Re: Bones, season 4
Quote:
| I'm still surprised networks put so much effort into when to schedule things. Ever since VCRs came out, I've rarely watched a show when it was broadcast. |
That's because you are looking at this from the perspective of a TV viewer, and not a network programmer.
There is a widespread misconception that the networks are in the business of delivering entertainment to the public. They aren't. They are in the business of delivering eyeballs to advertisers. TV networks don't sell TV shows, and they don't sell the products whose ads they carry. They sell
you and me. That's how the business model works.
Although in recent years there has been some effort to "score" time-shifted viewing for ratings purposes, the advertisers know perfectly well that most of the time most of us are skipping their ads. So for the network there is effectively no difference (in terms of revenue) between your watching one of their shows on a VCR or DVR and your not watching it at all. With few exceptions TV networks don't share directly in reruns, foreign sales or home video sales of TV shows, even when the producing studio is a corporate sibling. They make their money based on the rates their ratings let them charge advertisers, and those ratings are based on
live viewership. The advertisers only want to pay for people who actually see their ads.
So
of course scheduling and ratings are critical. The days of advertising-supported "free" TV may well be numbered, in part because so many of us time shift our way through the schedule and skip those "annoying" commercials that pay for the whole thing.
Regards,
Joe