Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Many of you may know that I am a Cable News Junkie.  I am fascinated by the marketing aspect of the Cable News Wars.

The Christmas Day programming choices of each of these networks speaks volumes about their leadership/marketing savvy.  

Many people are with family and friends on Christmas Day so it is not a big TV ratings day.  It is also probably not a great day for the staff of a news network to work (most people, regardless of their religious beliefs, find something interesting to do).  Bottom line – there’s not going to be many big stories on Christmas Day so the cable news networks take a break.  Below is how each of the big three handled Christmas this year:

CNN went with a Larry King Marathon.  They ran 18 straight hours of the talk show.  If you missed a compelling episode of Larry King this year, chances are good they re-ran it yesterday.  If you like Larry, yesterday was a great day.  I’m certain that there was an army of agoraphobic senior citizens on the edge of their seats as they watched Larry pitch softballs to the likes of Donald Trump, Katie Courric and Jon Stewart. 

MSNBC went with a Christmas Crime Marathon – broadcasting the real life trials of murders, rapists and pedophiles.  Heart-warming tales for the whole family.  Pass the eggnog and the arsenic.  Clearly MSNBC was trying to capture the fringe element of teenage males who takes a break from burning ants with a magnifying glass on Christmas Day.  Seriously, who wants to watch an entire day of horrible crime on the most peaceful day of the year? 

Fox News Broadcast Pastor Rick Warren’s Church Services over and over again.  They also augmented this coverage with some topical programming hosted by their regular news anchors (Brit Hume had a look at the involvement of Evangelicals in environmental causes).  There was just enough original programming to get your attention – and the re-runs (the church service) had contextual significance.

At the end of the day, all three news networks ran their programming over and over.  Fox News however remained true to their brand and stayed relevant to the events of the day.  You don’t need to agree with everything you hear on Fox News Chanel  but you should respect their focus on their viewers.  It is clear that they “get it”.  Even on Christmas Day, Fox News was giving viewers what they wanted. 

The other two networks would have been better off running the Yule Log for 18 hours.  At least that would have had some cultural relevance.

 

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