Apr 26, 2012 -- 11:41AM, Ironhold wrote:

Apr 26, 2012 -- 9:26AM, Bodean wrote:

BUT .. that said ... IMO .. the main reason OWN hasn't taken off, if simply because she launched a new product in a saturated market.  There's over 500 channels on cable and satelite TV for people to watch.  Contrast that to when Oprah was launched, 1986, when a good portion of the folks were still watching network tv on rabbit ears.  Further, it wasn't all oprah all the time.  She owned the 5:00 EST slot, where there was little competition.

As a counter-point, I give you The Hub.

It's a joint venture between Hasbro, American Greetings, and Discovery Networks; it replaced Discovery Kids, and was launched just four months ahead of OWN (10-10-2010).

80% of its prime-time line-up consists of second-run movies and re-runs from the 1960s - 1980s.

It was beating OWN 3 - 1 in the primetime ratings at one point, and is constantly besting itself in regards to ratings.

What does that say to you?

Interesting example ... but let's look at the differences.

The Hub, is a joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery, and was essentially a name change to illustrate the new joint venture.  The show continued it's previous format of "educational TV" for preschoolers, and even retains many of the original Discovery Kids shows like Adventure Camp.  Hasbro brought the additions of established Hasbro Brands, like My Little Poney and Transformers.

It's of note, Discovery Kids/The Hub already had a base of viewers in existence.  Thus, you have a child or parent turn on the TV to the Discovery Kids number channel, and see much of the same programs, as well as other programs that kids already know and like, the uptake of the channel is of an "established nature".

There's also the "audience" thats targeted.  As I said, the kids already have the channel number for Discovery Kids/Hub memorized.  They are kids, and really relegate their TV preferences to kids shows and channels ... which are usually limited to 5-6 channels.  They turn on the Hub, and see what they already love.  The Hub, is a channel they already know.

IN CONTRAST ... OWN launched to an adult female audience.  Unlike when Oprah was launched, OWN is having to compete with the Food Network, HGTV, QVC, the Soap Channel, Life Time, ... and a whole list of other shows that were not in existence.  Oprah did not have to "steel" viewers from such a large variety of established viewing.  The mere existence of "choice" in a saturated market makes it harder for OWN to establish a sufficient viewership.   Further, OWN was not just a "name change" of an existing popular channel, with a previous viewing audience.  My wife watches the Barefoot Cantessa everyday at 4:00.  Occassionall Ellen.  For OWN to steel her away from such shows is damn near impossible.  The fact that she has TWO shows she already watches shows that loyalty is much harder to establish in such a saturated market.

To add to that ... OWN's programming is not "WOW"!  Like I said, Oprah needs to establish a show with an up and comming identity that will attract people out of curiosity.  Odonnel .. ain't it.  She's a has been.

JMO.

Apr 26, 2012 -- 5:45PM, Ironhold wrote:

...except, the network's weekday prime-time line-up consists of Happy Days, 1960s!Batman, and other shows that most kids wouldn't even recognize.

It's only two days a week that their prime-time has shows most kids would be aware of, and even then some of the shows (like Dan Vs.) still lean towards the parents in regards to appropriateness.

What's more, back when it was just Discovery Kids, Discovery Networks never even bothered publishing the channel's ratings because they were that abysmally poor; in that sense, it's not like the station had that large a carry-over audience on launch.

That's a fair enough response Iron .. but as noted on Wiki regarding the HUB ... they are targeting two unique audiences.  Kids ... and People who enjoy watching old reruns of older shows.  I mean let's face it, some shows just never go out of style.  There is this group of people who'd rather watch reruns of Happy Days, than watch the politcally, agenda driven crap the networks put out today.

Also .. according to Wiki ... the HUB is not doing as well as you might think.  It may be beating OWN ... but, that's not real hard to do.  Compare The Hub to DisneyXD ... The Hub loses by triple and quadruple digits ... and really hurts in Prime Time.

I'm not saying that OWN's programing doesn't suck .. it does, and that surely contributes to its lack luster viewership.  Like I said ... Rosie just don't cut it anymore.  Unlike Happy Days .. people don't want to remember Rosie, rather, just the opposite.  The HUB increased Discovery Kids ratings as a channel, which is good .. but like I said, that's an increase in the ratings for an existing Number Channel, that kids already watched to some extent.  OWN, was an out of the box new network ... and it flopped.

Apr 26, 2012 -- 10:03PM, Ironhold wrote:

ratings for one of The Hub's recent specials

Numbers might still be low compared to other cartoon stations, but when you get 102% - 1100% increases in viewership among your various demographics, you're doing something right.

I'm not saying that the HUB is not doing something right.  I agree with you on that.  They've made huge improvements over Discovery Kids.

I"m just saying that there's more to the story than meets the eye if you are going to compare Hubs success to OWN's failure.  For starters, the "demographic".  It targets kids.

Are you going to let your kid watch HBO, Showtime, and other movie channels?  Do you really think kids are interested in HGTV, Food Network, News Channels, and the like??

The "market" for Hub, is much more resticted ... Parents restict kids choices with regards to channels, thus, the competition is not quite as broad ... just sayin.