Late-night & mornings drive overall volume gains for CBS

Many battles to come in GoT

LOS ANGELES, June 22, (RTRS): CBS has found new traction in late night and morning news — and viewership gains for shows like “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” and “CBS This Morning” have “affected our bottom line,”CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves told reporters in May.

The remarks might be prescient. CBS expects to wrap its annual upfront discussions for advance ad commitments with volume gains driven largely by TV programs other than its array of primetime comedies and dramas, according to a person familiar with the situation, while volume for prime is expected to be flat with last year’s activity. Inside CBS, executives are pleased by the results, this person said, given that projections for 2017’s upfront market — when US networks try to sell the bulk of their ad inventory for the coming season — had called for volume to slip. In 2016, CBS attracted between $2.26 billion and $2.6 billion in ad commitments for primetime programming cycle, and drew volume gains of between 3% and 5%.

The network did a large number of deals calling for it to get credit for seven days’ worth of viewing from advertisers, this person said, and in some cases was able to strike so-called “C35” deals that allow it to get credit for viewers who watch a show more than a month after it originally airs. The agreements represent a nod to changing viewer habits that allow fans of programs like “NCIS” and “The Big Bang Theory” to watch episodes of their favorites on demand and at times of their own choosing, rather than at a particular time on a specific day.

Illustrate

CBS’ results also illustrate how TV is evolving in an era when viewers are migrating toward new screens and viewing behaviors, and programming choices are being driven in some part by the swirl of controversy around President Donald Trump and a growing swell of White House intrigue. In the upfront market, US TV networks’ success is typically driven by interest in the primetime schedule, and still is. But in 2017, new attention on news programming and late night shows, which have brought viewers to the screen rabidly engaged in the current news cycle, is of growing importance to advertisers.

CBS sought high-single-digit to lowdouble-digit percentage increases in CPMs — a measure of the cost of reaching 1,000 viewers that is integral to these annual discussions between TV networks and Madison Avenue — for non-primetime inventory, while seeking increases in the high-singledigit percentage range for primetime inventory, according to the person familiar with the situation.

It could not be immediately determined how much inventory CBS chose to hold back for so-called “scatter” advertising, or inventory that is purchased closer to air. That inventory typically costs more than the time that is reserved in advance in the upfront market.

One media-buying executive suggested CBS was aided by high demand from pharmaceutical manufacturers, who have long been big spenders in news programming and on CBS. “Their demand helped drive” CBS performance, this buyer said — both in primetime and in so-called “fringe” programming. This buyer also credited the experience of Jo Ann Ross, president of ad sales at CBS, who at present has the longest tenure overseeing a TV network’s ad sales. The TV industry has seen a broad turnover of senior ad-sales executives over the last year, and there are people new to the role at both Disney/ABC Television and at Fox Networks Group.

IMG will handle international sales for the upcoming BBC/BBC America drama series “Killing Eve,” from “Fleabag” creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

The distribution arm of talent agency powerhouse WME/IMG has been steadily expanding its activity in sales of TV series and financing of films for clients. It spearheaded international sales for the BBC/ AMC thriller “The Night Manager,” BBC America’s “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” and is shopping the upcoming Beau Willimon Hulu/Channel 4 series “The First.”

“Killing Eve,” penned by Waller-Bridge, revolves around a female detective’s search for a psychopathic female assassin. “Grey’s Anatomy” alum Sandra Oh is on board to play the detective. “Killing Eve” hails from producer Sally Woodward Gentle’s Sid Gentle Films banner. Woodward, Waller

Bridge and Sid Gentle’s Lee Morris are exec producers.

“This is a brilliant project from Phoebe, with a phenomenal team behind it,” said WME/IMG partner Chris Rice. “Sid Gentle is an incredible partner and we look forward to working with them to bring “Killing Eve” to audiences around the world.”

IMG’s pitch to clients is that the agency will handle content sales for a lower distribution fee than would be charged by an outside sales entity, despite the potential for conflicts of interest between the individual WME clients and IMG’s sales arm. IMG also emphasizes its ability to focus on generating the maximum return in each market for a show as compared to a studio with a larger slate of shows to sell. The expansion of WME/IMG’s content production and distribution activity in the past few years is an indication of the changing business landscape for the largest talent agencies.

“We are so excited about making the show and working with the extraordinary talent of Phoebe Waller-Bridge,” Woodward Gentle said. “The team at WME/IMG couldn’t be better to work alongside.” The Paramount Network is developing a single-camera comedy series based on the life of Tom Arnold, Variety has confirmed.

The series, currently titled “The Interventionist,” would follow a recovering addict and interventionist for substance abusers in LA. Arnold has often spoken publicly about his own battles with drug and alcohol addiction during his career. Steven Pink will write the potential pilot in addition to executive producing. Arnold will also executive produce along with Kapital Entertainment’s

Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor, as well as Alex Hardcastle and Glenn Porter. Hardcastle will also direct. It was originally set up at TV Land.

The show would mark the potential second original at the Paramount Network, with the first being the drama “Yellowstone” from “Hell or High Water” scribe

Taylor Sheridan. That series tells the story of the fictional Dutton family, which owns the largest contiguous ranch in the United States — a piece of property that borders Yellowstone National Park and puts the family in constant conflict with a wide range of rivals. Kevin Costner is attached to star.

The Viacom-owned Spike TV will rebrand itself as the Paramount Network in January 2018. Viacom confirmed in March that “Heathers” and “American Woman,” which had been in development at TV Land, would migrate to Paramount Network as part of shift of resources at Viacom toward a small set of core cable channels. Paramount Network, intended to be a broad, premium-entertainment network, is one of the six channels that Viacom CEO Bob Bakish identified as the company’s future focal points. In addition, “The Shannara Chronicles” will move from MTV to Spike this fall ahead of the rebrand.

HBO released a new trailer for “Game of Thrones” Season 7 on Wednesday.

In the trailer, Lord Baelish appears to give Sansa advice, telling her, “Fight every battle, everywhere, always in your mind.”

We also get more brief glimpses of Daenerys’ return to Westeros, specifically to the island fortress of Dragonstone, the ancestral seat of House Targaryen. Her Unsullied soldiers go to battle with the Lannisters, perhaps at the Lannisters’ own ancestral home of Casterly Rock. Jaime Lannister is seen on horseback riding across a scorched battlefield with a lance in his hand.

Jon Snow also chimes in, saying, “For centuries our families fought together against their common enemy. Despite their differences, together. We need to do the same if we’re going to survive because the enemy is real. It’s always been real.” It is not clear from the trailer who he is speaking with.

“Game of Thrones” Season 7 premieres on July 16 on HBO.