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Wow, is that a eye catching, attention grabbing headline or what? Geez, I guess I have to back up that fabulous headline with some good writing. Let’s give it a shot.

For years now, you have read and seen how the TV networks ratings keep dropping and they are continually losing market share. They have so much competition that includes cable, DVD and of course the internet. All this I understand, but television executives act like there is nothing they can do to stem this tide. I disagree, I believe there are a number of things you can do, if they just shook off those 20th century shackles and welcome themselves into the 21st century.

Let’s do a case in point shall we? A new show this year that I along with many many many other people have really enjoyed is a show on NBC called Heroes. It’s a great show, very well written, good actors, the works. I enjoyed it so much, I was doing something unheard of in my household, I was actually watching it live and not waiting to watch it on the DVR without commercials. I am the target market that NBC covets and because I enjoyed the show so much, I became a brand advocate even an evangelist.

So every week, I would come home on Monday nights, grab the girlfriend and we are all ready for Heroes at 9 pm. Now there are millions more people just like me in regard to this show. I was actually looking forward to Monday’s just because this show was on. During October and November, the episodes starting revealing a lot of the mysteries up in the air and the storyline was coming together nicely. I would actually wake my girlfriend up in the middle of the night just to say:

“Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!”

That got old for her pretty quick. So NBC, you got me, I am hooked. I love the show, I watch it live, I watch your commercials, I along with millions of other people are doing what you dreamed of when the television season kicked off in September. We’re cannot wait for the next episode and we want more and more. We go to the web site, we read about the show online, but most importantly, we are talking about it!

All great news for NBC, so what do these executives do? The show goes away almost the entire month of December and will not return until January 22nd, 2007!! Almost two months of no new Heroes. My question is why? None of us go on vacation for two months, do NBC executives? Even if you wanted to wait until the holidays were over I can understand that, but come on, two months? Have you guys ever heard of buzz? You had it and now it’s gone.

What NBC executives along with all the other TV execs don’t realize is that we consumers have an incredible amount of stuff vying for our attention. We also have the attention span of a 5 year old after eating a large amount of chocolate. Finally, we are frugal and our interests come and go very quickly. One second we are here and the next we are onto the next big thing. Would you like me to put this into a language TV execs can understand. The OC was the hottest show on TV not too long ago, now it is canceled.

Bottom line is that TV along with every type of marketer out there has to be more nimble. They must be able to turn and sway with the tides and they must be willing to try new things before it is too late. In other words, stop focusing on what YOU think or what has worked in the past and start focusing on what your customer thinks and wants.

Oh by the way, I am going to still watch Heroes of course, but it has been so long, I might just wait until the DVR records it before I watch it. No commercials, happy to hear that NBC or maybe I should ask that question to the advertisers paying for thirty seconds of my attention that will not be there?

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