Glenn Beck leaves Headline Prime for Fox News sub prime!

Am I the only one here who thinks that Glenn Beck is making a big mistake?

I can honestly say I dislike the guy's views on a lot of things, but I got a gut feeling in the pit of my stomach that says Glenn Beck just made the biggest mistake in his media career.

Basically,the story is that Glenn Beck is leaving his show on Headline News and going to a new show on Fox News. This story has been reported by my usual sources for US media news, ICN and TV Newser.

But here's the part I don't get.

Glenn Beck has a quite successful show on Headline Prime at 7pm ET and 9pm ET. He stands out amongst the other shows and whilst I often find myself disagreeing with him on a lot of things, he does appear as a stand-out amongst the rest of the Headline Prime output.

Now, put him in the 5pm ET slot that we understand he is to fill at Fox News.

First of all, it's not even a prime time slot, as referenced by the ratings that TV Newser reports. You might call it a sub-prime slot, just like the slots on either side.

Second, you look at the class of anchors and presenters that are going to be all around him. He said it himself...

..."I am thrilled and profoundly humbled to have the chance to bring my program to FOX News. Expanding my audience is exciting, but I'm really looking forward to joining Mr. Ailes and his world-class team."...

It is a world class team, with tons of experience.

Neil Cavuto, Shepherd Smith, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Greta Van Susteren. None of these people are broadcast novices. All have years and years of experience not just in broadcasting, but specifically in TV. By contrast, Glenn's TV experience dates back to 2006. And he's not the best host you'll ever watch. Then again in my book, neither is Bill O'Reilly, but the difference there is O'Reilly has worked in the industry for a long time, and has perfected his on-air persona, to such a degree that I have to respect the work that has got him there, even if his views are sometimes if not mostly wrong.

Glenn Beck is going to look like a rank amateur amongst these pros. He's leaving a slot that has seen over 200% growth in his time there, and prime time slots yet, to go to a sub-prime slot where he's gonna look like a rank amateur. His show is going to look like what it is, a bad copy of the work that Bill O'Reilly has done over 12 years.

Professionally, I wish him well in his future endeavours, but I can't help but wonder whether this move to Fox News will end up being a career killer for him, at least when it comes to TV.

US Cable News Ratings: Countdown's best figures!

This is a post that I am cross posting on both Viewpoint and EMC MediaBlog. For those of you who read one blog but not the other, a brief intro. Viewpoint is my own personal blog where I cover an eclectic mix of subjects. EMC MediaBlog is a blog I contribute to along with many other Transdiffusion colleagues about the media, predominantly in Britain, but we also cover overseas media as well. So, with the introduction to new readers out the way, it's time to talk about the growing Countdown.

No, this is nothing to do with the Channel 4 game show which started on the same day that the channel did, but a news programme on US cable network MSNBC. Countdown with Keith Olbermann is one of MSNBC's most popular shows, and is in many ways, the ratings flagship of the network. However, it is ususally behind many other shows on both Fox News Channel and CNN.

All that could be changing, because last Sunday (26th August 2007), MSNBC's parent company, NBC, aired a live Sunday version of the show, before a pre-season NFL game. Preliminary ratings indicate the show was watched by around 4.1 million viewers, which is around 6 times the usual audience for the programme on MSNBC (around 600-700 thousand), which for a show that wasn't advertised heavily, except on the political blogosphere,is a pretty decent performance.

Now, the numbers for Wednesday night's cable news ratings have just been released, and they reveal some interesting facts.

In what is seen in advertising circles as a key audience demographic, the 25-54 demographic, Countdown was only 6000 viewers behind their big rival in the 8pm timeslot, The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel (299,000 for Countdown, 305,000 for the Factor). However, the bigger story lies in the total viewer numbers, where Countdown recorded what must be its best performance ever, 974,000 viewers.

This doesn't beat the Factor, in a week where Bill O'Reilly is on holiday, but it did emphatically take second place, behind the Factor's 1.641 million, but well ahead of third place CNN (527,000). Maybe O'Reilly being off this week does help, but I think the greater factor here is the live Sunday edition of Countdown which has definitely brought new viewers, to the show, and in the long run, could bring new viewers to MSNBC. Only time will tell.

On that wednesday, Countdown was watched by more viewers than any of the following programmes on US cable news.

The Big Story with John Gibson (Fox News Channel)
Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN)
Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)
Glenn Beck (Headline News)
Nancy Grace (Headline News)

Add to that that it was less than 100,000 viewers behind these programmes...

Lary King Live (CNN - 1,029,000)
On The Record with Greta Van Susteren (Fox News Channel - 1,071,000)

...and you have an idea of just how good a performance it was. Larry King Live was the only programme on CNN to rate higher and nobody on Headlines News could even get glose. In fact, even combining the ratings of any two Headline News shows that day wouldn't help them beat Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Is this the start of a trend? We'll have to wait and see, but there is definitely signs of an upturn, and expect these numbers to be heavily celebrated by MSNBC.

CNN Pipeline goes free...soon!

It looks like the subscription model for online news could soon be dead in the water. Inside Cable News and Media Bistro's TV Newser are both reporting that CNN.com's Pipeline service will change from a subscription model to an advertising model when CNN.com gets enhanced on July 1st 2007.

I'm hoping that CNN take this idea a bit further and offer CNN, CNN Headline News and CNN International as video streams. They already offer an audio stream of CNN, and whilst this is a return to something that they used to do many years ago, they haven't brought back Headline News and CNN International as audio streams, which they used to offer as well as CNN.

The streams don't have to be mega high quality. An 80-150 kbps stream would be generally viewable and listenable, where as BBC News 24's 34kbps stream is just dire.

But this will be a good start for CNN. Now, perhaps this will show to other news channels around the world that the subscription model for online news just isn't sustainable, as people just won't pay for this online, in just the same way, they wouldn't spend £3/$5 to subscribe to a news channel via their cable or satellite provider. That is why news channels tend to be FTA/FTV or Primary subscription at most, not premium, which is what a £3/$5 subscription is considered to be.