Pop Culture Curmudgeon

A New Landscape for Television?

NBC is all over the press talking about its “revolutionary” approach to selling advertising and scheduling shows. I’m interested in a year-round programming schedule, but I’m wondering what will happen to the back end, the reruns and syndication deals.

Here’s a good story on the topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/business/media/20adco.html?ref=television

I will say that I don’t hate the occasional rerun–in fact, I’m a huge supporter of rerunning a series in order to build excitement for the next season, refresh regular viewers, and potentially draw in new viewers. That’s how I got into Twin Peaks. I missed the first couple episodes, then I didn’t find any reason to start watching a serial midway. Then, they replayed all of S1 right before S2 began. I was hooked five minutes into the pilot. If David Lynch and Mark Frost had any idea how to handle the show after Laura Palmer’s murder was solved, I would have remained a loyal viewer for years to come. Sadly, that wasn’t the case, but those first 16 episodes were TV gold that I never would have seen without reruns.

If NBC moves to year-round staggered programming, will they push all reruns online? If so, then the high residuals for the creatives will go away. What effect would lack of network television reruns have on syndication deals? Will the line between computers and television be blurred even more, killing syndication once any potential viewer can watch shows off the Internet?

I guess my point is that we live in interesting times for the entertainment biz. What do you think of NBC’s ideas? What effect will this have on the business of television? On you and your viewing habits?

Updated to add this link: http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/02/20/nbc-to-stream-classic-series/ Looks like NBC is not only killing syndication, but also DVD sales. Do creatives earn residuals on old content streamed online?