More details on Viacom saying goodbye

[SUPES]

Meltzer:

At the up-fronts, Spike TV came out with a new logo and direction, with the new catch phrase, “Spike: The Ones to Watch.” The goal is to no longer be a men’s network but to try and attract more women viewers and create more original television shows. One of the reasons they dumped Impact is because they wanted to debut new shows in prime time and Impact took up two prime time hours every Wednesday, and they already had Fridays blocked off for fighting shows that draw a heavily male skewed audience. The idea is rotating fighting shows on Fridays. They are adding several new shows and have reached a deal with 7 Bucks Entertainment, which is Dwayne Johnson’s company. Johnson and business partner and ex-wife Dany Garcia will create and produce programming including live specials, sports and shows built around troops and veterans.

[Deleted]

The Rock did it for the people.

[Mozenrath]

Can't really fault them. If they're rebranding, they do need room for new content, and no one can say they didn't give TNA ample time to attract an audience.

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

It makes sense when you are re-branding a network that you take a way a show that overall hasn't done that well in Prime Time compared to other shows on any other night and a TNA product that has going notably down hill on the last years on Spike. Now TNA is on a network that while they look great in ratings for the network they are on only because the lower % of people that get that network and likely all people from that 1.0 Spike got who has Destination America compared to new fans. If TNA was at less showing an increase in live event fans and a climb in ratings shown a dominates anything they had, they likely would kept them.

[Sephiroth]

Trying to be a "men's network" was a dumb, gimmicky idea anyway.

[________ has left the building]

Mar 5, 2015 9:03:39 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

Trying to be a "men's network" was a dumb, gimmicky idea anyway.

At the time, it made sense. There were networks that catered towards a women demographic but not one for exclusively men (unless you count the Playboy channel and ESPN). So TNN got rebranded as Spike to do that. The problem is they went full Maxim. And just like Maxim, it got played out before long. You got El Rey that is early Spike and Esquire TV which is more upscale male. 

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Moving away from being "The Network for Men" isn't something new, Spike had been moving away from that for along time. They moved to being a cheap reality show network with stuff like Cops, Jail, and Bar Rescue.

[Sephiroth]

Mar 5, 2015 9:26:53 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

Mar 5, 2015 9:03:39 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

Trying to be a "men's network" was a dumb, gimmicky idea anyway.

At the time, it made sense. There were networks that catered towards a women demographic but not one for exclusively men (unless you count the Playboy channel and ESPN). So TNN got rebranded as Spike to do that. The problem is they went full Maxim. And just like Maxim, it got played out before long. You got El Rey that is early Spike and Esquire TV which is more upscale male. 

Virtually every other network out there is focused primarily toward a male demographic. The few that are devoted to women take it to a downright cartoonish level, and that is what they did when they re-branded TNN as Spike.

[A Platypus Rave]

Mar 5, 2015 12:09:51 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

Mar 5, 2015 9:26:53 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

At the time, it made sense. There were networks that catered towards a women demographic but not one for exclusively men (unless you count the Playboy channel and ESPN). So TNN got rebranded as Spike to do that. The problem is they went full Maxim. And just like Maxim, it got played out before long. You got El Rey that is early Spike and Esquire TV which is more upscale male. 

Virtually every other network out there is focused primarily toward a male demographic. The few that are devoted to women take it to a downright cartoonish level, and that is what they did when they re-branded TNN as Spike.

By TV for men they specifically meant the bros. Which is what I believe he meant with the Maxim remark.

Mar 5, 2015 8:59:05 GMT -5 Can you afford to pay me, Gah said:

It makes sense when you are re-branding a network that you take a way a show that overall hasn't done that well in Prime Time compared to other shows on any other night and a TNA product that has going notably down hill on the last years on Spike. Now TNA is on a network that while they look great in ratings for the network they are on only because the lower % of people that get that network and likely all people from that 1.0 Spike got who has Destination America compared to new fans. If TNA was at less showing an increase in live event fans and a climb in ratings shown a dominates anything they had, they likely would kept them.

thing is they weren't GETTING 1.1's towards the end.

They were averaging around .8 I think...

