A Tough Sell for New Shows

The annual ritual of launching the new television season is about to begin, a time when hopes--and, this year, anxiety--are equally high.

That’s because this season’s big-stakes game will be played on an extraordinarily crowded field: nearly 30 series will premiere between now and the end of this month, with six broadcast networks competing for viewers. And while the networks once could assume that autumn automatically brought renewed public interest--and larger audiences for them to promote their new shows--that’s no longer the case.

The Big Three networks’ share of the prime-time audience is dwindling, from about two-thirds six years ago to just over half last season. And while that fact is a major long-term concern for executives, it is the short-term impact that has their attention now. With their best promotional tool--their own air time--reaching fewer people, the networks are forced to try new marketing techniques, from car giveaways to in-flight advertising, all to help cut through the clutter of the new season.

A record 42 prime-time programs were introduced by the broadcast networks last fall. Despite general agreement that that was too many for the public to absorb, 39 more new programs are being trotted out this season, including the fledgling UPN and WB networks.

ABC Entertainment Chairman Ted Harbert said he counted all of the upcoming season’s new and returning situation comedies and one-hour dramas on the six networks, and came up with 107. “When I saw 107, I said this just can’t make sense,” he recalled.

That total, however, only scratches the surface of all television offerings, failing to include news and magazine shows, movies, game shows, talk shows and dramas premiering on cable or local stations.

All the programming vying for attention has led to the drop in prime-time network viewing and a shortage of major hits. Shows’ declining ratings have prompted networks to pull them off the air, with fewer than one in four new series from last season renewed. Those cancellations, in turn, have accelerated the need for new programming to replace them, creating a Catch-22.

“The central problem the networks have is this combination of declining ratings and at the same time a declining ability to promote [new shows],” said Jerry Isenberg, a professor in the USC School of Cinema-Television and a former television executive. “The cheapest way to promote is your own air time, and there’s nobody there to watch.”

But with $6 billion in pre-sold prime-time advertising hanging in the balance, the networks are not abandoning the hope or the hype that define the new season. Faced with a huge challenge, they have embarked on perhaps their most innovative marketing efforts ever.

“With network ratings down, you’re obviously not reaching as many people as before on air,” said ABC’s Harbert. “We’re doing things that we’ve never done before.”

This year, CBS previewed its shows on the cable network Comedy Central, and will offer viewers the chance to win free minutes on MCI. ABC is joining in a McDonald’s-Disney World promotion and giving away seven General Motors cars--one each night of “premiere week” beginning Sept. 16--as an inducement to watch.

In an unusual turnaround, Fox will run a contest with United Artists Theaters offering fans a sneak preview of one of its TV shows, “Millennium,” in movie theaters around the country. NBC--taking a page from the blockbuster movie “Independence Day”--had biplanes buzzing Southern California’s beach-goers to plug its new series “Dark Skies.”

UPN has turned to music magazines and radio to promote its shows, capitalizing on musical acts Brandy Norwood and LL Cool J, who star in “Moesha” and “In the House,” respectively.

Although all six of UPN’s comedies feature predominantly African American casts, head of marketing Joe Passarella stressed that the promotion is aimed at a general audience, with some ads in black publications and on Black Entertainment Television, just as the network’s escapist dramas are being touted on cable’s Sci-Fi Channel.

“We put a great deal of resources into outside media to augment the reach of our stations,” he said.

Television sales pitches will also be seen on in-flight screens, preview guides in hotel rooms, monitors in video stores and popcorn bags in movie theaters.

All the networks have made seven-figure commitments to promoting their lineups beyond their own air time.

CBS eventually may have an advantage in marketing through radio, with the network’s parent company having agreed to acquire Infinity Broadcasting, which will make CBS by far the U.S.’ largest owner of radio stations.

The most intriguing combination, however, may be how Disney brings its marketing resources to bear regarding ABC, which the studio acquired last year.

Already, ABC shows are being touted in 12,500 McDonald’s franchises across the United States as part of a Disney World 25th anniversary campaign that potentially reaches 22 million consumers a day.

ABC is riding piggyback on other Disney assets, with ads on the studio’s video releases as well as in movie theaters and thousands of resort hotel rooms.

“We’ve worked really hard in a couple of months to explore all the synergy opportunities that we have,” said Alan Cohen, ABC executive vice president of marketing.

The true value of tie-in campaigns remains unclear. CBS blazed the trail in 1990 by entering into a joint venture with K mart stores, prompting derisive jokes about the once-proud “Tiffany network” being reduced to discount status. Since then, watch-and-win promotions by various networks--with partners ranging from Sears Roebuck to Miller beer--have yielded inconclusive results, in part because they can’t compete with the scope of prizes offered by state lotteries.

Even using all outside media, Cohen said, “there’s still nothing that reaches the scope and the scale of what network television does. A lot of the other stuff is dwarfed by what we do on air.”

NBC says it has a competitive advantage in that department, thanks in part to televising the Olympic Games, producing 17 days of high ratings in the dead of summer.

“Thank God we had the Olympics this year,” said NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer.

Competitors, however, say that in terms of public awareness, NBC’s Olympic glow quickly faded. A more important tool is the network’s high-rated Thursday lineup, providing a platform for trumpeting new shows each week within hits like “ER” and “Seinfeld.” NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield called the night “a weekly promotional event to sell our message.”

The problem with on-air promotion is that it almost by definition reaches people already watching network television, not those elusive viewers reluctant even to sample new series or who have lost, as programmers put it, “the network habit.”

But “even in our weakest markets, [on-air promotion] is our best asset,” said marketing executive Bob Bibb of WB, which has tried to carve out a niche among children and teenagers. “Print ads are there just to remind the moms we’re on.”

The nature of promotion has changed as well. NBC has created an on-air image that links its comedy programs under the “Must-See TV” umbrella, and other networks have sought to emulate that formula.

ABC is producing separate promotional spots for each of its shows, rather than merely airing clips from the program. “The job here is to break through the clutter,” Harbert said. “No matter how terrific your show is, it’s hard to shake that same four-camera look in a 20-second spot.”

The problem is exacerbated by timing. Television introduces almost all its new series at the same time in mid-September, traditionally pegged to the release of new auto models.

“There’s no other consumer industry where 90% of your new product is put out within a week,” conceded George Schweitzer, who oversees marketing for CBS, “but what it does is focus people that the new season is here. After Labor Day, people start paying attention.”

“There is a cycle,” said Littlefield. “I think it’s something that’s built into the American psyche from a very early age.”

The networks say even with their declining share of audience and summer doldrums, by the time the new season officially gets here the most heavily marketed and publicized shows can approach public awareness levels of 60% to 70%.

Not surprisingly, the new sitcom “Cosby”--marking Bill Cosby’s return to TV comedy--has the highest audience awareness of any CBS program. The strategy of bringing back stars like Cosby and Michael J. Fox, who will star in an ABC comedy, offers obvious benefits, since such big names also command extra media attention, garnering free publicity through interviews and covers of weekend TV guides.

Marketers say their job is simply to spur initial tune-in. After that, whether the show delivers is beyond their control, and even some programmers acknowledge that in many instances it’s the series themselves--not the sales pitch--that have let networks down.

“It’s an old saying: The fastest way to kill a bad show is with good promotion,” said one network executive.

As chaotic as the fall may seem, programmers also maintain that the existing system of launching new series all at once is superior to any alternative. The networks have experimented, without much success, with seeking to create interest in original programs over the summer or scattering more premieres throughout the year.

“We tried it every other way,” Littlefield said. “This is what works best.”

* PREDICTING THE WINNERS: Those in industry appraise chances of new fall lineups. F1