David Vinjamuri    david@brandtrainers.com

David Vinjamuri is adjunct Professor of Marketing at NYU and President of ThirdWay Brand Trainers, a leading brand marketing training company. David has over 18 years of marketing and management experience. David started his career at Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola in brand management and marketing. David has also led marketing groups at DoubleClick, Save.com and a major private label manufacturer. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and studied marketing and manufacturing at Harvard Business School.

David writes and speaks frequently on marketing. He is editor and lead reviewer for the ThirdWay Advertising Blog, a Google® top five search pick for “Advertising Blog.” He has been the featured guest lecturer on the Queen Mary 2 and contributes regularly to Advertising Express. David’s 2004 article on branding called “What’s in a Name,” in the Journal for Nonprofit Management has helped to spark renewed interest in branding among nonprofits. David’s book on entrepreneurial branding will be published by John Wiley & Sons in 2008.


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COMMENTARY: Why Network Television Needs a Minor League

writers-strike.jpgIssue: As the Writers Strike End, Network Executives Contemplate Alternatives to Pilot Season
Commentary by: David Vinjamuri

The strike may be over, but the longterm effects of the Writer’s Strike are only just beginning. Chief among them is the question of how to develop new shows for network television. The old model - a pilot season where money is lavished on producing many shows which never see the light of day - is expensive and inefficient.

The answer to this question already exists though - and it’s in a place few are looking for examples these days - major league baseball. The major leagues understand that very few high school or college baseball players are ready to hit 100mph fastballs on day one. Instead of setting these guys up for failure, they send them to compete in leagues designed to develop their skills. Those who flourish get a chance to join the big show - the major leagues.

Network executives have already accidentally done this by promoting series like Showtime’s Dexter and USA Network’s Monk to prime time slots during the strike. Now they should consider a more serious and nuanced development plan.

Internet channels are crying out for content, for one thing. A series could be tested on iTunes, Joost, YouTube or a myriad of other places online. Three or four pilot episodes might be enough to pull together enough of an audience to justify a season-long run on a basic cable station. Then if the audience grows (in size and in passion) the series could make the jump to a broadcast network. This would also give each series a backstory - something for new fans to explore.

The writers’ strike has given television networks an unprecedented opportunity to change their business model. It would be a shame to waste it.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm and is filed under commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “COMMENTARY: Why Network Television Needs a Minor League”

  1. Raafi Says:
    March 3rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm

    The internet is already functioning as a sort of informal minor league for tv people. Web show successes like Ze Frank, rocketboom, and these guys proved that at least the talent agencies are interested in the folks who are doing the web tv thing the right way. The problem for the networks, I think, is if they build a site to use as a minor league venue and nobody goes there to watch the shows, then it goes down as a miss. I’m guessing, also, that they’re a little too precious to let youtube or some like place be the venue for testing what they hope to be high-quality material. We’ll see how the Joost thing goes. NBC/Fox’s hulu.com functions as a hybrid of some of these ideas as well.

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