game. But it seems having a Saturday game or two would be good for them.

I think they "know their place". They know that ESPN/ABC/CBS will have the Power Five. NBC has Notre Dame. Fox has the Big East. If they want a "slice of the pie", grabbing some G5 games on the cheap would be an easy way to do it.

Let's face it, at the compensation of the G5 TV deals, most of the value is in exposure. It's not really operating revenue. If Turner Broadcasting is willing to give them the exposure, they'll be able to air it for next to nothing. Likely for less money and more viewership than what they currently air: sitcom reruns that people would rather watch on Netflix.

The problem here is that conferences like the MAC signed away their exclusive rights. So now they have content that isn't being aired by the broadcaster and they legally can't even approach a different network until 2027?

The problem with that is TBS and TNT are in the top five in ratings of top ad supported cable networks, and they use the average ratings in their pitch to advertisers. They can't gamble on content that would drag down their ratings. While live event programming generally can charge more than scripted content because its more DVR proof, that would not work with the current business model of TBS and TNT.

Tru TV maybe. But it's not what they were looking for. At the time they wanted high end basketball to supplement their NCAA coverage, and allow them to hire full time basketball college basketball crews to work with the CBS crew. I also don't think the same people are in charge who were in charge when they were interested 7 years ago, AND it was before the TBS had gotten the MLB package, to where people are now used to seeking out TBS to watch games, something they were not really accustomed to doing at the time this was going on.

I think that ship has sailed now.

(10-18-2018 01:19 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  The problem with that is TBS and TNT are in the top five in ratings of top ad supported cable networks, and they use the average ratings in their pitch to advertisers. They can't gamble on content that would drag down their ratings. While live event programming generally can charge more than scripted content because its more DVR proof, that would not work with the current business model of TBS and TNT.

Wait, really? I would have thought their audience (and advertisers) would've gone the way of the dodo with Netflix/Hulu. Everyone I know would rather binge-watch sitcoms and movies on a streaming service rather than cable.

(10-18-2018 04:50 PM)McKinney Wrote:  

(10-18-2018 01:19 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  The problem with that is TBS and TNT are in the top five in ratings of top ad supported cable networks, and they use the average ratings in their pitch to advertisers. They can't gamble on content that would drag down their ratings. While live event programming generally can charge more than scripted content because its more DVR proof, that would not work with the current business model of TBS and TNT.

Wait, really? I would have thought their audience (and advertisers) would've gone the way of the dodo with Netflix/Hulu. Everyone I know would rather binge-watch sitcoms and movies on a streaming service rather than cable.

For all of us, "everyone we know" tends to be a highly unrepresentative sample of the whole population. My kid puts Hulu on autoplay and for the next several days the background TV noise is Seinfeld, or the Simpsons, or whatever ... and he watches maybe 10% of it. I would be very surprised if that is the most common way to consume series programming, either in his age group or more generally.

There's still people who do the same by putting the TV on a cable channel and letting it run ... and if it is a cable channel where there is a predictable type of show on for a long block of time, that's fine. In the old-fashioned way of things, if they are watching the show, their "pause" is when the ads come on ... but in the modern way of Basic Cable, the ad breaks last a good long while, and if they are watching the show, they are going to be exposed to a fair number of ads.

The fact that that might no longer rank as the most common way to consume TV just means that whatever programming is preferred by a larger percentage of people who still watch TV that way will outperform compared to other Basic Cable channels compared to the demand from the whole population for that programming.

(10-18-2018 12:29 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(10-17-2018 03:49 PM)McKinney Wrote:  Let's face it, at the compensation of the G5 TV deals, most of the value is in exposure. It's not really operating revenue. If Turner Broadcasting is willing to give them the exposure, they'll be able to air it for next to nothing. Likely for less money and more viewership than what they currently air: sitcom reruns that people would rather watch on Netflix.

Except to get the same exposure for the MAC, Turner Broadcasting would also have to be able to stream all of the MAC BBall games, which isn't something they are set up to do as well as ESPN.

Indeed, a big chunk of the exposure for the conference is because there are (typically) a pair of games on Tuesday, with at least one getting on National cable, and a pair of games on Thursday, with at least one getting on National cable ... the games might be on national cable on Saturday on a different network, but they aren't going to get the same audience.

