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Latest Post by Gary Lico

Every year at the Realscreen Summit, the producers represented by our sister company, CABLEready, gather to discuss the various networks we met with during the past few days.  Tons of straight talk, speculation, recommendations and – most importantly – sharing. This is the kind of relationship we like to have with and among our program suppliers.

After about 45 minutes of info, all in the general theme of “Here’s what they’re doing and what they want,” one of us (name doesn’t matter, though she gets full credit from me) went contrary right off the bat:

“EVERYONE SAYS THE SAME THING,” she said. “y’know, strong characters, big stories, docusoaps, formats, blah-blah-blah.”  Rarely does anything truly new come forth or are there any secrets revealed.   Just about everyone of the 50 or so “30 Minutes With” participants had a mantra that became redundant sometime Tuesday morning.

Ya think a network is going to tell 100 or so people at a 1,000+ conference their plans?  In this marketplace?  (Or any other, for that matter.) Why leak your strategy to the competition?  As a result, rare is the candor of a speaker in these settings. Though there are exceptions. A&E’s Rob Sharenow wins our award for SUMMIT SPEAKER OF THE YEAR.  He turned up everywhere and was always smart, funny and brutally honest.

Not that we all threw away our notes last night, but it is a good thing to consider when submitting your programs to a network.  The very best way to stay up to date more than once a year is to subscribe to CableU.  We had most of this info (unadorned with conference hype) in our network needs section a full two weeks before D.C.  Count on CableU.tv to get it to you first!!

Sorry for my promo but after two weeks on the road with NATPE and Realscreen, I’m still in a sales mode.  And if we sell for you, that is a good thing.

One more thing:  CableU’s Bulls&%t Bingo at The Summit was a big hit … dozens of buzz-words, overused phrases and silly slogans arrayed like a bingo card.  We gave away some iPods to those who caught the words as they floated out from the daises in D.C. We also picked up a few new overused goodies for the list:

  • DNA
  • 3D
  • Genre-busing
  • Transactional Docusoap
  • Credible-Obsessive
  • New Jersey is the new Alaska
  • Big Dream Shows
  • Cloud

…and if you can explain this one, you’re in on the secret….

  • “Bevel-edged Approach”

See you on the road, at a conference, or in your office.  Thanks for a great couple of weeks everyone!

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January 26, 2010

NATPE 2010 Report

We work the booth all day, with an hour for our annual panel, and a couple of great industry events. Wow! How lucky am I?! Despite all the cliches about where the economy is, how consolidation has changed the business — we’re in a pretty good place right now.
Then you pick up the [...]

July 23, 2009

Nice Goin’! Good Move!

MSG, a Cablevision-owned regional sports network has a little challenge during the summer. Their sweet spot is New York sports (hockey’s Rangers and basketball’s Knicks – Cablevision owns them, too). NYC is a 3-sports network town … (locally speaking … not including ESPN and Fox, of course). There’s YES – a Yankees network [...]

April 24, 2009

Quick Quotes, Notes and Thoughts from Lico

I’ve been keeping a few quotes and thoughts I’ve collected lately that, I think, paint a decent picture of what the world – or at least, important parts of it – are looking at and looking for:

Touch Productions, Malcolm Brinkworth – ” …we were looking for ways of decoding the world; showing it in a [...]

January 30, 2009

NATPE Lico Summary: Tales from the Desert

Used to be that the #1 subject coming out of a NATPE, was something like, “What’s hot?”  Maybe it was the next talk show, magazine show or some little gem from a corner of the floor.  This year, the first question out of people’s mouths was something like, “Whataya think?”  As in, “What do you [...]

January 26, 2009

Why NATPE Still Matters

It’s damned near become a sport in the last few years for  many in our business to shake their head and say, “What’s happening to NATPE?”  As if the fate of the industry’s singularly inclusive organization is in the hands of some unknown forces or hierarchy.
NATPE is really the only group in the biz that [...]

December 7, 2008

Tuscany to You: World Science Congress Part II

Back in the USA after a week in Tuscany, mostly for the World Science Congress (for the other days, see here).
The main impetus for attending was the so-called BATTLE OF THE BRANDS, starring Steve Burns and John Ford, both of whom have worked in various positions at various times at National Geographic and Discovery Channels [...]

December 2, 2008

GET PERSONAL!

First time here at the Science Congress (it has a longer name, but after the chianti, I can’t remember it).  It’s a beautiful city, as anyone who has been here will attest to.  But it’s also pretty cold this time of year … about like DC in early December.  Translation:  40-degrees and rainy.

The Congress has [...]

October 15, 2008

Cannes Heat!

It’s a gorgeous week over here! The weather can go a few ways this time of year … hot and humid, cloudy and rainy, but instead, it’s warm, sunny with a bit of a breeze.
That’s the weather, now here’s the news:
First, “How’s business in the wake of the financial mess?” Good news everybody: [...]

September 7, 2008

Storm Over Television News

Dateline, Saturday, September 6, 2008. 7pm, EDT — Tropical Storm Hanna is making her way up the East Coast and into the New York metropolitan area. Already, the US Tennis Open and the New York Mets games have been postponed. Two-inches of rain is falling … sideways. Winds about 40 mph [...]

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