channel2 883 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 With ESPN, Pixar and Marvel being the drivers on the Disney train, ABC is pretty much an afterthought. The Disney Channel is a big driver on the train too. One of the best-performing networks in all of cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StabelliA 2 Posted March 10, 2014 Author Share Posted March 10, 2014 ABC may have had a new hit last night. Resurrection premiered to a 3.6 ratings point in the demo, and 13 million viewers. We'll see if the number stays high, or falls off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelson R. 561 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 People thought the same thing about NBC prior to Comcast tossing out Jeff Zucker and his ilk. The two issues would be unloading their O&Os (and if those stations were to suddenly become berefit of a network affiliation, Disney would not get any serious takers) and existing contracts among the affiliates, some of which (Allbritton and Scripps especially) are long-term. A more likely scenario would be if Scripps or S!nclair were to buy all of ABC, and even then, I just cannot see that taking place under any circumstance. True. The O&O's would be an issue for NBC, CBS or Fox too if they wanted to move to cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BehindNYNews 143 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Let's be clear, ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX are here to stay and are not going anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvjay 6 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 I think both NBC and ABC are a joke these days. My wife and I only watch CBS and FOX (for sports). I think ABC giving up Monday night football was a bad idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToriElectra 291 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Yeah, ever since Diane Sawyer took over World News, it's pretty bad. I try to watch Scott Pelley; similarly, GMA isn't for me anymore, so I've turned to CBS This Morning. (Honestly, I wish WABC and WCBS would swap networks, especially since, when I visited relatives in Roanoke over the summer, I could just turn on WDBJ7 and still watch CBS.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanewsguy 509 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Sorry but this has got to be the most ridiculous topic I have ever seen on this message board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry 720 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Comcast invested A LOT of money for NBC Universal. They are not going to let it fail. Raymie pointed out CBS' woes in the 90s, at a time when NBC was on top. No reason to panic, although it will take a while to fix itself from the mess that Jeff Zucker put the network in. The NBC Network is a very small part of NBC Universal. People thought the same thing about NBC prior to Comcast tossing out Jeff Zucker and his ilk. The two issues would be unloading their O&Os (and if those stations were to suddenly become berefit of a network affiliation, Disney would not get any serious takers) and existing contracts among the affiliates, some of which (Allbritton and Scripps especially) are long-term. A more likely scenario would be if Scripps or S!nclair were to buy all of ABC, and even then, I just cannot see that taking place under any circumstance. 1. The big problem, IMO is integration between the networks and the studios. Back in the old days, it was a free-for-all where all the studios sold to all the networks. NBC seemed to buy the most stuff from Universal, ABC had relationships with Quinn Martin and Aaron Spelling. I don't know who CBS bought a lot of their shows from . WB or Paramount/Desilu maybe. Vertical integration always kills creativity. 2. I also agree that shows are more expensive to produce these days because people expect higher levels of production. I watch Green Acres reruns and I always laugh at the painted canvas backdrops. It looked okay on analog but on a 58 inch plasma it looks like a stage production. LOL 3. Film is another issue. Shows from the 60's look so much better because they are shot on film. 4. TV takes itself way too seriously these days. I am a big fan of the old Fugitive TV show. The shows move fast, the story is simple and it keeps you entertained for the hour. No preachyness, no gay characters, some borderline racy story lines but nothing too awful. The shows today are simply too heavy and that makes them too hard to watch. I think they try to do too much with the story and don't give you enough visuals. Great example of a show with good visuals is Hawaii Five-O. The high tech version is okay, but I couldn't get into the habit of watching it. I like the old school version with the Mercury Grand Marquis and the lushness of film. 5. That said, they made a lot less money in the 1950's when TV was a new medium. Yet the shows they produced were far more entertaining. I think a big part of that was that most of the best actors and comedians came out of vaudeville. There is no vaudeville today, so there is no place to hone your skills and learn how to please an audience. Just my two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmkcool2002 7 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Will Disney sell ABC? Very likely. Suitors could include companies looking to