Television

We got game

It's a massive business, worth more than $20 billion annually in software and hardware sales alone. Its influence reaches every corner of our society and is as mainstream as it comes. I'm not talking about the television industry, believe it or not. I'm talking about video games.

Interactive games, like so many of the products and trends in the marketplace, come straight out of the "everything old is new again" file. Flashback to 1960, when CBS aired the show "Video Village," produced by Heatter-Quigley, the creators of "Hollywood Squares." The show … Read more

Clicking into the future

My first TV remote control was my brother. It was voice-activated. "Peter, turn it up." "Peter, change it to channel five." Little did I know back then that the human channel changer would turn out to be one of the easiest devices of its kind to operate.

Every step in the television navigation process is a barrier between consumers and our shows. Marketers depend on ease of navigation and "share of thumb" on the remote control. As the tool viewers use at the absolute "point of purchase," what happens on the remote … Read more

'H50' + DVR = No. 1

We've been saying it for a while now but it's finally starting to sink in: the DVR is good for broadcast television.

Today, demanding schedules have made time-shifted viewing a must-have for millions of Americans. What's amazing is how quickly the adoption spread--in 2006 only 2 percent of homes had DVRs. Today, DVRs are in close to 40 percent of U.S. homes, adding millions of viewers to our audiences every night of the week.

Looking at the programs airing the first three weeks of the season, we see that nine CBS shows picked up more than … Read more

And exhale...

As chronicled on this hallowed digital space, from May to September we logged hundreds of hours in conference rooms, editing stations, on planes, in massive crowds of costumed revelers, on football fields, and on the sandy beaches of tropical islands--all in the name of the fall television season launch.

Together with our marketing and creative teams on both the East and West coasts, we brainstormed, we listened, we tweaked, we went broad, and we went viral. We dominated traditional media and new media. We even prototyped a V.I.P (Video-In-Pineapple). All in the name of show promotion.

And … Read more

It's the final countdown

"It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much." Yogi Berra

In a few weeks, 25 new network shows will take to the airwaves, and 18 will move to new time slots. With so much at stake, all of us at CBS are working nonstop to make sure that our messages reach our target audiences, get noticed, and are top of mind when everyone is on their couches this September.

This is an exciting time for us. It's the culmination of months of creative planning that began last May with the Upfront, and … Read more

Introducing the CBS Attic

"The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." -- Albert Einstein

One of the ways we envision the future is by taking clues from the past. As marketers and entertainment aficionados ourselves, the team at CBS enjoys collecting, studying, and learning from media artifacts. The conference room in our New York headquarters is regaled with all kinds of television goodies--from vintage advertisements, televisions, and radios to boxes of TV tubes to classic TV Guide magazines from the '60s, '70s, and '80s. It's a treasure trove of information and memorabilia that we lovingly … Read more

An up-close look at the CBS 'Upfront'

Recently, those in the television and advertising communities celebrated the "upfronts." For anyone unfamiliar with the term, it refers to the third week of May each year when the television networks host massive presentations in New York City to introduce their new shows and fall schedules to the advertising community.

Upfront presentations are so named because they kick off the upfront buying season, when advertisers can buy commercial time in advance for the new season, negotiating for the shows and the rates.

Just as geeks and analysts hold their breath to see what amazing new devices will be … Read more

How TV shows get on the air

We are now in the thick of development season in the TV business.

The process of getting a show on the air resembles a pyramid: it starts with our programming executives meeting with writers, producers, and agents to listen to pitches of new show concepts.

Television is a business of ideas, which makes new show development a thrilling experience; you never know where the next great project will come from, or the indelible mark that a resulting TV series could have on our culture.

Past performance, buzz, and the general zeitgeist all play a role in grabbing early attention. And … Read more