Reality tv shows is a genre of television programming which presents unscripted dramatic situations and documents actual events. It covers a wide range of programming formats, from game or quiz shows to surveillance productions. They portray a modified and highly influenced form of reality. Who can make more money in the shortest time? Who can overcome the fear of height? Who can swim faster or can lose more weight? Who can gorge a bucket full of disgusting insects?
There are many of such productions on television generating hefty revenues for the networks. This new genre is cost effective and popular, the two features Entertainment corporations like best. People do anything for money specially if it is on television. There is no limit of what the show producers can make people do. What motivates people is insatiable greed. Millions sign up to enter the competitions, and a few lucky ones get in and a handful of participants become rich and famous. That is a win-win proposition for both parties.
Since there are so many popular reality shows, the producers relentlessly look for new ideas. They travel around the world for inspirations and crave for ingenious ideas.
To me it doesn’t matter what the idea is as long as I can get millions of people to watch it. The competition is tough, so It must be innovative to glue millions to their TV sets on prime time.
One early morning on my way to work, I happened to notice a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk, a scene I’d witnessed thousands of times but this one inspired me. Why not reverse the course of all reality shows. Why not swim against the flow and instead of promoting greed, encourage compassion and bring the humanity in people for a change. I wondered, a reality show that promotes generosity and selflessness instead of greed and voracity. A concept like could draw millions of viewers and secure our network’s position as the leader in the industry.
In flush times, television stations are accustomed to 30 to 40 percent profit margins. But the recession is goring even these cash cows with a 14 percent drop in advertising revenue in the first quarter of this year compared to last at Bay Area TV stations, analysts say.
Ad revenue took an even bigger tumble at Bay Area radio stations, with a 27 percent decline during the same period.
The main culprit is the imploding auto industry, which provides from 20 percent to one-third of the advertising revenue for broadcasters. With General Motors and Chrysler announcing plans last week to close 1,900 dealerships during the next year, it will take years for advertising levels to recover at TV and radio outlets. “And when it does return, it will be different,” said Robin Flynn, senior analyst at SNL Kagan, who recently conducted a nationwide study of advertising on radio and TV stations and projected the 14 percent TV decline.
“All advertising-driven media have been hit hard by the recession, not just newspapers,” Flynn said. “So companies are really trying to get creative to make up for that revenue.”
Spot TV ads drop
Broadcasters in top-10 markets like San Francisco are generally still profitable, Flynn said. Outlets in large markets are more dependent on national advertisers, so they’ve taken a bigger hit than broadcasters in smaller markets. In the first quarter of 2009, spot TV advertising by the top 200 Bay Area retailers dropped to an estimated $58 million from $62 million the year before, according to regional TV estimates by TNS Media Intelligence. And Bay Area radio stations – which collectively reach 5.5 million listeners a week – saw advertising revenue decline 27 percent in the first part of the year, according to a regional study by Miller Kaplan Arase Co.
“Never seen it this bad. Never,” said Mickey Luckoff, president and general manager of KGO-AM, who has been at the station more than three decades, much of that time with the news-talk broadcaster on top of the ratings chart. “It’s as close to a depression that I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
The downturn is even hitting new-media sites, with advertising down at some political blogs nearly 50 percent in this post-election year, and 10 to 20 percent at entertainment blogs, analysts said.
