Hugely important article in Variety today. NBC will announce a 52-week schedule in April:
For three days in April, Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, co-chairmen of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, will meet in New York with ad-agency executives and media buyers to go over the network's 2008-09 programming strategy.
Following those sessions, NBC U's sales execs will engineer a series of client meetings in N.Y., Los Angeles and Chicago to talk not only about the year-round programming on NBC but ad buys across all of NBC U's networks, including USA, Sci Fi Channel, Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo.
These give-and-takes will build to a May 12 "spotlight event" that "will showcase the full scale of the NBC U offerings in a unique, multi-media, interactive environment."
HUGE. NEWS.
1 comment:
NBC has been having a lot of difficulty filling its schedule, not having a bone fide scripted hit with the lone exception of Heroes.
The NBC development machine is horribly broken and this move allows them to throw crap at a wall to see what sticks all year long now instead of just during pilot season.
In the meantime, they'll keep filling their schedule with the programming equivalent of crack: American Gladiators and Deal or No Deal.
In two or three years, look for Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff to get their pink slips as thanks for executing Jeff Zucker's ill conceived strategy.
Former NBC boss Grant Tinker famously said, "First be best, then be first." NBC should heed its own history.
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