Stephen Battaglio | Los Angeles Times (TNS)
In the late 1990s, NBC launched a marketing campaign with the slogan, ''If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you,'' to promote summer re-runs of popular shows like ''Mad About You'' and ''Frasier.''
In 2024, the tagline would be, ''If you haven’t streamed it, it’s new to you.''
Original series designed to attract new streaming platform subscribers are increasingly being shown on traditional broadcast and cable TV networks. Media companies are aiming to introduce the programs to wider audiences and enhance their lineups as they compete with Netflix for viewers.
During this summer, CBS will broadcast the first season of the Taylor Sheridan crime series ''Tulsa King'' featuring Sylvester Stallone – a show originally produced for Paramount+ streaming service. Meanwhile, you can binge on Peacock’s new reality series ''The McBee Dynasty,'' but individual episodes are aired weekly on NBCUniversal’s USA Network for those who prefer a more traditional viewing experience.
In January, ABC aired the first season of the popular Hulu show ''Only Murders in the Building.'' It performed well, prompting the network to plan for another season in the future.
This trend contradicts the belief that viewers seeking non-sports entertainment have abandoned traditional TV.
While it's true that many younger consumers who grew up with streaming don't even own a TV, seeing it as a tool used to bombard their parents and grandparents with pharmaceutical commercials, for media companies, traditional TV has become a marketing tool to increase public awareness of their streaming shows, despite its decline in ratings and cord-cutting.
Meanwhile, legacy media companies' streaming arms, such as NBCUniversal parent Comcast Corp., Paramount Global, and Disney, are all facing pressure from Wall Street to turn a profit. Utilizing traditional networks is a way to generate more revenue and make their streaming investments more profitable.
“These companies are losing money [on streaming],” said Doug Herzog, an experienced cable and broadcast executive. “None of it is going great. That's the problem. They're experimenting because that's what they should be doing.”
Paramount Global Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra summarized the strategy during an investor conference, stating that the company aims to maximize the returns on every dollar invested in content.
Executives state that viewers can anticipate more original programs created exclusively for streaming services appearing on traditional broadcast and cable channels.
This is because broadcast networks can reach over 95% of U.S. households. Despite the decrease in pay TV households due to cord-cutting, major cable networks are available in around 70 million homes, still more than most subscription-based streaming services. For instance, Peacock has roughly 30 million paying subscribers.
Streaming shows can become popular and have a big impact on culture, but it's more difficult for them to reach the same level of widespread success as big network TV series like “Friends” used to. That's why traditional TV companies are finding that shows already shown on streaming services can be considered original programming on regular TV.
“We will keep doing this because even though these shows are very popular, in a fragmented market, there are still people who have not watched them,” said Craig Erwich, who oversees ABC and Hulu as president of the Disney Television Group. “Making them available in different places and letting people know they are there always adds to the audience. It does not take away from it.”
“Only Murders in the Building” has a cast that includes Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez. It's a show that appeals to a wide audience that linear TV networks still look for, and it only needs a few edits to remove offensive language.
Disney discovered that half of the viewers who watched “Only Murders” on ABC were not Hulu subscribers, even though Hulu has almost 50 million subscribers. After the series aired on the broadcast network, viewers wanted more. The amount of time people spent watching the first two seasons of the show on its original streaming platform increased by 40%.
“It was a new experience for a lot of people,” Erwich observed. “It surprises me because the show is so popular in both viewership and critical praise that you start to think that everyone who wants to see it has already seen it. But it's a big country and there are many different types of people who want to watch TV in many different ways.”
NBCUniversal also saw viewers flock to Peacock to watch the second season of the medical anthology drama “Dr. Death” after episodes from Season 1 aired on NBC. Viewing of the show on Peacock increased by 58%.
“Only Murders” was helpful for ABC, as last year’s strikes by Hollywood screenwriters and actors halted production for months and stopped the flow of new programming. But the network was planning to use the show even before the labor stoppages occurred, executives said.
Streaming shows are likely to appear on networks during the summer, when reruns no longer attract a large audience. Instead of investing in original series for a smaller audience, CBS can turn to a streaming show with a well-known star like “Tulsa King,” which features Stallone as a crime boss.
Recently, NBCUniversal’s Peacock revealed a new serialized reality show, “The McBee Dynasty,” which tells the story of a family ranch and the four brothers competing to take over the business from their father. The entire series is available to stream on Peacock while individual episodes air Monday nights after “WWE Raw” on USA Network.
Pulling almost 2 million WWE fans per week into the Peacock series uses one of the oldest tricks in the TV playbook.
The idea of a TV schedule where viewers are compelled to watch shows at a specific time has almost become outdated in the streaming video on demand era. However, drawing an audience from one time slot to the next still remains the most effective way to attract millions of viewers to try out a new program, especially after live events or reality competition shows that are best enjoyed in real time.
Frances Berwick, the head of NBCUniversal Entertainment, said that the pattern of viewers moving from one show to another is real and valuable.
NBCUniversal has been actively using its traditional TV channels to promote Peacock shows. For example, the comedy series "Bupkis" featuring Pete Davidson has been aired multiple times after "Saturday Night Live," the show that made him famous. Episodes of Kevin Hart's Peacock talk show "Hart to Heart" have also been shown on the celebrity-focused cable network E!
Bravo broadcasted the first season of the Peacock reality competition "Traitors" before it became available for streaming. According to Berwick, this was a good fit because some of the participants on the show come from Bravo's reality programs like "Below Deck."
Berwick mentioned that they will only pursue this strategy when it aligns with their content and makes sense for them.
Most streaming shows that appear on traditional TV are from the same parent company. However, it's possible that networks will start regularly giving a second chance for original shows created for platforms they don't own. This is already happening.
Fox has recently made a deal with Amazon's Prime Video to broadcast the game show "The 1% Club" a week after it is released for streaming. The CW is currently airing the Canadian sitcom "Children Ruin Everything," which was initially made for the Roku Channel.
More of these types of deals and experiments are likely as they try to get enough viewers to make the shows profitable.
Berwick believes that we will see a lot of innovation and new ideas, emphasizing that good content is always valuable.
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