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for new ad dollars
Moving from crafts to stories of everyday lives
By Kevin Downey
Cable television’s ongoing and often fierce battle with broadcast for ad dollars and viewers has for years mostly been fought in primetime. That's where the money was.
But with the past year’s ad economy slowdown, daytime TV and its $2.3 billion in ad expenditures has suddenly gained more attention by the cable networks.
While the ad dollar intake is only a fraction of that in primetime, it’s relatively easy for a cable network to make a quick buck in daytime.
That’s because many of the top-rated originals on cable daytime cost a fraction of what it takes to produce the average primetime sitcom or drama.
Profits run a lot higher.
"There are great opportunities in daytime," says Chuck Gingold, senior vice president and general manager of daytime at Discovery Networks.
"Primetime was always the visibility of a network, but in terms of profitability daytime was the place."
Part of that profitability is increasingly coming from reality programs.
While the cable networks have eaten away at broadcast’s share of the primetime audience with original series, those dramas and sitcoms are simply too expensive to produce for daytime.
Total ad revenue in daytime is only about 14 percent of that in primetime. And cable’s $958 million share is split among dozens of networks.
But the cost for many reality shows is roughly $30,000 per episode.
When bought with long-term commitments, some programmers say the cost often goes down to the low-$20,000 range per episode.
"Reality was born more out of necessity to bring original programming to daytime that has a long-term life and that is affordable," says Gary Lico, president and chief executive officer of CABLEready.
"It became a way to tell a story without shooting a movie. And they can churn out 130 or 65 episodes in a matter of weeks once they have the plot going."
Reality in daytime is less the bug-eating variety on the networks than it is what some programmers call lifestyle documentaries.
That type of day-in-the-life programming gained prominence on the cable networks a decade ago with MTV’s "Real World" and is now popping up all over cable in daytime.
"The majority of our daytime used to be craft-related and most of the time was in the studio," says Michael Dingley, vice president of programming at HGTV.
"What we’ve evolved to in the last few years is that some of our shows have field pieces. We get out of the studio and profile other people who do crafts.
"What we found is that our viewers connect strongly when they see real people in real situations with real life projects or problems that need to be solved."
The one cable network that perhaps best represents the emphasis on reality in daytime is TLC.
The network was No. 1 in the first quarter of this year in the women 18-34 demo and tied Lifetime for No. 1 among women 18-49 in the second quarter.
Ratings for its shows, including "A Wedding Story," "A Makeover Story," and "A Baby Story," have increased by at least 46 percent in their time slots in the past year for women 18-49 .
The network, which used to be The Learning Channel, will try to keep up the momentum and profits with more reality.
"There is one other story that will premiere in the first quarter of next year called ‘A Personal Story’ that deals with restorative and cosmetic surgery," says Discovery Networks’ Gingold. "It’s well into production and will be delivered soon."
June 29, 2001
© 2001 Media Life
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