become more relevant in American programming like Univision or foreign-owned outfits. I think the arrangements ESPN and other Disney companies have with ABC would stay put but the net and it's stations could be sold within the next 2 years. Will ABC or any other broadcast network go cable only? Very unlikely. Only station that could go cable only or even web only is The CW because it doesn't have any owned and operated affiliates/has programs more relevant to younger audiences who're more likely to watch cable than broadcast TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 If you want to see some real self-deprecating/mocking of the network, watch "The Simpsons". That show reveals that Fox HAS BEEN ENTERTAINING AMERICA WITH SHOWS LIKE HOUSE, AMERICAN IDOL, AND AMERICAN IDOL RESULTS SHOW. ... ...no really, Fox really does d [yt]ip_reaN2Txs[/yt] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 All kidding aside, while I think Broadcasting is going to under go fundamental changes over this next decade, I don't think NBC is anywhere near collapse, nor are any of the other networks. It's cyclical, and NBC is doing slightly less terrible than it was several years ago. Other networks have had worse slides. CBS' 1995-96 season was such a complete disaster that they had to use "Welcome Home" as their slogan the next year. ABC couldn't find a hit (and still has trouble finding one) from the Disney takeover to the early 2000s. And remember, Fox had Five Fabulous Weeks of the Chevy Chase Show. None of them get as bad a roasting as NBC always does, however. I think part of that is that when NBC screws things up, they do so on an epic level. Fred Silverman's tenure at NBC generated such classics as "Supertrain" and "Pink Lady" and a promotional campaign so overbearing that the music company produced its own version mocking NBC. Then we had Saturday Night Live's 1980-81 season under Jean Doumanian, which culminated in an F-bomb being used on the air and a 1981 regime change to Dick Ebersol. Oh, and NBC had the 1980 summer olympics that we boycotted. Then there's Deborah Norville on Today, the first late night war between Letterman and Leno, and of course the more recent mishaps with "Today" and "Tonight". CBS, ABC, and Fox have all suffered worse in the past, but NBC just... when they screw up, they screw the hell up. Anyway, another thing is that NBC isn't the biggest cog in the giant machine that is Comcast NBCUniversal. Zucker always described it as a cable networks company, and he's right - NBC has a number of well established, highly watched cable channels, with USA being the perennial leader amongst all cable networks. They have a movie studio, theme parks... etc. Comcast has done a really good job reviving the network and its O&Os, but the network is not where the company starts and ends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Former Member 207 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Well said, Hulkie... Unless there's some factual information out there that these broadcast networks are going under in the near future, it's nothing more than baseless speculation. As it's been noted, the Big Four have all gone through cycles of success and failure...hell, if this board was around 40 years ago, we would be talking the same thing about the collapse of ABC, it being such a perinnial third-place network prior to 1977. As long as local stations are still on the air, and the Big Four still own stations, I can't see any of them leaving over-the-air anytime soon, especially when you have affiliation contracts still in place. In the words of Garrett Morris...they'll have a "BIG-ASS" lawsuit on their hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swillh2k2 203 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Sorry but this has got to be the most ridiculous topic I have ever seen on this message board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jero23 105 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 The only thing stupid I saw NBC or their former parent company GE do in the past 10 years was let go of the former Raleigh-Durham and Columbus O&O stations. Those are some very rapidly growing and politically pivotal media markets. Other than that, all idiocy aside NBC is fairing quite well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry 720 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 The only thing stupid I saw NBC or their former parent company GE do in the past 10 years was let go of the former Raleigh-Durham and Columbus O&O stations. Those are some very rapidly growing and politically pivotal media markets. Other than that, all idiocy aside NBC is fairing quite well... Both markets are better off without NBC. They don't know how to run a 'local' tv station very well. Large markets are faceless and the NBC format works fairly well. In mid-sized markets people are a bit more connected to their communities. Localism works in those markets and NBC doesn't do that very well. NBC completely botched WKYC for the same reasons and Multimedia/Gannett turned it around (except at 11 pm because of the NBC lead in) in fairly short order because they understand how to do local. Besides, under NBC ownership their talent was kind of a multicultural parade. (Outlet Broadcasting had excellent taste in anchor and reporter chicks.) Also, don't discount Providence. Being dominant in a market that is on the small side of being mid-sized can be just as lucrative as being in a larger market. WHIO in Dayton is another example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanewsguy 509 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Yes I don't usually post in these speculation threads because they're pointless but this is the worst I've seen yet. The television landscape is changing but NBC is not going away... