MyNetworkTV

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MyNetworkTV
Type	Broadcast television network
Country	United States
Availability	Nationwide, Canada and Mexico
Owner	News Corporation Fox Broadcasting
Key people	Roger Ailes, Chairman, Fox Television Stations Group Jack Abernathy, CEO, FTSG Greg Meidel, President
Launch date	September 5, 2006
Website	www.mynetworktv.com

MyNetworkTV (sometimes written My Network TV, and unofficially abbreviated MyNet, MyTV, MNT, or MNTV) is a television network in the United States, owned by News Corporation. It is the lowest-rated of the six major US broadcast networks.

The network began operations on September 5, 2006 with an initial affiliate lineup covering about 96 percent of the country,^[1] most of which are former WB and UPN affiliates. Its original primetime format consisted of hour-long English-language telenovelas (the first two being Desire and Fashion House) that aired in a 5-night-a-week, 13-week pattern.

After failing to attract viewership with that format, the network revamped its schedule in 2007 to a lineup that suggests an aim towards a younger male audience (a la Spike TV),^[2] with movies and mixed martial arts reducing telenovelas to airing only two nights a week. Specials and other non-scripted programming have aired and will be developed; indeed, the network has ceased production of scripted programming.^[3]

MyNetworkTV is a sister network to the Fox network, but operates separately. Roger Ailes oversees the network as chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group (FTSG). Greg Meidel, the network's president, supervises its day-to-day operations, along with Fox executives Jack Abernethy, Dennis Swanson, and Bob Cook.

There has been a ratings increase on the International Fight League show on MyNetworkTV.^[4]

Contents 1 Origins 2 Programming 2.1 Telenovelas 2.1.1 Broadcast Rotations 2.1.1.1 Overseas 2.1.2 Cancellation 2.2 Other programming 2.3 Revamping the Schedule 3 Performance 3.1 Ratings of Original Format 3.2 Ratings of New Format 3.3 Advertisers 4 Affiliation 5 Branding 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Origins

See also: 2006 United States broadcast TV realignment

MyNetworkTV arose from the announcement of new The CW Television Network, which essentially merged The WB and UPN. As a result of several deals in the early part of the decade, Fox Television Stations Group owned several UPN affiliates. These included UPN's three largest affiliates: WWOR-TV in New York City, KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, and WPWR-TV in Chicago. Fox had bought most of them after acquiring most of the television holdings of Chris-Craft Industries, which founded UPN with Paramount Pictures (which was acquired by Viacom around the time of UPN's founding). Despite concerns about UPN's future at the time Fox purchased these three stations, UPN renewed its affiliation deals with the stations in 2003 for three years. That agreement's pending expiration--and some others'--in 2006 gave UPN parent CBS Corporation and The WB parent Warner Bros. the rare opportunity to merge their respective struggling networks, the result being The CW.

The CW included no Fox-owned stations; in fact, the coveted New York, Los Angeles and Chicago affiliations all went to stations owned by The WB's co-owner, Tribune Broadcasting. In response to the announcement, Fox promptly scrubbed all UPN references from its UPN affiliates' logos and promotions and stopped promoting UPN programs altogether.

Media reports speculated that the Fox-owned UPN affiliates would all revert to being independent stations, or else form another network by uniting with the other UPN and The WB affiliates left out of The CW. Fox parent News Corp chose the latter route, and announced MyNetworkTV on February 22, less than a month after CBS and Warner Bros. announced The CW on January 24. News Corp may have chosen the name MyNetworkTV for synergistic means, as it also owns the popular networking website MySpace.com.

[edit] Programming

MyNetworkTV began operations on September 5, 2006 with premieres of its two initial series. Some affiliates unofficially began branding their stations on September 4, 2006--Labor Day--with supplied preview specials. Programming airs from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (Eastern/Pacific time) Monday through Saturday. MyNetworkTV is more akin to a syndication model, such as the Prime Time Entertainment Network, Operation Primetime, or The Disney Afternoon, than major broadcast networks' programming.

