Television's executives, producers, and stars are just wrapping up this winter's biannual Television Critics Association press tour.
It's an exhausting (and exciting) pageant of the network's best current programming and upcoming shows for hundreds of critics and reporters from all over the US (and even some international press) who flock to Los Angeles twice a year for the event.
Each day of the TCA press tour, a network's top boss kicks off the morning by facing reporters in an executive session. Depending on how their network is doing, they'll be celebrated or verbally attacked by the journalists. Then the reporters meet and greet panel after panel dedicated to the network's shows and stars.
Every year, certain themes and patterns from the TV world emerge. They tell us about what the industry is wrestling with and give us a snapshot of what's to come.
Here's what you can expect to see out of the TV industry in the coming months:
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Netflix is going after the traditional networks — and they're firing back hard.
The broadcast and cable networks were anything but chill about Netflix during TCA. The streaming giant came under fire for refusing to release its show ratings and therefore standing on an uneven playing field.
NBC shocked the room of reporters when its research exec released what he believes to be close approximations of Netflix's ratings. He named "Jessica Jones" as its No. 1 show with 4.8 million total viewers in the advertiser-coveted 18- to 49-year-old demographic.
The point was to prove that traditional broadcast and cable networks aren't being out-watched by streaming.
"I don't believe there's enough stuff on Netflix that is broad enough and is consistent enough to affect us in a meaningful way on a regular basis,"the NBC exec said.
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos called NBC's numbers "remarkably inaccurate."
Meanwhile, FX boss John Landgraf accused Netflix of an unfair advantage in that it doesn't need to prove profitability, and so it can spend more money on shows than his network. He explained that FX wanted Aziz Ansari's "Master of None," but the streaming company overwhelmed the cable channel in money and other commitments.
Sarandos countered by explaining that Netflix's profit is driven by expanding its international reach, which it's doing in various ways with its ramped-up original content.
Music is the next ratings goldmine.
Fox is the latest network to get into the musical TV trend with "Grease Live." It will follow that with Trisha Yearwood starring in "The Passion," and "Rocky Horror Picture Show."
"One of the things we love about the shows is that the music makes the show feel very contemporary and kind of very exciting," Fox's CEO Gary Walden said of musical shows. "It gives it an element, a feeling almost of it being live."
NBC led the way with its live-aired musicals and said during TCA that it's closing a deal for "Hairspray" next. It also recently found a ratings hit with the Dolly Parton biopic "Coat of Many Colors."
Cable and streaming want their music TV, too. Showtime's Cameron Crowe-produced drama "Roadies" follows the lives and work of the crew behind a rockin' tour. HBO teamed Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese on the upcoming "Vinyl." And Amazon's "Mozart in the Jungle," about a New York symphony, just won a Golden Globe.
Live audience ratings are no longer the gold standard.
The TV industry has been playing a game of "wait, wait, hurry" with ratings. It took a very long time for it to admit that the old model of counting live viewers wasn't an accurate look at TV viewership. Even as things evolve, there have been hiccups in trying to convince advertisers. Now, everyone seems to be on the bandwagon.
Fox, which became the first broadcast network to end reporting of its live ratings, made a big presentation (complete with slides) of the rise its shows received in delayed viewership. It reiterated that its renewal/cancellation decisions aren't based on live ratings anymore and pointed out that recently renewed "Scream Queens," for example, had a 167% boost in viewers across platforms like DVR, online, and streaming.
NBC, aside from trying to out Netflix's ratings, did an entire panel on the subject and even recommended alternatives to Nielsen ratings that could track viewing on other platforms.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider