Over the years the ratings have been steadily dropping for “American Idol” and the juggernaut is not what it used to be. But it still packs a solid punch when it comes to making money.
According to research by the Forbes Magazine, “American Idol” is the number one show when measured in ad revenue sales. For every half hour it broadcasts, the show makes $8.1 million purely out of ad sales. The research does not try to discover “which is the most profitable show?”, but rather which show has the most power in dictating ad prices.
The research broke the time slots into 30 minute segments so that sitcoms, dramas and reality shows could be compared with each other on an equal basis. It also disregarded all sports shows in its survey. The difference between the number one and two spots was a whopping $5 million. Sitting at number two was troubled actor Charlie Sheen’s “Two and a Half Men”. The sitcom is the only one from its genre to even make it to the top ten.
Taking the third spot with $3 million was “24″ the drama series from Fox. The show is in its final season, which probably accounts for the large ad revenue. The fourth spot is tied between an alien sci-fi and medical drama. ABC’s “V” and “Grey’s Anatomy” rake in $2.8 million each. The ad revenue ratings could play a great part in the future of certain shows. “V” is close to its season finale and so far no confirmation has been made of a second season.
Conan O’Brien is back on the air, but this time he’s on cable. The funnyman signed an unexpected deal with TBS and is expected to be on the cable station later this fall. The move is surprising as the general expectation was that he would go to network giant FOX.
Although the move made news almost everywhere, it did not make it onto David Letterman’s show and neither was it mentioned on “The Tonight Show” which was Conan’s former home. The reasons for this are unclear but it widely considered to be a gag order by upper management. Jay Leno did talk about it later though, when he was interviewed by Access Hollywood.
Leno said that he knew Conan would always land on his feet and that the time slot he would be on would make things fun for everyone as they would all (Leno, Letterman, O’Brien) be competing against each other. He also expressed his confidence in Conan’s ability to keep audiences entertained.
TBS seems to be pulling out all the stops to make sure that the show is a success. It is rumored that George Lopez was told to either move into a new time slot to make way for Conan or to get out of the company altogether. TBS has denied that such a threat was ever made and that both parties support each other shows. Whatever happened, the end result is that Conan will take over the 11 PM slot while Lopez slides down to the Midnight slot.
Two networks irked their viewers this week as certain product placements did not go according to plan.
Fox’s rating juggernaut “American Idol” opened its Thursday show with a stunt promoting “The Clash of the Titans”. Actors on a screen via a live hookup from the London premiere of the movie and clips of the movie mashed with clips of “Idol” were also played. This was considered to be worse than the show where Mike Myers appeared to promote the disastrous “Love Guru”.
ABC, on the other hand, used two of its shows in a failed attempt to promote products, the first being the Apple iPad on “Modern Family”. The story was about Phil, who loves gadgets, and in wanting an iPad for his birthday the show is about the struggles that his family goes through to get him one. The storyline and presentation has not well received by viewers; they simply considered it to be a story that the company had sold to Apple. Although ABC denied it, nothing so far has changed public perception. But the worst offence ABC committed was using “Lost” to promote the mid-season return of the “V”.
An almost ever present countdown plastered on the episode had “Lost” fans disgusted and complaining. It was even mocked by late nighters’ Letterman and Colbert on their shows. Though it could be unrelated, the alien invasion show returned to a lukewarm reception resulting in moderate ratings. The alphabet now regrets using such an annoying tactic on a show that was powerful enough to shift the Presidents’ State of the Union address and said that it will not use any such tactics again.
Conan on Fox is the rumor that is gathering speed day by day. They initially began when he quit NBC in January and have since grown. Last month News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said “We’re giving it a lot of thought and a lot of examination” with regards to the rumors that Conan would take the top slot in the late night segment.
While Fox seems to be the most likely place to go to, Conan’s representative Leslee Dart stated that it was not the only place they were looking at. Cable networks are one such place and even a syndicated show is being looked at. If the syndication gig works out, it would be the first foray out of the late night slot and into an early slot, namely the 4.30P.M to 7.30 P.M, for Conan.
Currently, Conan is preparing for a cross country comedy tour titled “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour”. The title itself takes a swing at NBC and the provision in his severance agreement which prohibits him from appearing on air till the month of September. NBC was unhappy with Conan’s ratings on the “Tonight Show” and its suggestion that his show be moved a later slot caused the acrimonious split between the comic host and the network. Since then Jay Leno has been brought back to host the show and seems to have regained the lost ratings.
Meanwhile, negotiations between Conan and Fox will probably have a deadline of early May for the network’s upfront presentation.