At least three affiliate stations present MNTV programs out of pattern:

• KQCA in Sacramento, California airs the MNTV schedule from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. This is is due to Oprah airing in the 9 p.m. slot as their lead-in to their 10 p.m. newscast. KQCA is the second TV station in its time zone, and indeed in its market (after local CBS affiliate KOVR) to start airing network primetime shows an hour early.
• KRON in San Francisco airs MNTV programming from 9 to 11 p.m., after Dr. Phil.
• KJZZ in Salt Lake City, Utah airs MNTV programming from midnight to 2am [2]; the reasons include a local marketing agreement with CBS owned-and-operated station KUTV, which allows KJZZ to re-air some syndicated shows from KUTV, and an extensive schedule of Utah Jazz basketball games (the station and team have the same owner, Larry H. Miller). It had originally aired from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the network's launch.

Heavy sports preemptions are an ongoing problem for MyNetworkTV. Affiliates often scheduled contractual "make goods" of its daily line between 3 and 6 a.m. Not only are these light viewing hours, but they air after Nielsen processes its preliminary morning network ratings.[3]

[edit] Telenovelas

The network's original format focused on the 18-to-49-year-old, English-speaking population^[5][6] with programing consisting exclusively of telenovelas, starting with Desire and Fashion House. Originally, each aired Monday to Friday in continuous cycles of thirteen-week seasons, with a one-hour recap of the week's shows airing on Saturdays; when one series ended, another unrelated series would begin the following week. The fifth and sixth series, American Heiress and Saints and Sinners, each air only two hours per week on separate nights.^[7]

Each hour of novelas was said to cost an average of $200,000,^[8] about one-tenth the cost of traditional prime-time shows.^[9] National advertising spots sold for between $20,000 and $35,000 for a 30-second spot as of September 2006.^[10] The scripts were purchased mainly from Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca and Colombian network Caracol TV.

The shows were shot at Stu Segall Productions in San Diego.^[11] As a cost-saving measure, producers tended to hire performers with limited acting experience.^[12] Also, since scripts were finished before taping starts, scenes on the same set could be shot out of episode order.^[12] All of the shows used the same narrator, actor Ray Van Ness III.

The shows are broadcast in high definition by affiliates with HD simulcasts and in letterbox format on standard definition broadcasts. Each carries a SAP signal carrying a Spanish audio track; at this time, an alternate closed captioning channel with Spanish translation is not used. While the network had originally planned to use the umbrella titles Desire and Secret Obsessions for its telenovelas, each storyline is now titled separately.^[13]

[edit] Broadcast Rotations

All times are Eastern and Pacific (subtract one hour for Central and Mountain time)

	Telenovela	Time (Nights)	Premiere Date	Finale Date
Fall 2006	Desire	8-9:00 PM (Weeknights)	September 5, 2006	December 5, 2006
Fall 2006	Fashion House	9-10:00 PM (Weeknights)	September 5, 2006	December 5, 2006
Winter 2006	Wicked Wicked Games	8-9:00 PM (Weeknights)	December 6, 2006	March 6, 2007
Winter 2006	Watch Over Me	9-10:00 PM (Weeknights)	December 6, 2006	March 6, 2007
Spring 2007	American Heiress	8-10:00 PM (Tuesdays)	March 13, 2007	September, 2007
Spring 2007	Saints & Sinners	8-10:00 PM (Wednesdays)	March 14, 2007	September, 2007

[edit] Overseas

In Canada, CKXT "Sun TV," a station in Toronto, showed the first two telenovelas in the late afternoon. The MyNetworkTV serial lineup was broadcast in Australia as FOXTELENOVELA on the W. Channel.

[edit] Cancellation

On March 1, 2007 MyNetworkTV announced that it will no longer be developing scripted content, likely putting an end to their slate of telenovelas.^[14] The last episode of serialized programming, probably the Saints & Sinners finale, is expected to air by the end of September.^[15]

The network had three more telenovelas in development, Friends with Benefits, Rules of Deception, and Crossed Loves. It tentatively planned to cut their broadcast schedule to one night a week by fall before announcing that all such projects were halted.

[edit] Other programming

The announcement of the new network also stated that additional unscripted (i.e., "reality") and current-affairs programming were in development. These were:

• Catwalk, a series similar to America's Next Top Model
• On Scene, a crime-based news magazine produced by Fox News
• An American version of the quiz show Britain's Brainiest
• An American version of the ITV series Love Island.

