Hot from Just Comedy: Mike’s notes on the Opening Keynote address from Steve Koonin, President of Turner Entertainment Networks, TBS:
Steve Koonin, (President of Turner Entertainment Networks/TBS) gave Just Comedy’s opening keynote address this morning. Koonin is a jovial, self-effacing guy, who’s obviously bursting with pride over TBS’s success in the comedy biz. His keynote zeroed in on just how well TBS is doing (75% better than Comedy Central in prime time, according to a graphic in his breezy slideshow presentation) and why.
– only 5% of American TV is sitcoms. If you include reruns, only 10%. Five years ago, half of US movies by box office were comedies. Today, less than a third.
– TBS borrowed their strategy from the silver-hoarding Hunt Brothers: they’re buying up all the comedy, so they can rule the comedy market. The rebranded with the “very funny” motto and cast themselves as the go-to spot on the dial for comedy
-since young people are drawn to comedy, and TBS has become a comedy destination on the dial. The median age of a TBS viewer is 33. On Fox, it’s 43.
– TBS is “is feel good comedy. It’s not edgy, it’s not snarky.” Their slate of sitcoms includes Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, My Name is Earl, plus a number of gentle original shows like My Boys, House of Payne, and 10 Items or Less (think The Office in a grocery store.) They also have edgier fare such as Sex And The City, Family Guy, because they can put seemingly incongruous programming on one network and it fits together fine — it’s all under the comedy umbrella.
– they’re trying to give advertisers new opportunities to hawk their wares. He showed a clip that demonstrated how advertisers products are woven into the story lines of “10 Items or Less”, featuring a character drowning his sorrows by eating a product, er” some people can’t believe is margarine.
– Online, they’re exploring new territory with “bitcoms” — short clips of stand-ups riffing on various sponsored products — and “microseries”, which are very short, sponsored episodes which are part of a continuing story.
Next session: Mastering The Pitch
MLB
Steve Koonin’s pushing too fast and too far with TBS. He’s driven away the people who built the network. TBS became a top cable network with loyal audiences, popular shows, and Braves baseball. What he’s doing will work in the short term, but not down the road in the future.
JHG
MLB..Given the initials are Major League Baseball…To compete with ESPN for SPorts rights in the future is tough. To target a genre that has a long history of success that is being ignored is absolutely the right path. In todays times..people need to laugh more than ever.