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Syndication Lesson #1: "Time is our greatest ally."
November 4, 2007
Syndication Lesson #1: "Time is our greatest ally."
Television syndication is one of those really great jobs that's always difficult to explain to the person sitting next to me on an airplane... which is where I've been sitting a lot these past few weeks, traveling to literally every corner of the country. It's a great privilege to work daily with smart, interesting broadcasters who, like us, are working hard to navigate the new realities of our fast changing businesses.
As one example of the numerous challenges facing all of us, we launched "Merv Griffin's Crosswords" this season on great television stations and good time periods in markets large and small. Tremendous resources were committed to promoting the series in cooperation with our stations, and we continue to aggressively market the show through traditional means, ancillary channels and merchandising. We are also proactive in getting feedback from focus groups, and clients and have been responsive by making positive refinements to a series that is already doing well in a number of markets, especially among younger demos we wouldn't normally expect in a game show.
The reality, however, is that we live in an increasingly decimalized world, especially in the LPM universe, and we're all seeing just how challenging it is to get sampling for anything new. Whether it be a new newscast, local program or syndicated series, we're all vying for the attention of viewers/users who live active, time-shifted lives that involve an increasingly diverse array of platforms and technologies.
Welcome to the real New World Order. It's actually good news for all of us, as new, emerging business opportunities reveal themselves. It's an exciting time. And time, frankly, really is our ally. It makes sense to let new programming develop with a view toward creating long lasting franchises that can extend to multiple platforms as they become increasingly viable. While it's hard not to overreact to the overwhelming amount of overnight data that comes our way--that's human nature, I think--ultimately, history has proven again and again that letting programming build over time is what creates the stuff legacies are made of.
Ritch Colbert
Principal
Program Partners, Inc.
Posted by Sponsored Content: Crosswords on November 4, 2007 | Comments (0)
