In the late 1990s, NBC ran a promotional campaign with the slogan “If you haven't seen it, it's new to you”, intended to boost summer reruns of hits such as “Crazy About You” and “Fraiser”.
Updated for 2024, the line would be: “If you haven't streamed it, it's new to you.”
Original series created to attract new subscribers to streaming platforms appear more frequently on cable and linear television networks. Media companies are looking to expose shows to broader audiences and fill out their programming to help pay the cost as they struggle to keep pace with Netflix.
This summer, CBS will debut the first season of Taylor Sheridan's crime drama “Tulsa King,” starring Sylvester Stallone, a show made for streamer Paramount+. You can enjoy rival Peacock's new reality show, “The McBee Dynasty,” but if you want to go old school, individual episodes air weekly on parent company NBCUniversal's USA Network.
In January, ABC aired the first season of the Hulu hit “Only Murders in the Building.” It performed well enough that the network planned to air another season at some point in the future.
The trend runs counter to the perception that viewers seeking non-sports entertainment programming have abandoned linear television.
It may be true that many younger consumers who have grown up with streaming don't even own a television, seeing it as a device to bombard their parents and grandparents with drug ads all day. But for media companies, linear television, while in decline due to declining ratings and the discontinuation of cable service, has become a marketing tool that expands public awareness of their programs across streaming.
Meanwhile, streaming businesses owned by legacy media companies such as NBCUniversal parent Comcast Corp., Paramount Global and Disney are all under pressure from Wall Street to turn a profit. Turning to linear networks is a way to generate more revenue to help monetize your streaming investments.
“These companies are losing money.” [on streaming]”said Doug Herzog, a veteran cable and TV executive. “None of this is working very well. That's the problem. “They are trying things because that is what they should do.”
Naveen Chopra, Paramount's global chief financial officer, summed up the approach at an investor conference, saying his company aims to get “the most out of every dollar we invest in content.”
Executives say viewers can expect to see more original shows created exclusively for live streaming services on broadcast and cable channels.
Peacock's streaming original, “The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys,” will also be featured on USA Network.
(PEACOCK/Paul Andrews/PEACOCK)
This is because broadcast networks have the ability to reach over 95% of households in the US. While cord cutting has reduced the number of households receiving pay TV, the major cable networks They are connected to around 70 million homes, even more than most subscribers. -Based streaming services. Peacock, for example, has around 30 million paying subscribers.
Streaming shows can become hits and cultural touchstones, but they have a harder time reaching the kind of critical mass that big TV series like “Friends” once achieved. That's why traditional companies are discovering that programs already shown on streaming can pass as original programming on linear television.
“It's something we will continue to do because what you see in a fragmented market – no matter how popular these shows are – there are still people who haven't seen them,” said Craig Erwich, who as president of Disney Television Group oversees ABC and Hulu. “Putting them in different places and telling people they are there is always additive. He is never a cannibal.”
With a cast that includes Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building” is a show with the kind of broad appeal that linear television networks still seek, requiring only a few edits of foul language.
Disney found that half of the viewers who watched “Only Murders” on ABC were not signed up for Hulu, which has nearly 50 million subscribers. After the series aired on network television, viewers wanted more. Viewing hours for the show's first two seasons increased by 40% on its original streaming platform.
“It was new to a lot of people,” Erwich said. “It surprises me because the show is so popular in both consumption and critical acclaim that you start to think that everyone who wants to see it has seen it. But it is a big country and there are many different types of people who want to watch television in many different ways.”
NBCUniversal also saw viewers flock to Peacock to watch the second season of the medical anthology drama “Dr. Death,” after the season 1 episodes aired on NBC. Viewing of the show on Peacock increased by 58%.
“Only Murders” came in handy for ABC, as last year's strikes by Hollywood writers and actors paralyzed production for months and cut off the flow of new programming. But the network was looking for a way to roll out the program long before work stoppages became a factor, executives said.
Streaming shows are likely to appear on networks during the summer months, when reruns can no longer draw sizable crowds. Instead of investing in original series for a smaller available audience, CBS can turn to a streaming show with a high-profile star like “Tulsa King,” which stars Stallone as a crime boss.
Jay Will as Tyson and Sylvester Stallone as Dwight Manfredi from the Paramount+ original series TULSA KING. Photo credit: Brian Douglas/Paramount+. © 2022 Viacom International Inc. All rights reserved.
(Brian Douglas/Paramount+)
This week, NBCUniversal's Peacock debuted a new serialized reality show, “The McBee Dynasty,” which tells the story of a family ranch and the four brothers vying to take the business from their patriarch. The entire series is available to stream on Peacock, while individual episodes air Monday nights after “WWE Raw” on USA Network.
Funneling WWE's nearly 2 million weekly fans into the Peacock series uses one of the most traditional tricks in the television playbook.
The notion of television programming in which viewers are forced to make an appointment to watch programs has become almost an anachronism in the era of video-on-demand streaming. But carrying an audience from period to period remains the most efficient way to get millions of viewers to try a new show, especially after live events or competition reality shows that are best enjoyed watching in real time.
“The concept of audience flow from one show to another is real,” said Frances Berwick, president of NBCUniversal Entertainment. “There's still a tremendous amount of value in it.”
NBCUniversal has been aggressive in using its linear channels to push Peacock shows. “Bupkis,” the comedy series with Pete Davidson, has landed several gigs after “Saturday Night Live,” the show that made him a star. Episodes of Kevin Hart's Peacock talk show, “Hart to Heart,” appeared on the celebrity-focused cable network E!
Bravo aired the first season of the Peacock reality competition “Traitors” ahead of the streaming debut of its second batch. It was an easy fit, Berwick noted, since several of the show's players come from Bravo's roster of reality shows like “Below Deck.”
“We'll do it where it makes sense and we have the right content,” Berwick said.
Most streaming shows that come to linear television remain under the same corporate umbrella. But it may only be a matter of time before networks regularly offer a second window for original shows created for platforms they don't own. It's already happening.
Fox recently struck a deal with Amazon's Prime Video to air the game show “The 1% Club” a week after the episodes make their streaming debut. The CW is currently airing the Canadian comedy “Children Ruin Everything,” which was created for the Roku channel.
There are likely to be similar deals and experiments in the future in the effort to introduce the shows to enough viewers to turn them into profitable assets.
“We're going to see a lot of creativity,” Berwick said. “Good content is good content.”
