CNBC’s ‘docu’ drama
Call it the winter of CNBC’s discontent.
The crown jewel of NBC Universal’s cable stable, CNBC has tried to extend its business day audience into primetime with original programming, but the effort has gone into hibernation during the long, cold months, after a successful autumn.
Based on premiere-night ratings for the business network’s last 10 documentaries, CNBC averaged 332,000 total viewers and 155,000 viewers in the adult 25-54 demographic from Sept. 23 thru Dec. 16. Included among the documentaries to air during that time were “New Age of Wal-Mart,” “Coca-Cola: The Real Story,” and “Inside the Mind of Google.”
But ratings began a precipitous decline with the Dec. 16 broadcast of “Illegal Gambling.” That documentary and the four others to premiere since then, which include “Marriage from Hell: The AOL Time Warner Merger,” and “Planet of the Apps,” averaged a total audience of just 178,000 and only 75,000 viewers aged 25-54.
Part of the reason for the decline has to do with the subject matter being covered, of course — Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and Google are more broadly appealing than a compendium of business highlights from the last decade or the evolution of iPhone apps.
Another factor has to do with budgets; the broader the topic, the bigger the budget. And a bigger budget generally equates to bigger ratings.
CNBC’s primetime audience does appear to be warming up as winter turns to spring, however.
Its most recent documentary pre miere, “Business Model: Inside the mak ing of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue,” garnered 310,00 total viewers on premiere night and 100,000 viewers aged 25-54. Those ratings are the best for a documentary on the network since the Dec. 3 premiere of the Google documentary — spanning five shows.
Perhaps Brooklyn Decker, SI’s cover model, could be used as a roving reporter.
Plus, the new season of “American Greed” — which highlights busi ness- related scandals and is produced out of the long- form unit that handles documentaries — is on fire. The first two episodes of the new season averaged 282,000 total viewers and 152,000 viewers aged 25-54.
Based on the ratings, CNBC, like the rest of us, is probably anxious for winter to be over.
Nets Deliver
The New Jersey Nets may be last in the standings and last in average attendance, but they continue to lead the league in inspiring marketing gambits.
Remember the summer season- ticket trolling barbecues? The league’s first-ever opposing-team jer sey giveaways? The team’s own Chamber of Commerce? Priceless.
Now team president Brett Yormark has dreamed up another giveaway that’ll bring one of the team’s players closer to some fans — like to the front door of their house.
Yormark and team sponsor Domino’s Pizza are running a contest that will have the winner receive a pizza delivered to their home by a Nets player — who will be accompanied by the team mascot and some Nets Dancers.
“We continue to deliver on our goal to be the most accessible team in sports,” Yormark said.
It’s almost enough to make you forget that the dreadful team may not make it to double-digits in wins this season.
A little wing ding
Aren’t we still in the Great Recession, with a stubbornly high unemployment rate? Aren’t consumers shutting their wallets?
I certainly thought so.
So you have to feel for the executives at Buffalo Wild Wings, the 658-unit mid-tier restaurant chain that worked its tail off to grow the business last quarter, and generally succeeded. Same-store sales increased 2.6 percent and profits jumped to $8.3 million from $7.7 million the previous year. It is one of the few growth stories left on Wall Street.
But it wasn’t good enough for the Street.
The company missed estimates by five cents a share and the stock tumbled 11 percent to $42.94 — its largest drop in 14 months. Company brass remain bullish.
“Despite the challenges of our economy, our momentum has continued, and we achieved the healthy annual growth goals we set for ourselves,” CEO Sally Smith said in a statement. “We are confident we can achieve our new annual goals of 13 percent to 15 percent unit growth and 20 percent net earnings growth in 2010.”
Perhaps it’s time to gobble up some shares.
Snow much bad news
If the February snowstorms have you down, just think about how blue the folks in Atlantic City are feeling.
Casino business there fell for the 17th month in a row in January — and that was before the white stuff fell, which surely kept the buses and regular patrons away.
The city’s 11 casinos saw business fall 8.5 percent to $294.2 million from last year, and is down from $406 million during January 2006, its best-ever start to a year.