And if the deal is to have Turner Broadcasting handle the broadcasts of weeknight Tuesday and Thursday games, they are less attractive places to be, and there really would not be the same opportunity to get both games of the pair on National cable in years when the lineup attracts enough interest for ESPN to opt to do that. It's likely that the "other" programming on the Turner Broadcasting networks at the same time is a lot harder to bump.

(10-18-2018 04:50 PM)McKinney Wrote:  

(10-18-2018 01:19 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  The problem with that is TBS and TNT are in the top five in ratings of top ad supported cable networks, and they use the average ratings in their pitch to advertisers. They can't gamble on content that would drag down their ratings. While live event programming generally can charge more than scripted content because its more DVR proof, that would not work with the current business model of TBS and TNT.

Wait, really? I would have thought their audience (and advertisers) would've gone the way of the dodo with Netflix/Hulu. Everyone I know would rather binge-watch sitcoms and movies on a streaming service rather than cable.

TBS still gets big ratings from Big Bang Theory and other shows that are huge for the network. That’s what it is for 46-47 weeks a year. A sitcom rerun hub, except for the 2-3 NCAA weeks and the baseball playoffs.

AdAge said in an August article that according to Nielsen data, nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of TBS's gross ratings points are generated by "Big Bang" repeats, which can run as often as six times in a given day.

What TBS counts on is people flipping through the channels when there’s nothing else on a weeknight. They go by TBS, see BBT (which a large portion of the audience is familiar with), then stay on it.

(10-18-2018 11:52 PM)sctvman Wrote:  What TBS counts on is people flipping through the channels when there’s nothing else on a weeknight. They go by TBS, see BBT (which a large portion of the audience is familiar with), then stay on it.

Precisely. Those same people flip through and see a football game, and a larger number of them probably keep flipping ... if they were looking for sports, a substantial share of them would have started at the ESPN mothership and started flipping from there. Going to get a lot more channel surfers stopping to watch because "hey, there's a football game on" on ESPN2 than on TBS.

(10-18-2018 11:52 PM)sctvman Wrote:  

(10-18-2018 04:50 PM)McKinney Wrote:  

(10-18-2018 01:19 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  The problem with that is TBS and TNT are in the top five in ratings of top ad supported cable networks, and they use the average ratings in their pitch to advertisers. They can't gamble on content that would drag down their ratings. While live event programming generally can charge more than scripted content because its more DVR proof, that would not work with the current business model of TBS and TNT.

Wait, really? I would have thought their audience (and advertisers) would've gone the way of the dodo with Netflix/Hulu. Everyone I know would rather binge-watch sitcoms and movies on a streaming service rather than cable.

TBS still gets big ratings from Big Bang Theory and other shows that are huge for the network. That’s what it is for 46-47 weeks a year. A sitcom rerun hub, except for the 2-3 NCAA weeks and the baseball playoffs.

AdAge said in an August article that according to Nielsen data, nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of TBS's gross ratings points are generated by "Big Bang" repeats, which can run as often as six times in a given day.

What TBS counts on is people flipping through the channels when there’s nothing else on a weeknight. They go by TBS, see BBT (which a large portion of the audience is familiar with), then stay on it.

Yup. They also get a lot of viewers for Family Guy and American Dad repeats, as well as Conan. They don't draw as big an audience on a given night as say USA might, but steadily drawing 2 million plus for reruns gives a nice average. They also do pretty well during the day with reruns as well.

Personally TBS is usually the first station I turn to when I turn on my cable box, before I fire up the DVR. For just the reason you mentioned: always something worht watching inbetween.

Fun fact: TBS is also the most widely distributed cable channel. Or at least among entertainment channels (C-span, news channels may have more). TNT is third, behind USA.

(10-19-2018 10:22 AM)adcorbett Wrote:  Personally TBS is usually the first station I turn to when I turn on my cable box, before I fire up the DVR. For just the reason you mentioned: always something worht watching inbetween.

Wow, different strokes. About 30 years ago, when I first got my own cable TV subscription, TBS and TNT were definitely go-to stations. Now? It's probably been 20 years since I watched anything other than an NBA playoff game on either. Maybe for a while one of them had the NFL Thursday night package and if so i watched that.

Literally months go by without me watching anything on them. Probably 95% of my viewing of them is during the NBA playoffs.