Second-Generation Networks Focus on Niches

As what might be called the second-generation networks played meet the press this week, Fox, the WB and UPN outlined programming philosophies that underscore how broadcasting has shifted from courting everyone to targeting narrow segments of the viewing audience.

Interview sessions with TV critics in Pasadena have focused to a large extent on the relatively small number of minorities featured in new prime-time offerings on Fox and the elder networks in the upcoming TV season; still, the broader strategies espoused explain in part why this is happening, as programmers each chase a different slice of the viewing pie.

Fox, for example, on Wednesday defended its decision to air a risque comedy about the movie business, “Action,” which will bleep out expletives as well as carry a “mature audiences” content rating--the first prime-time series to do so since the violent opening episode of CBS’ police drama “Brooklyn South.”

Fox Entertainment President Doug Herzog said he expects the show to offend some people--as “much of the best comedy does”--and that the network’s marketing campaign will seek to get the message out to those who object to racier fare, “Please don’t watch. Watch somebody else’s network for that half-hour.”

That admission, once unheard of as broadcasters sought the widest possible audience, was similarly reflected in pronouncements by the WB and UPN, which consider themselves alternatives to the better-established networks. WB chief executive Jamie Kellner has likened this phenomenon to radio, with programming niches tightly focused on slices of the audience.

“When you’re starting as a new network, we believe the way you succeed is finding groups of viewers who are not being served,” he said.

UPN officials, meanwhile, stressed that their revised approach--after a dismal ratings performance during the TV season that ended in May--calls for making the network “guy-friendly.” The linchpin of that strategy is a new Thursday night wrestling show, “WWF Smackdown!,” which prompted pointed questions from critics as to whether the network is catering to the basest instincts of the young-male audience.

Though UPN chief executive Dean Valentine maintained wrestling is a longtime staple of television that, in its current form, has become a sort of “soap opera for guys,” he added that UPN’s wrestling show likely will be toned down somewhat compared to the version of WWF shown Monday nights on cable’s USA network.

While Herzog acknowledged that some of Fox’s new offerings “push the envelope” in terms of accepted broadcasting standards, he stressed that the need for innovation extended beyond loosening content restrictions to shaking up conventional prime-time genres.

“There’s no question that certain formats on network TV have grown tired and stale,” he said.

Responding to questions about the shortage of minorities in TV’s executive ranks, Herzog said Fox is “toying with” instituting a policy that would require finding a qualified minority candidate for each new job opening. The former MTV executive added that lack of diversity remains a widespread problem throughout the media, not just at the broadcast networks.