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GSN's new sked starting June 14th......

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CaseyAbell:
You could take a peek at the Adlink demos and get a real good idea of what operators think of GSN. The channel skews old, female and lower-income.

Life ain't fair and there's nothing morally wrong with these demos. But most people in the teevee business aren't thrilled with that viewer profile because it limits advertising possibilities pretty severely.

tyshaun1:
[quote name=\'CaseyAbell\' date=\'May 16 2004, 09:50 AM\'] You could take a peek at the Adlink demos and get a real good idea of what operators think of GSN. The channel skews old, female and lower-income.

Life ain't fair and there's nothing morally wrong with these demos. But most people in the teevee business aren't thrilled with that viewer profile because it limits advertising possibilities pretty severely. [/quote]
 There are several other channels that have heavily skewed (sometimes poorly skewed) dempgraphics, that's what niche channels tend to do. But that doesn't mean the operator thinks less of the channel, especially since you didn't answer the question. ;)

Tyshaun

Jimmy Owen:
So, I guess the best hope for a GSN2 would be if Viacom or ABC/Disney bought GSN.  Then there would be leverage with cable operators, etc.  In the near future, might there be an indivdualized pay-per-view system where you call your cable company, ask them to rack up "Whew!" episode #153 and go from there, since it has been discussed that there is no market for game show DVDs and alternatives to GSN?

Matt Ottinger:
[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'May 16 2004, 10:59 AM\'] There are several other channels that have heavily skewed (sometimes poorly skewed) dempgraphics, that's what niche channels tend to do. But that doesn't mean the operator thinks less of the channel, especially since you didn't answer the question. ;) [/quote]
 Parsing the precise wording of an argument is a weak way to make a point.  If I was a cable operator, I'd personally be very fond of GSN, of course, because I like game shows.  There may very well be quite a few cable operators who are personally fond of GSN.  

The fact remains that GSN actually is a low-rated, bad-demo channel, and any cable operator who would let his personal opinion blind himself to that fact probably wouldn't remain a cable operator very long.

Jimmy Owen said:

--- Quote ---So, I guess the best hope for a GSN2 would be if Viacom or ABC/Disney bought GSN.
--- End quote ---
Something like that.  Or FOX, or NBC Universal.  None of those are very likely either, of course.  One of us could win the lottery (I'm thinking a multi-state one), buy up a lot of libraries and make a deal with Direct TV too.  As long as we're dealing within the framework of what is possible in a world of limitless possibilities.

CaseyAbell:
Of course, Matt is correct. (Hey, I can kiss up to the guy in charge!) I have no idea if the people who make decisions at cable and satellite systems are personally fans of game shows or not. But they don't get paid to put personal faves on their systems. They get paid to put stuff on their screens that will get the best numbers and demos.

GSN does okay as a niche cabler, but it still reaches just over 50 million households in the country. The big cable nets reach 80 million of so. That's a pretty telling indicator that the systems aren't clamoring for GSN.

On the other hand, I'm actually a little surprised that GSN has been able to grow its household availability as much as it has. Sooner or later technology may reach a tipping-point where just about any programming that appeals to more than three people might get a place on cable and satellite systems, because places could be virtually unlimited. The Internet-ization of teevee, you might call it.

That's when GSN2 stands a chance. That's when the Match Game Network might stand a chance, with a MGN2 spinoff that only features non-Dawson episodes. Or Game Show Forum Live could be on television, which is a pretty sobering thought.

But we ain't there yet.

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