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Comcast-NBC merger: Can this network be saved?
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The Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department signed off on cable giant Comcast's takeover of NBC Universal on Tuesday (Jan. 18), clearing the path for the transaction to close by the end of the month.As part of the deal, Comcast will gain 51 percent control (with options to buy a bigger share over time) of Universal Pictures, a sizable TV production unit, a theme-park business and several very profitable cable channels, including USA, Syfy and Bravo.
And, oh yeah, a broadcast network too. The aforementioned cable properties are the star of the business deal that was approved Tuesday, but NBC will probably get the most media attention since, after all, it's in the name of the company, and it's been struggling for several years.
Although it seems like NBC has been in the dumps forever, it actually hasn't been that long. NBC was the No. 1 network on TV as recently as 2004, but its fall was fast and hard: It went from first to fourth in adults 18-49 the season after "Friends" departed and hasn't really gotten off the floor since then. The network hasn't developed any sustained, across-the-board hits in a long time, and it's had the added misfortune of falling behind in a half-decade that's seen an enormous shift in the way people watch TV, whether it be original shows on cable or viewing broadcast shows via DVR or online.
Currently, NBC's lone hit, "Sunday Night Football," doesn't directly support anything else on the schedule, and it's over after half the year. Aside from its football coverage, NBC has only two other shows, "Law & Order: SVU" and "Law & Order: Los Angeles," in the top 40 among viewers (both average a shade over 9 million viewers), and only one non-football show -- "The Office" -- cracks the top 30 in the adults 18-49 demographic.
(On the upside, as HitFix's Alan Sepinwall noted recently, NBC's woes have allowed shows like "Chuck," "Community" and "Parks and Recreation" to survive for multiple seasons with ratings that would have resulted in quick cancellations elsewhere.)
It will be up to former Showtime Entertainment president Robert Greenblatt to try to turn the ship around, beginning with this pilot season. He's pretty well-liked in the industry and did a very good job in raising Showtime's profile during his tenure there, but NBC is definitely more than one hit away from regaining some of its former luster.
The last big turnaround at a broadcast network came in 2004-05, when ABC rebounded from several seasons of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" dependence to rejoin the big boys. It took two massive fall hits ("Desperate Housewives" and "Lost"), another strong fall performer ("Boston Legal") and a breakout midseason show ("Grey's Anatomy") to accomplish that; NBC will need a similarly golden year in development to make a big comeback.
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There is NO hope for NBC. The only show that is decent in of course Chuck. As a slap to NBC, I never watch it when it airs so the ratings continue to stay low...ha ha. Like this article states, Chuck will be on for at least a year or to more because they have nothing else to put on. LONG LIVE CONAN.
On the other hand, with an Internet giant in charge, maybe NBC will lead the charge away from outdated reliance on "live" TV ratings. Shows like Chuck and The Cape are being shown as doing not-very-well in terms of raw numbers, yet take downloads, streaming, DVR, not to mention the many who are planning to watch these shows on DVD/Blu-Ray at a later date, and you might find shows like these (and others) are doing much better than the ratings show.
Sure it can be saved, NOW that the parasites that were running the network (except Bromstad who should also have been fired) are all going away and maybe, just maybe, these new people in charge will finally listen to reason and the viewers and stop airing crap like Marriage Ref and P&R and stuff like that and bring back a form of stability to this dying whale.
Comcast spent a lot of money on this venture, now it's time to fix it but don't expect quick results though. It will take a lot of time to resurrect this network form the horrible management of one Jeff Zucker and company.
Seriously, whose idea was it to interrupt live coverage of the closing ceremonies from last year's Olympic games to air 30 minutes of such a stupid show like that Seinfeld pile of ****?!
Time to make wholesale changes and it needs to begin immediately.
Its important to note that NBC with all its ratings woes is actually a very high quality network. You can tell they value high quality TV and want to preserve the the TV medium as the creative/performing art it is. I understand tv is a business and they want to make money. Well NBC should be commended for recognizing TV gems and doing what they can to keep them around even if it means they won't blow everyone away in thier profits. "Friday Night Lights" is the best example of this. They went out and found a way to give the Best Drama in the History of television its proper time on air. It got 5 wonderful seasons. This accomplishment IMO was more critical to the TV industry than any monster rating success they will ever have in the future.
Basically just want to point out that NBC has LOTS of high quality content but for some reason people are not tuning into it. That is far more disturbing than a multi billion dollar empire losing millions off thier broadcast linup being in 4th place for 5 years. Its very very very small piece of the pie if you look at everything that makes up Universal media giant.