The star of “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” is planning to a comeback to daytime TV and this time she’s bringing some friends. O’Donnell will team up with Dick Robertson and Scott Carlin who are syndication veterans for what is expected to be a talk show premiering in fall 2011.
That is “coincidentally” the time when “The Oprah Show” makes its final exit bringing about the question as to whether the new show will be the replacement. Insiders have refuted these claims and said that most ABC stations have already planned to replace the “Big O” void with local or news programming. They also pointed out that most of the stations were also not very comfortable with O’Donnell’s style of controversy.
O’Donnell started off “Rosie” as the “queen of nice” but later in its six-year run she became quite controversial and political. She carried this trait on into “The View” where it got her into more hot water. Robertson functioned as president of Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution (WBDTD) for seventeen years before moving into an advisory role in 2006. He was instrumental in the sales of “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” which won five consecutive awards at the Emmy’s for “best talk show”. Scott Carlin worked under Robertson for almost two decades at WBDTD and was part of the sales team of the “Rosie” show as well. His most recent role was as head of HBO Domestic Distribution.
The new show, which is expected to run on cable, will be produced by a company formed by O’Donnell, Robertson and Carlin. Given that the show will be produced outside the studio system, it is almost certain that the controversy will rage on when the show hits the small screen. As yet, the show remains unnamed.
2009 was an encouraging year for songwriters, composers and music publishers in the UK as they received 623 million pounds in royalty fees. This shows a growth of 2.6 % compared to the previous year and marked the first time ever, where digital revenues overtook the drop in CD and DVD revenue. The overall boost for the British market is attributed to the increase in popularity of British music overseas which grew to almost 20 % in 2009.
The figures were compiled by PRS for Music, a group that collects royalty fees for over 65,000 of its members. However, the group pointed out that it was too early to speculate whether this marked a turning point in music industry. They said that it was the first time that digital downloads had covered the drop in sales experienced by traditional media and therefore they were not willing to confirm the switch in the trend. The drop in sales of CDs and DVDs is generally attributed to worldwide music piracy and to the emergence of digital media, as the preferred format of choice.
PRS were quite optimistic that the digital market would grow in the next decade. This is the expected trend as online services move more towards subscription packages that allow users to download music in packages and formats chosen by them. The growth experienced in the last year is encouraging, but it still is a small figure when you consider the whole market. The future of this method of music distribution solely rests on the types of DRM that are rolled out in the years to come.
It stood for seven long years before Taio Cruz broke the record for the biggest jump to the number one slot on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. The British newcomer floated 52 places to the top with his collaboration with Ludacris titled “Break your heart” and is a record for the biggest jump by an act with their first chart single. Previously, the record was helped by the first American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, for her victory song “A moment like this” back in 2002 when it jumped 52 places.
Cruz knocked the Black Eyed Peas from the top slot after which the BEP single “Imma be” dropped down to the fifth slot after two weeks at the top. The act most disappointed by this turn of affairs would be country trio Lady Antebellum, who rose to the number two spot with “Need you now” by dislodging Young Money’s “Bedrock”, who in turn slipped to third. If not for Cruz they would be reigning in the top spot. But all is not lost; Lady Antebellum just might hit number one next week if the predicted drop in sales for Cruz does come about.
Waiting in the wings is also Rihanna’s “Rude boy”, currently in the number four slot. Rihanna’s track has been gathering momentum and could spoil the party for Cruz and Lady Antebellum. Ke$ha dropped two places to number six with “Tik tok” and Train dropped one slot to end at number seven with “Hey Soul Sister”. By climbing two places Jason Derulo claimed the number eight slot with “In my head” and the exhibitionist, Lady Gaga fell down to the ninth spot on the charts with “Bad romance”.
Free online TV shows could come to an end soon, if Hulu’s bosses do not figure out a way to keep the service alive. So far Hulu relies on online advertising to bring in the revenue. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be enough to guarantee its existence anymore as the ad revenue is simply too small.
The obvious alternative is the much talked about paid service for some or all of Hulu. The problem with that is acceptance by people. While watching shows on Hulu is great, it is not something exclusive. The shows on the site are shows that people already have access to. So if they don’t want to pay for Hulu, they will just catch the show on time, record it or use Video On Demand (VOD) if they want to watch it later. In fact VOD is seen as the biggest threat to Hulu if it does decide to charge for its services.
To compound matters further, two of the most popular shows have been yanked off Hulu. Comedy Central (CC) had problems with how revenue from ads was being shared and is therefore pulling “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” off Hulu by next week. Another six CC shows are also rumored to follow them. This will be a big hit for the service as CC fans will leave en masse for sites run by CC which feature these programs.
The biggest questions now for Hulu are, “how much do we charge?” and “What do we charge for?” The answers are coming soon.