MyNetworkTV would abandon development of these programs in Summer 2006 its reality-show development (leaving that responsibility to FOX) and focus solely on telenovelas, even if the format did not initally prove successful.

Recent announcements by Fox regarding additional programming to air on MyNetworkTV O&Os—such as Desperate Housewives repeats, the first-run sitcom Tyler Perry's House of Payne, and a daytime viewer-participation game show, My Games Fever^[16]—do not apply to the network as a whole.

[edit] Revamping the Schedule

In response to the poor ratings performance of the telenovela lineup, highlighted by a rating of 0.7% average households (see "Performance"), reports surfaced^[17] that MyNetworkTV executives planned a major revamp of the network's programming, decreasing its reliance on telenovelas and adding new unscripted programming to the schedule such as reality shows, game shows (such as My Games Fever), movies, and sports, and a possible revisit to a deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.^[18] The deal was not signed with UFC, but rather with another mixed martial arts organization, the International Fight League, in conjunction with Fox Sports Net.^[19][20]

On February 1, 2007, Greg Meidel, who was named to the newly-created position of network president just 10 days earlier, confirmed the rumors and unveiled a dramatically revamped lineup.^[21][22] The intent of the shakeup was to increase viewer awareness of the network (and in turn viewership), as well as to satisfy local affiliates who were disappointed over the poor ratings performance. After March 7 (when Wicked Wicked Games and Watch Over Me finished their runs), telenovelas occupied only two nights of programming, airing in two-hour movie-style blocks rather than on multiple nights. The remainder of the schedule includes theatrical movies and the new IFL Battleground (originally titled Total Impact).

The current schedule is as follows, with telenovelas in green, movies in yellow, and sports programming in red, along with each show's premiere date. Each show occupies the whole two hours of primetime on each night. All times are Eastern and Pacific (subtract one hour for Central and Mountain time), with the exception of Sunday (see below).

Primetime	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM
Monday	IFL Battleground (March 12)
Tuesday	American Heiress (March 13)		American Heiress
Wednesday	Saints & Sinners (March 14)		Saints & Sinners
Thursday	My Thursday Night Movie (March 8)
Friday	My Friday Night Movie (March 9)
Saturday	IFL Battleground (Encore) (March 17)

In addition, the Saturday night telenovela recaps ended immediately, in favor of movies until March. The 1986 film Something Wild aired on February 3, becoming the network's first non-telenovela presentation.

Other movies, specials, and reality programming have been mentioned in the network's future plans. The first two specials aired on March 7--a one-hour preview of IFL Battleground and the Access Hollywood-produced biography special Anna Nicole Smith: A Centerfold Exposed.^[23] Subsequent specials included the World Music Awards (March 10) and Happy Birthday, Elton, a concert special featuring Sir Elton John (scheduled for April 5).^[24]

A side effect of the new programming schedule is the loss of the network's claim that they were the only U.S. broadcast network to have their entire schedule available in HDTV, due to the IFL, some of the network's movies, and the additional programming being produced in 480i standard definition only.^[25]

[edit] Performance

[edit] Ratings of Original Format

MyNetworkTV's debut was far from successful. Desire scored a 1.1 household rating/2 share; Fashion House went up to 1.3/2.^[26] Fox had sold about half of its projections of $50 million in advance commercial sales.^[27]

The network averaged a 0.5 rating and a 2 share in the key 18-49 demographic. It averaged just over one million total viewers. The numbers dropped each night, according to Nielsen Media Research.^[28] These numbers were significantly lower than the programming that aired a year before, mostly UPN and WB programming.^[29] The telenovelas showed more hopeful ratings in markets like Miami, with large Hispanic populations.^[30] News Corp. reported that the network was losing two million dollars per week with the all-novela lineup.^[31]

