NBC: TV Season to Last 52 Weeks; Shows Announced in April

In the first major game-changing play since the strike ended, NBC has announced that it is moving to a year-round schedule of staggered program introductions - in essence, a 52-week season rather than the traditional fall season that has most new shows airing beginning in September.

NBC plans to announce many of its shows for the full year in April, a month before the other networks unveil their fall shows during the May upfronts, writes The New York Times.

Rather than holding its usual big upfront presentation at Radio City Music Hall, NBC will hold a trade-show-like event at a different venue on May 12, during which it will highlight not only shows coming on NBC’s prime time, but also programs from other outlets like cable channels USA Network and Telemundo, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Network co-chairs Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff will travel to several cities prior to the upfronts to meet with major advertiser clients.

The other networks have said they will move forward with traditional plans and presentations for the upfronts in May.

Media agencies have applauded the move to a 52-week schedule with mild to enthusiastic praise. “It’s a step in the right direction,” said Aaron Cohen, executive vp at Horizon Media. Charlie Rutman, chief executive for North American operations at Havas’s MPG said, “The idea of a constant stream of new programming is good.”

The idea of a 52-week season is not exactly new; all the networks have slowly been moving away from a strict fall season, adding new shows in January and during the summer months. But NBC is the first to give advertisers such an early look at shows slated for the entire year.

A 52-week season could make it more difficult to track hits and flops, says Gene DeWitt, chairman of DeWitt Media in New York. However, there would be several benefits to advertisers, including the fact that the last three months of the year are the most important to many marketers, but come during a time when the shows available are new and untested. The new system would likely see shows that have already debuted and proven successful earlier in the year running during those key months.

The move is an obvious one for viewers, who have made it clear they want continuous programming throughout the year and not just in the fall, writes the San Francisco Chronicle. NBC, though, is a network notorious for counting its pennies. A 52-week schedule could mean shorter runs of new series, more repeats, and more cheap reality programming.

On the other hand, if other networks join NBC, it could herald an important change for network TV. Viewers have already shifted the bulk of their viewing to cable networks, which air new series whenever it suits them. Cable, in fact, has had more than 50 percent market share for a long time. During the writers strike, viewers were hardly up in arms, as they found it a simple thing to find content elsewhere, both on cable and online. A steady stream of new programming across all networks could indeed change the TV viewing landscape and convince viewers to come back to the broadcast networks.