Networks Plot Course

NETWORKS PLOT COURSE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Rebecca Dana rebecca.dana@wsj.com]
Back in business after the writers' strike, executives at the broadcast networks are trying to address two urgent questions: how to win back viewers and advertisers this season, and how to keep them coming back next year. Executives say they also are hoping to capitalize on the chaos of the strike by doing away with some of the arcane conventions of television production that have persisted, against reason, for decades. This includes the rhythms of the traditional TV-season structure, which many feel is outmoded in an age of hundreds of channel-surfing and time-shifting viewers. And it includes the expense of making pilots for dramas, which often cost three times the $3 million or so budget for an ordinary episode. "The economics of this business have been broken for quite some time," says Jamie Erlicht, co-president of programming and production for Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Television. "In the poststrike environment, there's going to be a shift to new ways of piloting, new ways of ordering series."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120303589685370159.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
(requires subscription)