Paul Buccieri, president of 20th Century Fox Television, said that English-speaking audiences needed time to understand the genre. "We're sticking with it—we believe in this product," he said.^[30] Roger Ailes brought up MyNetworkTV in a Financial Times interview. "When I read the WSJ article^[32] talking about TV stations and MyNetworkTV not doing well and all this crap, you should have seen us at Fox News Channel one year into it," he said. "I've had this job for a year and it takes a little time to get these things off the runway."^[33] Also, an executive of another television network told TV Week magazine that the existence of MNTV was "a miracle" because it went from concept to reality in only six months' time.^[34]

The second pair of telenovelas premiered to even lower numbers than the first pair. Wicked, Wicked Games premiered to a 0.8 rating/1 share overnight ratings during its first 3 nights, while Watch Over Me pulled a 0.7 rating/1 share those same nights. Both shows dropped by a 0.1 rating during the Monday-Wednesday of their second week. The network had hoped for better debuts for the shows since they premiered in December, a time when the major networks usually air reruns of their prime time series and the viewer, presumably, would choose to sample programming on other networks.

After these lower than expected debuts, reports^[35][34] surfaced of a schedule revamp for MyNetworkTV, which were confirmed to begin in March 2007 (see "Revamping the Schedule"). Network president Greg Meidel believed the low ratings were a result of viewers' difficulty to commit to the same program every night, especially with much higher-rated seralized programming (such as Grey's Anatomy) airing only one night a week on other networks.

[edit] Ratings of New Format

As of March 7, 2007 MyNetworkTV is now included in Nielsen's daily "Television Index" reports, alongside the other networks, although they are still not part of the "fast nationals" that do feature the others.^[36] The first unscripted series, IFL Battleground, debuted with a 0.8 household rating, which is equal to the premiere rating of telenovela Wicked Wicked Games.^[37] Some viewers found Battleground's first episode violent and unsettling (its viewership dropped off during its 2nd hour^[38]), especially after promos suggested that competitors would be rendered unconcious and leave the ring on a stretcher, along with the constant sound of a flatline and calls to 911.

[edit] Advertisers

National commercial breaks on the network also show the network's struggles, as direct response ads for informercial products such as the Space Bag and Proactiv have been seen often on the network, taking advantage of the network's low ratings (and in turn, low advertising rates)these ads are more often seen on very low rated network shows with low-cost commercial time, newsmagazines, and on cable networks. Also seen are commercials for other Fox properties, such as DirecTV and promos for FX's series Dirt, and extended MNTV promos

Local stations have seen their advertising also dwindle; a January night on WCGV in Milwaukee for instance had advertisements for products usually not seen in primetime, like Seattle Sutton's low-fat meal program, BlueHippo's controversial computer leasing program, a government forclosure service, and personal injury lawyers who usually advertise only during the station's daytime and late night programming.

[edit] Affiliation

As of August 28, 2006 167 stations are affiliated with the new network, reaching approximately 106 million households and covering 96% of the US. This number includes six stations owned by companies involved in the founding of the competing CW network: three owned by Tribune Broadcasting (located in Atlanta, Georgia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington), and three owned by CBS Corporation; however, Gannett purchased WATL, the Atlanta Tribune station, shortly after Fox confirmed it as a MyNetworkTV affiliate (Gannett's acquisition of WATL was finalized on August 7, 2006).

On March 6, 2006, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that 17 of its stations, mostly affiliates of The WB but also a few from UPN and some independent stations, would become MyNetworkTV affiliates in September 2006. This occurred despite the widespread presumption that affiliation with The CW, which at this point was still available in most markets, would be more valuable; however, Sinclair implied that MyNetworkTV was more financially attractive for the company. Some of the markets the 17 Sinclair stations occupy include Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Tampa, Florida; Cincinnati, Ohio; San Antonio, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama; Raleigh, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

One of the stations named in a April 26, 2006 announcement of MyNetworkTV affiliates was KNVA Austin, Texas, which The CW had added to its list of confirmed affiliates a week previously. On May 1, 2006 KWKB Iowa City, Iowa, another previously-confirmed affiliate of The CW, signed on to carry MyNetworkTV. Currently, these two stations are the only in the US to be aligned with both new networks. KNVA will brand MyNetworkTV shows as "MyNetworkTV on The CW Austin". KWKB's website features station logos labeled as both "KWKB The CW" and "My KWKB". In May, WAWB in Huntsville, Alabama became an official My Network affiliate with the call letters WAMY.

