As it turns out, the Cleveland Plain Dealer did run a small item on WUAB/43's affiliation with FOX/NewsCorp's "My Network TV". (You'll have to forgive us...we don't subscribe to the PD, and their website often makes it hard to find articles.)
WUAB/WOIO/Raycom Cleveland GM Bill Applegate tells PD media columnist Julie Washington that he was actually in New York City considering a pitch from My Network TV officials when rival WBNX/55 (WB) was announced as the CW Network's Cleveland market affiliate. When he heard that news, Applegate says WUAB "didn't have any problem sitting here and letting WBNX get that affiliation."
Uh huh. Whatever you say, Bill. We assume if that's correct, the rumors OMW has heard of WUAB telling advertisers that IT would be the local CW affiliate in the fall aren't true.
Anyway, Applegate spins the My Network TV deal as expected, noting that it means WUAB will have no problem running 30 Cleveland Cavaliers games a year. He actually approached the financial issue, noting My Network TV isn't asking for money from broadcasters and saying it'll mean more slots for local commercials. He also called the 3-5 PM slot The CW wants to program "a crucially important time period for local stations".
We note that Applegate, like other stations ending up with My Network TV over CW, didn't say how great the programming would be. How popular the "telenovela" format will be is certainly unknown at this time. It's wildly popular in Spanish-language TV, and My Network TV is even using the scripts from those Spanish-language shows recycled into English.
Mmmm. Recycled scripts. Sounds tasty...
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
The first line of Julie's article shows how much homework she did for this article "This fall, telenovelas will replace "Everybody Loves Chris" on WUAB Channel 43." I believe the the show is called "Everyone HATES Chris". Oh well she is probably a graduate of the Roger Brown School of Journalistic Integrity.
Maybe she had "Everybody Loves Raymond" on the brain.
We'll cut her a break here. One, she did not claim this time that viewers would get confused because FOX owns My Network TV - despite the fact that it won't be using "FOX" anywhere on the network.
And two, when we were first writing this article, we made a couple of "brain fart" errors. We quickly corrected them, though, and we're not a newspaper column...
-OMW
So 3 to 5pm is the new "crucially important" time slot, eh? That's the type of thinking that dealt Bill & Co. a losing hand in the high-stakes network game. Does anyone think that The CW Powers That Be (i.e. Les Moonves, et al), who are obsessed with being "the most-watched network" will actually program anything short of great shows in the afternoon?
I look for major upgrades all around, as the post-Jamie Kellner WB mgmt. team left much to be desired. The top-rated shows from two networks, plus an influx of new target-demo hits....versus rerun scripts of Spanish telenovas. Yeah, Applegate got EXACTLY what he wanted!
By the way, has anyone considered that the reason Spanish telenovas are popular among their audience is the fact that there is ONE spanish station (Ch. 61) in the area, and that's all they HAVE to watch? And, uh, I haven't noticed 61 making much of a blip in the Nielsen books, have you?
The poor sales staff at 43 must be pulling their hair out. Can you imagine trying to sell time in a show (those tele-doritos, or whatever they're called) that only run for 13 weeks, then the story ends and a new one begins?
Post a Comment