[SAJ Forth]

So even without Russo as a consultant and Dixie going through a table, TNA were not long for the network anyway. Where does his leave the MMA content.

[Deleted]

Mar 6, 2015 15:54:12 GMT -5 SAJ Forth said:

So even without Russo as a consultant and Dixie going through a table, TNA were not long for the network anyway. Where does his leave the MMA content.

I'm pretty sure that Spike owns at least part of Bellator so they'll hang around.

[Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster]

Mar 6, 2015 15:54:12 GMT -5 SAJ Forth said:

So even without Russo as a consultant and Dixie going through a table, TNA were not long for the network anyway. Where does his leave the MMA content.

Viacom owns Bellator so it aint going anywhere.

[Ryushinku]

I work for Bellator.

At the general goods store.

[Magnus the Magnificent]

"Spike: The Ones to Watch."


I don't get it?

[Andrew is Good]

I'm not trying to come off like I'm blowing the guy, but Court Bauer of MLW predicted that would be the case a good year to a year and a half before Impact left Spike.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Mar 7, 2015 10:14:16 GMT -5 Andrew is Good said:

I'm not trying to come off like I'm blowing the guy, but Court Bauer of MLW predicted that would be the case a good year to a year and a half before Impact left Spike.

To be fair, people on here were predicting that outcome long before then, heck, they predicted it before Spike's last renewal of Impact because Spike have been rebranding for some time now.

[Mochi Lone Wolf]

There's something that I find hilarious about WWE's biggest PPV draw of the past few years being one of the biggest benefactors of the rebrand that gave TNA the axe.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Mar 7, 2015 11:19:39 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

Mar 7, 2015 10:14:16 GMT -5 Andrew is Good said:

I'm not trying to come off like I'm blowing the guy, but Court Bauer of MLW predicted that would be the case a good year to a year and a half before Impact left Spike.

To be fair, people on here were predicting that outcome long before then, heck, they predicted it before Spike's last renewal of Impact because Spike have been rebranding for some time now.

Of course, let's not let this distract from the fact that TNA let themselves become expendable to Spike.

If they were able to grow their brand and create exciting television, Spike would have found them a slot in the rebranding.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Mar 11, 2015 18:56:27 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

Mar 7, 2015 11:19:39 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

To be fair, people on here were predicting that outcome long before then, heck, they predicted it before Spike's last renewal of Impact because Spike have been rebranding for some time now.

Of course, let's not let this distract from the fact that TNA let themselves become expendable to Spike.

If they were able to grow their brand and create exciting television, Spike would have found them a slot in the rebranding.

Lets not kid ourselves, TNA would have had to be drawing WWE programming ratings for a fraction of the cost to be bulletproof and I don't think they would have gotten that even if they were well booked because they're Royal Crown Cola trying to compete as like for like with Coke. Even if they were doing solid 2 ratings these days, they still have the probem with Spike trying to shed their reputation as the tacky man channel to deal with, big ticket advertisers not wanting to advertise wrestling programming and the fact Spike have no ownership of the product they're broadcasting.

I'd be interested to see what the programming Spike replaced Impact with is drawing these days.

[chrom]

Mar 11, 2015 18:56:27 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

Mar 7, 2015 11:19:39 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

To be fair, people on here were predicting that outcome long before then, heck, they predicted it before Spike's last renewal of Impact because Spike have been rebranding for some time now.

Of course, let's not let this distract from the fact that TNA let themselves become expendable to Spike.

If they were able to grow their brand and create exciting television, Spike would have found them a slot in the rebranding.

Of course, people who are blaming Spike for TNA's mess forget that once, TNA was The Crown Jewel of Spike and its highest rated show. It was when they started getting shows that were cheaper to produce and got higher ratings and TNA lost more money then they were making and their ratings started to go in a downward spiral that they became no longer valuable to them as they weren't making anything off of them. What was it, in 2011 that they promised Spike that they'd be getting 2.0 ratings by the next time they negotiated and in fact they lost over 30% or so of their audience?

It's like I've said before, if I'm not making money off of you and you are costing me more than you're worth, why should I keep you? If TNA had actually chosen to grow and expand instead of blasting their toes off, they would not be in this mess.