For all its competitive zeal, the cable-programming business used to operate like one big, happy family. The appearance of new basic-cable speciality channels was generally heralded by existing programmers as good news.
The belief was that every new channel added value to the basic-cable package being offered by cable-system owners, that every new channel increased the likelihood that people would subscribe to cable, thus increasing the universe of potential viewers for all the channels.
Now, the changing economics of cable pits channel against channel. Far from welcoming every new cable service, operators of current cable channels worry about new channels stealing some of their audiences, which could reduce their advertising sales.
Also, consumers seem to have reached the limit of what they can and will pay for basic-cable service. If system operators can`t pass on the cost of new channels to their customers, they either have to reduce their profit margins or drop an existing channel to add one without added cost. The result: more tension between existing channels and new ones.
What`s especially interesting is the response of some of the existing channels to these new conditions. Turner Broadcasting System`s four cable services-CNN, TBS, TNT and Headline News-are among the most popular and successful in the industry.
Yet TNT, with an eye toward keeping expenses in check, has already scaled back on the grand designs it had when it was launched just a few years ago.
At the time, company executives said they hoped that no later than 1992, TNT would be offering viewers 48 special events every year: original, made-for-cable movies; film-related retrospectives such as behind-the-scenes stories on the making of a film; and occasional sports events.
But at the recent summer meetings with TV critics, Scott Sassa, president of Turner Entertainment Networks, said those goals had been radically altered. Citing TNT`s acquisition of portions of the TV rights to the 1992 Winter Olympics, the National Basketball Association and the National Football League-but avoiding the issue of cost-Sassa said TNT now aims for two special events a month, or half of what was hoped for.
At the same time, TBS has responded to the new environment with aggressive packaging, scheduling and promotions to create an identity for TBS that will distinguish it from other channels, whether cable or over-the-air. That`s no small assignment, given that most of TBS` programming consists of old movies and reruns of old network sitcoms and dramas.
Curiously, this new attitude is coming out in 25-year-old strategies credited to a then-fledgling TV promotions executive in Chicago named Brandon Tartikoff. Tartikoff, who became the most successful network programming chief ever, rooted through the WLS-TV inventory of movies and TV shows and created silly but highly promotable theme weeks of programming.
Thus, TBS recently collected certain episodes of the old ”Andy Griffith Show” and promoted them under the banner of ”Barney Fife, Lawman.”
For Wednesday, the channel is hyping a ”Showdown in Sherwood Forest.”
Starting at 5 p.m., TBS will begin televising Errol Flynn`s 1938 movie ”The Adventures of Robin Hood” and repeat it until 4 the next morning.
Viewers are invited to participate in the promotion-and pay for the privilege of doing so-by using a 900 telephone number to register their preference for either Flynn`s classic or Kevin Costner`s ”Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” the new movie that recently cracked the $100-million box-office mark.
Future TBS stunts include a week of Elvis Presley movies airing in the mornings, 11 consecutive Wednesday nights of James Bond movies, a Clint Eastwood week during the November ratings period, and a series of movie musicals the week before Christmas.
No one knows whether such strategies will allow Turner`s cable channels to continue to prosper. Clearly, though, the company is not taking anything for granted.