On July 12, 2006, MNTV added WBFS in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (market #17), KTVD in Denver (market #18), WSYX in Columbus, Ohio (market #32), WTCN in West Palm Beach, Florida (market #38), WHP in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (market #41), WUPL in New Orleans (market #43), and WAWS in Jacksonville, Florida (market #52). WBFS, WTCN, and WUPL are owned by CBS Corporation (with WUPL set to be sold to Belo), KTVD is owned by Gannett, WHP and WAWS are owned by Clear Channel, and WSYX is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. WSYX, WHP, and WAWS will carry MNTV on digital sub-channel stations.^[39][40] The deal with CBS to affiliate their non-CW stations with MNTV came as a surprise to everyone in the broadcasting industry, especially after the icy reception between CBS and News Corp that began after the CW and MNTV came into the picture, as they refused to allow WBFS, WUPL and Boston's WSBK to affiliate with MNTV as a response to pulling UPN names from the Fox-owned stations that were affiliated with UPN.

In August 2006, MyNetworkTV filled in its remaining gaps within the top 100 television markets. On August 11, 2006, MNTV announced WNAC in Providence, Rhode Island, market #51, as a secondary affiliate; and WNGT-LP in Toledo, Ohio, market #70, as a primary station. Additionally, on August 22, 2006, the network added KAUT in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, market #45, and a digital sub-channel of WRGT in Dayton, Ohio, market #59, to the affiliate list on its website. Also that month, WZMY in Derry, New Hampshire was announced as the Boston-market affiliate.

Mobile, Alabama is currently the largest city without a MyNetworkTV affiliate, although the city's DMA (which includes Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and the rest of the Gulf Shores region) has Fort Walton Beach station WFGX as the area's station for the network. This is due to WFGX's weak analog signal, which is not available west of Pensacola, and the lack of a must-carry agreement with Mobile's Comcast system, most likely a renmant of the station's former status as a low-rated Jewelry TV station before the launch of MyNetworkTV.

Due to the availability of "instant duopoly" digital sub-channels that are likely easily available on cable and satellite, and the overall lack of a need to settle for a secondary affiliation with shows aired in problematic time-slots, both the CW and MNTV launched with far greater national coverage than that enjoyed by UPN and The WB when they started in 1995. UPN for several years had gaps in the top 30 markets, and by 2005 managed to reach only 85% of the population. This resulted in secondary affiliations with other networks. In those markets, programs were either shown out of their intended time-slots or not at all. Examples included Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise; when they were preempted, there were many viewer complaints.

[edit] Branding

At first, many Fox owned-and-operated stations branded local programming with the My moniker. An example is My 9 and My 9 News for WWOR-TV. However, by the third week in October, at least one station, KCOP, went to a two-column brand, with the network logo on the left side and the channel number, 13, on the right. The verbal identification became "MyNetworkTV channel 13."

The network has no digital on-screen graphic logo in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen on the SD feed (although the HD feed does), allowing their local stations to use their own logo instead. On November 13, the network added a translucent show logo to the bottom left side of the screen, but discontinued it in March with the beginning of the third telenovela cycle.

In the months before the network's launch, several stations changed their on-air identities to accommodate for the then-upcoming network, including all of the Fox Television Stations Group-owned stations. Affiliates also began to show promotions for the network featuring the theme of "Entertainment you can call your own."

At the time plans for MyNetworkTV were announced, there was at least one station that was using a similar moniker. WZMY Derry, New Hampshire filed a trademark for the "MyTV" name in the summer of 2005, and for a short time there was speculation the station might sue Fox for the use of "MyTV".^[41] However, on July 21, 2006, an e-mail was sent to WZMY's MyTV e-mail subscribers that the station would become a MyNetworkTV affiliate. The official announcement came the following week.^[42]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of MyNetworkTV affiliates

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• MyNetworkTV on MySpace
• MY First Schedule MyNetworkTV's initial proposed 2006-2007 telenovela lineup.
• MyNetwork TV female-centric launch promo posted on MySpace (Flash video)
• MyNetwork TV male-centric launch promo posted on MySpace (Flash video)