Double Vision

Call it sleeping with the enemy: Cable programmers are sharing series with broadcasters.
And surprisingly, it seems to be working out well for both.

BY Paula Hendrickson --
If you're channel grazing next weekend and experience a sudden feeling of déjà vu, blink twice, then refocus on your TV. If it's Friday night, you've probably tuned into last Monday's episode of ABC's Once & Again in its regular rebroadcast on Lifetime. If it's Sunday night, that's a nine-day-old episode of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit you're watching on USA.

Brand-new network series on cable? You bet. And if these early efforts prove as successful as anticipated, you better get used to it. Lifetime TV and USA Networks are already being approached with similar proposals from other networks and producers.

Call them what you will--backup airings, re-purposed episodes, broadcast-cable hybrids, dual or split windows--the Lifetime and USA outside-prime-time airings of these series have broken new ground in the distribution of first-run network TV series. USA pretty much pioneered the concept back in 1991 with a similar deal to air Silk Stalkings, then part of CBS' "Crimetime After Primetime" lineup. Barry Diller, chairman and CEO of USA Networks, is credited with updating and resurrecting the Silk Stalkings model for Special Victims Unit, produced by USA Networks' Studios USA and Dick Wolf Productions.

Ahead of the Curve

"A year ago this concept was way outside the envelope, but Barry was just way ahead of the curve," says Dick Wolf, executive producer, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. "My initial reaction was, 'What a fabulous idea--it's the future of broadcasting.'"

The dual-window concept became a crucial part of Studios USA and Wolf's negotiations with NBC. "To me, it was the most important component of the deal, because it was a re-architecturing of the hour part of the business," Wolf says. Given Wolf's reputation and his continued success with the original Law & Order--which in nine seasons has grown into a bona-fide hit in first-run episodes for NBC, fueling the success of repeat episodes on A&E--NBC knew that if they wanted Special Victims Unit, they'd have to give the dual window a try. Unlike ABC's Once & Again arrangement with Lifetime, of which it is a part owner, the driving force behind the Special Victims Unit deal was Studios USA's relationship with USA Networks. With more at stake in such an arrangement than ABC, NBC was concerned about affiliate reactions, and what impact such a deal might have on ratings.

"Certainly, for our affiliates, the exclusivity issue is a big issue," acknowledges Ted Frank, senior VP of current series, NBC. "We were concerned from that standpoint because they want to have NBC shows on NBC and that's it. Exclusivity is the heart of what we do, especially in the early years of a show."

"Speaking from our own experience, it has been tremendously helpful to [the original] Law & Order that it's on every night on A&E, because it's only solidified the audience's attachment to the show," says David Kissinger, president of programming for Studios USA, which co-produces both the original Law & Order and Special Victims Unit. "Although it's a much younger show, Special Victims Unit is experiencing the same kind of lift from its dual window. Viewers just seem to be growing more and more aware of the show, and the trajectory has been extremely good."

"Because of people's disparate viewing patterns, I don't think NBC lost any viewership as a result of the USA run," says Stephen Chao, president of marketing and promotion, USA Networks. "In fact, I think the show has had a chance to have two channels promote one idea and drive a larger audience to the table."

The same is true of Once & Again. "It's really exposing the show to that many more people in a given week," says Dawn Tarnofsky-Ostroff, executive VP, Lifetime Entertainment Services. "Especially in the case of a show like Once & Again where the next week's episode is a continuation of the storyline, it's really helpful to people to have a second chance of seeing the show."

Who's Watching?

But the mystery remains: Are viewers watching Special Victims Unit and Once & Again on cable because the post-primetime schedule better suits their lifestyle? Did they forget to watch it on the network? Or are they simply tuning in to see the episode a second time? Only viewers know for sure, but whatever their reasons, these dual windows don't seem to have been cannibalizing anyone's ratings.

"The benefit of the dual-window arrangement is that it is additive, not exclusionary," Wolf says. "Some viewers may find Sunday at 11 p.m. on USA a more convenient time than Friday 10 on NBC to watch the show--it expands the audience."

"In that time period [Fridays at 11 p.m.], we're up in household ratings by 30 percent, and we're up in women 19-49 by 44 percent for the time period," Tarnofsky-Ostroff says. "Those are pretty good numbers and we've been very, very happy." At the same time, ABC says Once & Again has a 5.4 overall rating in viewers 18-49, with just under 11 million viewers per week.

Over on USA, ratings are up about 25 percent with Special Victims Unit, while on NBC the series has averaged a 5.0 rating and 15 share in viewers 18-49. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's season-to-date 1.5 rating on USA, when cumed with the NBC numbers places the show firmly in the top 20 for all prime-time series," Wolf says.

