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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

So long, been good to know ya

What's the worst way to deal with a shrinking customer base? Why, cut back on what you offer, so that it chases away more customers and forces you to cut back even more, which . . . Sounds really stupid when it's put that way, doesn't it? But that's what everybody does, the Nothing But Crap network being the latest example:

A terrible fall season at NBC is forcing the network to consider scaling back the number of hours it airs programming, Chief Executive Jeff Zucker told an investor conference Monday.

While NBC will continue to fund the creation of pilots, Zucker told analysts at a media investor conference sponsored by UBS that NBC is considering cutting the number of hours or perhaps even the number of nights it provides programming.

"Can we continue to program 22 hours of prime-time? Three of our competitors don't. Can we afford to program seven nights a week? One of our competitors doesn't," Zucker said. "All of these questions have to be on the table. And we are actively looking at all of those questions.

I don't know what they're going to cut and what they're going to keep, but considering what's there now and what my tastes are, I doubt. This is NBC starting on the long (or maybe not so long) slide into irrelevance and then into broadcast history. There are just too many choices there already competing for my entertainment attention, and there are going to be even more. You don't stay in the game by trying to charge ever more for offering ever less.

Trust me, I work for a newspaper, so I know what I'm talking about.

Posted in: Television

Comments

Bob G.
Tue, 12/09/2008 - 2:49pm

Leo:
On the "up" side to all this...at least with less programming, there WILL be LOTS more room in the TV GUIDE for a LARGER crossword puzzle...
Less NBC = Less liberal TV
(works for me)
They probably just need a BAILOUT...

;)

Steve G
Tue, 12/09/2008 - 6:05pm

II can't remember the last time I actually watched one of the "old guard" networks live - other than sports. Of course, it would be nice if they do cut back on programming. The problem will be that they will keep the crap and eliminate the good. (Although I'm not sure what good stuff still exists.) Thank goodness for DVR machines. Thank goodness for cable channels that replay classic shows that are worthy of viewing.

And I know aboout cutting services while raising prices - I work for the US Postal Service.

MRev. Kenneth White, Jnr.
Wed, 12/10/2008 - 12:58pm

They could do something even more drastic and that would be to go off the air a midnight during weekdays but that would be to retro, even for them.

Personally all the late night hosts are dufusses (sp?) and Jay Leno does not need to be making 35 million a year for bad jokes. I would much rather see a shift back to local programming but nobody seems to want to even broach that subject matter. I would love to see a regular time slot of all the school theatre, musical, and sports productions, but that would require Public Schools to upgrade their lighting and sound schematics in some of the schools. Plus what better way to highlight other local artist and actors than to put them on the air. Could you imagine the revenue dollars locally that such productions would bring to the television channels.

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