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...ratings for expensive network specials and sports have also been sinking. The Summer Olympics on NBC drew an average prime-time rating of 17.9, well under the 21.2 promised to advertisers -- and a Bob Beamon long jump away from the 23.2 drawn by ABC for the Summer Games in 1984. NBC, which paid $300 million for the TV rights, will show an unexpected loss because of the compensation time it must give advertisers...
Blockbuster mini-series too have slipped badly in the ratings since the days of Roots and The Winds of War. Because of their high production costs and poor performance in reruns, they are rarely profitable. ABC's 30-hour version of War and Remembrance (the first 18 hours of which will be telecast in November) could lose up to $20 million for the network, ABC executives say, even if it does well in the ratings. These elephantine projects are probably doomed to extinction...
Such results have had an inevitable impact on the networks' bottom lines. Profits have plummeted at all but NBC. Each of the three networks has been taken over by a new corporate owner -- ABC by Capital Cities Communications, NBC by General Electric, and CBS by Loews chairman Laurence Tisch -- that has instituted severe cost-cutting measures. Some 3,500 people , from technicians to network censors, have been laid off at the Big Three in the past two years. Although some further postelection cuts are anticipated at CBS News and NBC News, the bulk of the reducing is probably over...
Instead, the networks are looking for ways to expand their revenue base. In many cases, that means joining the competition. ABC owns 80% of ESPN, as well as smaller pieces of the Lifetime and Arts & Entertainment cable services. The network is also producing shows for cable, such as a documentary series on the Cold War, The Eagle and the Bear, done in collaboration with A&E. NBC is launching a 24-hour business-news channel for cable early next year, and has formed a home-video partnership with Columbia Pictures. Only Tisch at CBS has held back from such diversification...
...networks' financial woes are increasingly being reflected on the home screen, for good and ill. News programming is becoming more popular with network executives because it costs less to produce. CBS now has three hours of news in prime time; ABC has one and is planning a second for January. The networks are looking more kindly at other "reality" shows as well. ABC, for instance, has just set up a new subsidiary to produce nature shows and other nonfiction specials, both for the network and for other outlets...