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ns8401 846 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Wasn't one of Comcast's big draws to NBC Universal NBC itself in addition to all the other stuff they had related to them like Universal Studios? As for ABC I think Disney will divest it when Iger leaves and maybe the O&O's and the network get split, there are a number of ways that could work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newsteam13 369 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 NBC was fun to watch back in the 1980s AND 1990s Shows in the awesome 80s included Miami Vice, Hunter, the Cosby Show, LA Law, Hill Street Blues, The A-Team, Punky Brewster, etc Shows in the kick-butt 90s consisted of Seinfeld, Frasier, Law and Order and so on Why can't NBC pull something out of its playbook, see what worked in the past, and make TV fun again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Muck 4255 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Wasn't one of Comcast's big draws to NBC Universal NBC itself in addition to all the other stuff they had related to them like Universal Studios? Comcast already had a stable of cable networks in place: E!, Style (now Esquire), the Golf Channel, the Comcast RSNs and G4 (now-zombified). In concurrence with Zucker's stance on the company, by 2009, NBCUniversal evolved into a cable-network dominated company, with the NBC TV network and O&Os and Universal Studios in the background. So in that sense, it was a perfect fit for Comcast. As for ABC I think Disney will divest it when Iger leaves and maybe the O&O's and the network get split, there are a number of ways that could work. The loss of the O&Os, however, could result in ABC meeting the same fate as UPN, when Fox bought UPN's de facto O&Os and flagship stations. And we all know how THAT turned out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ns8401 846 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Of course I am in the one market where the UPN station went to CBS ownership in a duopoly with CBS 62 WWJ. Maybe it's because we already had a Fox station, I'm not sure how that worked out here in Detroit. I would hate to see ABC go the way of UPN. Surely somebody else would want it (even if it's Scripps Networks or somebody like that). I hadn't realized that Comcast had a stable of cable networks when they got NBC, that all makes sense now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2878 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Of course I am in the one market where the UPN station went to CBS ownership in a duopoly with CBS 62 WWJ. Maybe it's because we already had a Fox station, I'm not sure how that worked out here in Detroit. I would hate to see ABC go the way of UPN. Surely somebody else would want it (even if it's Scripps Networks or somebody like that). I hadn't realized that Comcast had a stable of cable networks when they got NBC, that all makes sense now. You may want to read this, "62's a Pretty Big Number". It's part of my New World at 20 series and it will explain a LOT about Detroit's television landscape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ns8401 846 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Thanks for the link, that cleared some things up as far as CBS's home after New World goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StabelliA 2 Posted March 12, 2014 Author Share Posted March 12, 2014 Seeing ABC go the way of UPN, would be very sad. Hopefully that never happens, but you don't know what the future holds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnya2k6 171 Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 WSB (ABC) may have been the ratings king here in Atlanta for about a thousand years, but despite those claims, let's face it: WXIA (NBC) has been closing in on them lately in both primetime and news, as evidenced by the last three ratings reports. Their news audience has been increasing from 11% in November to 15% in February, which is half of WAGA's. Even without news at 4:00 and 5:00, Ellen DeGeneres and Dr. Phil have been holding up very well (the former opposite Judge Judy on 'AGA). And having lived in a small market most of my life, I can somewhat relate to WXIA: They're like a large-market version of KTVF (both are on Channel 11), but a million times better. I dunno about Fox, but at least they still have plenty of backup (Almost Human, New Girl, the Cosmos reboot) even with the once-dominant American Idol still hurting. But wasn't ABC at one point in FOURTH PLACE?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StabelliA 2 Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 Yes. During it's early years of Edward Noble and Leonard Goldenson. Probably because ABC didn't have a lot of stations to it's name. ABC wouldn't become number one until Fred Silverman arrived. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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