What I’m reading from this is CBS is incompetent at producing content their audience will tune in for and bad at managing budgets and advertising. After years they are finally willing to admit it, and are giving up to let some other company do better.
Nothing to do with competence. It’s a simple equation. Before, CBS was spending money on production and contracts to produce late night shows, and was getting money back from advertisers. Times have changed and Late Night is a bit dated. More were watching it on YouTube, but this pays a cheaper advertising rate.
Now, CBS is spending nothing on the slots at all, and has sold all the airtime. Pure profit.
This Byron Allen guy can apparently make the time slot profitable enough to give CBS $15 million for it. So he’s obviously confident he’ll do a lot better than CBS’s -$40 million. I’d call that evidence of CBS’s likely incompetence.
They had decades to read the tides and adjust their show to modern tastes. They could have done what Allen is bringing, lowering production costs and advertising needs. But they failed to evolve and they’re admitting they can’t do it.
Allen is filling half the slot with library content, and half with new episodes of incredibly cheap game shows, which are recorded in bulk rather than having to maintain a dedicated studio and crew on a permanent basis. He also isn’t paying for Stephen Colbert’s $15 million salary, nor for performance rights for musical guests.
Sure. And CBS could have made any number of those changes too.
They just did.
