Quote:
Originally Posted by Acey
What matters actually is profitability, case and point Leno's 10 pm show, which had crap ratings but was making NBC money. Also Heroes, which is fighting for the worst ratings of any primetime drama, but is still on the air because it makes money through syndication, DVD sales, and international deals. Ratings ≠ profit.
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Syndication/dvd sales/deals only make money if the studio is affiliated with the ownership of the network.
For instance, House is shown on Fox but all it does is generate advertising revenue from high ratings. Fox receives no revenue from syndication rights, in fact it pays to show the show because House is actually produced by NBC studios.
For a drama in the 10PM timeslot to make money for NBC in DVD sales/distribution, it would have to not only be produced by an NBC/Universal owned studio, but it would have be successful enough to reach that threshold. Making DVDs of shows that don't have that many episodes is cheap and easy in this age but the syndication threshold is about 100 episodes (or 5 seasons).
For network TV, ratings are the most important because they have to satisfy the demands of all the national affiliates in every city. It was those affiliates who were unhappy with Leno not providing the ratings that dramas and comedies used to, and for not providing enough positive lead-in for their nightly news programs which are a significant chunk of affiliate revenue. They are the network and those small stations need the advertising revenue to survive.