March 22, 2008

Weekend Update: HBO To Look Outside The Box

Strauss Search Moves Outside and SNY Adds Talent

By Cable 360 Staff

An isolationist for many of its 36 years, HBO indeed may be looking beyond its borders to replace Carolyn Strauss, the ousted President of Entertainment whose departure from her position—but not from the company—became public last Monday. The Wall Street Journal, in its weekend edition today, quotes co-President Richard Plepler saying: "Fresh eyes and a fresh perspective will be invigorating for the company, and we think it can only benefit the creative process."

The Box looking outside the box for a chief of TV series is the biggest revelation in an interesting piece about the perceived decline in HBO’s cache, which the paper relates directly to the lack of popular buzz about its recent series, which Ms Strauss picked. Why is a job search big news? First, this is one of the most coveted jobs in television. And HBO usually doesn’t go outside its walls to find new executives, and those who make it at HBO tend to stay there. Even Ms Strauss, a 21-year vet who’s never worked anywhere else, plans to remain at HBO in an as-yet-to-be-named capacity. Former Discovery Channel GM Jane Root has been mentioned as a successor to Strauss. 

Another revelation in the piece is that HBO will begin adding more pilots in an effort to spread risk; they also intend to cancel more pilots if they fail to protect what executives refer to as the HBO DNA. The piece also notes the importance of HBO and its $1 billion yearly profit for Jeff Bewkes and Time Warner, as Bewkes seeks to make the media company more dependent on entertainment content.

Much of the rest of the piece deals with many of the same arguments that have long been voiced about HBO, including that its recent series tend to be too gloomy. In fact, the Journal quotes Linda Bloodworth, whose 12 Miles of Bad Road was recently cancelled by HBO before it hit the small screen, as saying, "It seems like to be on HBO, your show has to look like it was shot in the Soviet Union and be very depressing...unfortunately, our show was funny and well-lit."  [WSJ]

Regional sports net SNY on Monday will announce a revamping of its lineup with the addition of eight on-camera sports personalities to headline the network’s new shows, as well as participate on pre-existing programs. They are: Joe Benigno, Chris Carlin, Scott Ferrall, Jon Heyman, Marc Malusis, Sweeny Murti, Adam Schein and Brandon Tierney. The 8 are known largely for being sports radio talent, but have also been seen on SNY. They will continue to be heard on radio, although they will be exclusive to SNY on TV in the NY market. Owned by the Mets, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, SNY will debut two, 30-min sports debate shows Monday. At  5:30pm, M-F, it will be The WheelHouse with Ferrall, Tierney and Brian Custer; at 6pm will be Loud Mouths with Schein and Carlin. Research showed the 30-min sports debate format to be popular with fans, SNY said. Murti becomes the network's Yankees beat reporter. Although SNY is the television home of the NY Mets, the network often leads its sportscast with news and highlights of the Yankees.    

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