
TV station groups are increasingly producing their own programming in order to have greater control over their schedules and inventory, said station-based programmers at NATPE in Miami on Tuesday afternoon.
It's not exclusively about owning a piece of content for the sake of a back end that may or may not come down the road, it's more about having control and taking back control. For our groups, it's more about having a say at the table, said Sean Compton, Tribune Media president of strategic programming and acquisitions.
Owning a piece of syndicated shows means that stations have more of a say in whether they get to keep a show on their air in success. Otherwise, the show frequently goes to the highest bidder in the market. Over the past couple of years, Warner Bros.' Ellen, for example, has jumped to higher-paying stations in some markets.
We are trying more than ever before to control our time periods, said Robert Sullivan, Scripps Media VP of programming. We were handing those time periods over [to the studios] and saying program them for us.
All three groups included on the panel - Scripps, Tribune and Raycom, represented by Ken Reiner, VP of programming - have increasingly worked with syndicators and other station groups in partnership over the past few years. And all three say they expect that to continue to be the case.
Moreover, station groups are getting less and less willing to buy first-run shows in two-year deals or make long-term commitments to off-net sitcoms.
We're never doing two-year deals again. Never. Katie killed our daytime time periods, said Sullivan.
We have flexibility with the content we've acquired at this point. We've strategically crafted our deals, said Reiner.
Part of the reason Tribune has backed away from buying off-network sitcoms in access - even considering the huge success it had with Warner Bros.' Two and a Half Men - was because of their high prices and perhaps more importantly, the required long-term commitment, which can become a financial burden if shows run too long with declining ratings.
We were a big buyer of sitcoms, said Compton. For the most part, deals were four or seven years. A sitcom that came out a couple of years ago had the potential of being 11 years. I freaked out about that. I want to be in this business for a while and I don't want to be living with that down the road.
It's not just about owning a piece of the show, it's not just about controlling your destiny, a lot of it has to do with having the freedom to program your stations.
The culture has changed, industry has changed and we have to pivot, said Sullivan. We didn't get into it to have more leverage over the studios. We want to partner with the studios when the content is right at the right price. Studios are approaching us and saying let's approach it from a multi-partnership standpoint - that's glaciers moving in terms of how the studios have always run.
In fact, all three station group programmers said they continue to work closely with many studios. Sullivan partnered with Warner Bros.' on game show Let's Ask America, while Tribune worked with Debmar-Mercury on Celebrity Name Game and will partner with Warner Bros. to launch Crime Watch Daily next year. Raycom was one of the first purveyors of the partnership model when it launched America Now, now airing only on Raycom stations in best-of episodes, four years ago.
We've got the storefronts, said Sullivan. We were devaluing our storefronts and paying other people to put product in our store windows.
Asked whether he would again pull CBS Television Distribution's top-rated game shows, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, and replace them with homegrown shows in access, Sullivan said yes, even though the new shows are unlikely to turn in a similar ratings performance.
While household ratings for those game shows are huge, the margin on those shows isn't very good, said Sullivan, and the audience in those time periods is not the audience our advertisers necessarily want.
Sullivan did admit it was hard to make that change in access, where viewership is significantly higher than it is in daytime. I do wish I could have put my toe in the water and maybe just done something in daytime, he said.
And station marketers miss the greater number of eyeballs that higher-rated shows bring: You do walk away from a [bigger] marketing platform for your primetime and your late news, Sullivan said.
Still, for station groups, the measure of success is not difficult to determine, no matter how a show might get there: I consider a show a success if you are making money, said Compton.
Most recent headlines
14/03/2025
BURLINGTON, Mass. Avid has expanded its executive leadership team (ELT) with the appointment of three experienced executives: Tom Sharma as chief technology off...
14/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. TVU Networks, a pioneer in live video production and a leader in cloud-based media solutions, is marking its 20th anniversary at the 2025 NAB ...
13/03/2025
(L-R) Stephanie Suganami, Tatanka Means, John Malkovich, Ayo Edebiri, and Juliette Lewis attend the premiere of Opus at Eccles Theatre in Park City. (Photo by...