"At a minimum you can say with certainty that it isn't hurting anyone's ratings," Kissinger says, " but I would argue the opposite, that it's actually helping everybody."

Measuring Success

With no benchmarks in place to gauge the relative success of dual windows, knowing where the show stands can be tricky. "You don't have an alternate universe where Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is airing only on NBC to compare it to," Frank says.

From a media buyer's perspective, it's unlikely advertisers will buy spots on Lifetime over ABC, or vice versa, according to Bob Flood, senior VP/director of national electronic media, DeWitt Media. "If your media objectives call for just broadcast prime-time, then you'll speak to the folks at ABC. If there's a cable allocation, you may buy both of them, but each one can exist on its own merit."

While the networks gain added exposure for their shows, Lifetime and USA benefit by getting current, high-quality programming, and the producers benefit from pre-negotiated syndication deals. "Everyone is looking for ways to lower their costs," Kissinger says. "If they feel they can get a lower license fee arrangement for one of our shows in return for giving one of our cable networks a window, they're very open to that."

"It's an interesting development that they don't have to wait for the show to go into syndication [to get the licensing fees]," Flood says. "Obviously, ABC is benefiting from getting the immediate licensing fee for Once & Again, so there's a shorter window for the producers to generate some revenues. They don't have to produce 100 episodes--it's concurrent with the original production."

Since hour-long dramas aren't as syndication-friendly as 30-minute sitcoms, having a pre-arranged syndication commitment is very desirable for producers.

"Let's face it, it's putting more revenue into the show immediately, which we certainly like the idea of," says Marshal Herskovitz, executive producer, Once & Again. "Also, it was pre-negotiating a cable sale several years down the line. So it was in some ways safeguarding the very large investment that we've put into this both in terms of time and risking our own fees and participation."

Compared with airing syndicated shows or original programming, dual-window arrangements are a good investment for the cable channels. "It's definitely more cost-effective," Tarnofsky-Ostroff says, "but there's also the back-end portion of this deal, which means if the show accumulates enough episodes to go into an aftermarket--meaning syndication of cable sales--we already have a negotiated term with them."

Lifetime and Herskovitz had very few reservations about the deal with ABC even before a trial period spanning the first 13 episodes had ended. Herskovitz, who co-created Once & Again with executive producer Ed Zwick, says: "Even in the initial discussion phase we felt very confident that there was really no downside. I think there was an initial fear that the show being seen on Lifetime might dilute its appeal on the network, but I think we quickly came to understand that that's not how the modern TV watching audience works. In fact, there are many instances where a show being on the air more than once a week has increased its appeal, not diluted it."

Fragmentation Fallout

The future looks promising for even more series to test the dual-window approach, but most participants want to proceed slowly. While Lifetime doesn't have any immediate plans for similar arrangements, Tarnofsky-Ostroff says it is something they definitely want to do again. Likewise, NBC's Frank says: "I think it's something we would certainly consider in the future, but I don't think it's something we would in any way be rushing into. I think it would be very much a case-by-case basis. I don't think you'd want to be in a situation where a significant part of your schedule was airing elsewhere."

The success of these dual-window prototypes has already prompted an increase in discussions of future projects. "We've been in discussions with other networks who have actually come to us and said, 'We would welcome this because we are looking for other ways to draw attention to our shows,'" Studios USA's Kissinger says.

Meanwhile, back at USA Networks, Chao says they've already been in discussions with three networks, something he feels is just the beginning. "There will be themes and variations of this inevitably in the future." Whether USA develops a show and airs it first, followed by a network airing, or through a joint-development deal, Chao says themes and variations will be sprouting up all over the TV landscape. "In the old days, thirty or forty years ago, a great show would have a 40 rating or something, and that's just not the case now," Chao says. Fragmentation has changed the way people watch TV. The development of dual-window deals is one way of addressing those changes. "If the world were not as fragmented, then this would not be a great choice. But I think at this moment, it's a great choice."

Herskovitz sees dual windows are the way of the future. "We're in the midst of a revolution that we can't even see the full extent of at this time," he says. "The delivery systems that are coming--even if you look at TiVo and ReplayTV and what's going to be happening soon with broadband--that the whole notion of scheduling is going to change very soon, probably within five years. It's just going to be in for a huge revolution, I believe. So, these are all interim solutions until we find out what the landscape is going to look like. So we don't need any long-term solutions right now; we just need to find what works for right now."__Cablevision (May 8, 2000)