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I think the economic analysis of this is incomplete. There is more to the cost of airing a pilot than just the production cost of the pilot, and this even assu
by azanar 16y ago
I think the economic analysis of this is incomplete.
There is more to the cost of airing a pilot than just the production cost of the pilot, and this even assumes the network has agreed to assume the cost of that.
There is the cost of lining up advertisers for the commercial breaks during, before, and after the pilot.
There is the displacement of the show(s) that would've otherwise filled the time-slot the pilot occupies.
There is the opportunity cost of the advertisers you might have lined up if you hadn't punted the incumbent for the pilot.
The more pilots you elect to air, the more often you have to make these trade-offs. If there are a sufficient number of incumbents that can be thoughtlessly traded for pilots like this, I'd wonder about the general program management of the network, and how long they've been allowing things to stagnate.
Even if you just sacrificed a week, that is a huge amount of potential revenue to sacrifice for the sake of picking the "right" set of shows.
And, even if all the economics for airing every pilot works out, it still doesn't guarantee much. You are still gathering data based on what people say they might want to watch based on a snapshot. I can't imagine this is going to be particularly predictive of a series's performance. This seems similar to someone taking a vote on whether a movie sequel ought to be produced from an audience who had just seen the original; I can see far more people asking for that many Scary Movie sequels as actually went to see them.
- thwarted 16y agoMost of the lack of space and time to show these would be solved by offering them for free via On Demand; or on YouTube and hulu, both of which have advertising platforms that would consider this remnant ad inventory.
- joezydeco 16y agoIf you take it off the broadcast net, doesn't that eliminate the whole "American Idol" aspect of the idea where people watch together and then vote? If you make it homework ("watch every one of these shows by friday!"), you've lost the public.
- thwarted 16y agoHuh? Pilots are already not necessarily shown to the general public via broadcast television. Making them more easily available via the internet can only serve to increase their exposure. No one is requiring anyone to watch these like "homework", just like consuming any possible entertainment isn't "homework". If they are available via On Demand for free, then people can watch them just like they watch other shows.
- joezydeco 16y agoDid you read the article? "What if a network devoted one week, maybe in early summertime, to airing all its pilots for the fall season, with viewers voting on their favorites? You turn your otherwise failed pilots into content for a weeklong American Idol-style competition"
- thwarted 16y agoI read all three of the paragraphs in the "article". Note that my original response was in the context of azanar's comment, about the economics of doing what is suggested in the OP.