13/03/2025
Spotify took center stage at the London Book Fair this week, reaffirming our commitment to the audiobook market and showcasing our impact on the publishing indu...
13/03/2025
At Spotify, we work every day to lift up new voices, giving creators the opportunity to live off their art. Through Spotify Audiobooks, our in-house publishing ...
13/03/2025
Every time airborne law enforcement (ALE) teams fly, they expect their equipment to perform. Whether airborne units are conducting support for ground teams, bor...
13/03/2025
Sunday February 9 saw the annual return of the US' biggest television event, the Super Bowl LIX. Jamie McCombs, Fox Sports Audio Consultant / Sr. Audio capt...
13/03/2025
On Sunday March 2, stars across the film industry gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 97th Academy Awards. Production Sound Mixer Paul Sandweis...
13/03/2025
WUPPERTAL, Germany Riedel Communications will feature its new StageLink family of smart edge devices, Smart Audio and Mixing Engine (SAME) and Virtual Smart Pan...
13/03/2025
TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring ...
13/03/2025
DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage P...
13/03/2025
FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Lif...
13/03/2025
CTIA, the wireless industry association, has named former FCC Chairman Aji Pai as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1. He replaces Mere...
13/03/2025
he National Association of Broadcasters is urging the FCC to end its investigation of that controversial CBS interview with Kamala Harris stating there is no ...
13/03/2025
MIAMI CBS News & Stations continues to expand its use of augmented and virtual reality technologies with the planned launch of an augmented reality/virtual real...
13/03/2025
Srividhya Srinivasan, co-founder and chief customer success & innovation Officer at Amagi, tells TVBEurope how staying ahead of the latest trends is essential f...
13/03/2025
WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...
13/03/2025
SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...
13/03/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...
13/03/2025
TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...
13/03/2025
Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions.
...
13/03/2025
Roku Debuts NWSL Zone' Within Roku Sports to Spotlight Live Games, Content Feature marks Rokus first women's league-branded zone within service By Bra...
13/03/2025
Pixels, Images, Video, AI - and Us: A Perspective on AI from NDI Inventor Andrew...
13/03/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Lighting Design Group's Steve Brill, Dennis Size ...
13/03/2025
IOC, Comcast NBCU Ink $3B Media-Rights Extension for Olympic Games Through 2036;...
13/03/2025
NCAA March Madness Live Returns with Expanded Availability of MultiView Vertical...
13/03/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Cosm's Devin Poolman on What It Takes To Deliver the Immersive...
13/03/2025
Sky Business, Sky's B2B division, providing connectivity and content to busi...
13/03/2025
Rohde & Schwarz launches R&S NRP140TWG(N) thermal power sensor: A new benchmark ...
13/03/2025
We asked the questions, analysed the answers and now we're excited to share the results of the fifth edition of the ICG Marketing Survey.
Our 2025 survey p...
13/03/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 13, 2025 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced a breakthrough in video streaming innovation with the launch of new origin capabilitie...
13/03/2025
Haivision Showcases Mission-Critical Video Solutions at SOF Week 2025
Haivision's video wall systems, ISR technology, and DoDIN APL-certified video distri...
13/03/2025
Company Leads the Way with New Software-Based Production Platform, 12G Switcher,...
13/03/2025
A new Apple Immersive concert experience, Metallica, is coming to Apple Vision Pro this Friday, March 14. Filmed in Mexico City during the sold-out second-year ...
13/03/2025
Here is your host, Patrick Kielty!
Shake your Shamrocks, Patrick Kielty will be...
13/03/2025
This St. Patrick's weekend, RT invites you to celebrate all things Irish, showcasing the very best of Irish sport, entertainment and live coverage from the...
13/03/2025
What's next in AI is at GTC 2025. Not only the technology, but the people and ideas that are pushing AI forward - creating new opportunities, novel solution...
13/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
By combining T-Mobile's robust network, Thal...
13/03/2025
Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library.
Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...
13/03/2025
AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...
13/03/2025
PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...
12/03/2025
O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...
12/03/2025
Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...
12/03/2025
Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...
12/03/2025
Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...
12/03/2025
More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report
NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...
12/03/2025
GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...
12/03/2025
BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....
12/03/2025
LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...
12/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....