Mad Coyote TV
I am in the process of launching Mad Coyote TV. This will solve several problems that we have been facing for the past decade. On a regular basis someone will stop me and ask a version of, “You’re ratings are so high, why does the station just not put you back on the air?” The equation in local television is this; to take the gamble on a local show with all of the cost. These cost have been something that the station has been willing to accept.
Here’s the part that you don’t know, and what has stopped me from having my own show; inventory… that’s what they call it. Inventory, like in any other business is what the station is really selling. Add all of their efforts and cost together and all it comes down to is a time slot, that half hour or hour time slot is called inventory. And the final equation is this; the station can hire and pay me, hire and pay a crew, take their very expensive equipment along with a vehicle and all of the insurances and fuel that go along with that vehicle, and then use that several hundred thousand dollar editing system and another employee, don’t forget the employee benefits… now we get to sales staff that has to go out and find and keep happy on a weekly basis a sponsor! Got it… now we get to the equation take all of that and put it on the air and pray that viewers will show up and that the shifting financial numbers will add up to a profit that must reach a level set by the station’s parent corporation. It’s all of that risk or earn a guaranteed few thousand dollars, to have one employee pop in a tape from an infomercial provider and sit and watch it for 23 minutes, the other seven minutes are more air time to sell. This equation is so strong that you can now see infomercials at noon on Sunday on network stations. And local programming, well it’s there but it’s formulaic and every minute is sold. I know what you are thinking, ‘who wants to watch infomercials?’ The station is aware that this equation is slowly eroding away at their loyal viewers, but like quitting smoking or losing weight, it’s a problem that they will address next quarter or next year. For this quarter, the profits are high enough to drive the stock price and that is the end game.
After a decade of fighting this battle along with my ongoing health issues, I had a good friend, who is in a position to know the television business both locally and nationally, say to me, “Joe, TV is dead!” “It’s yesterdays news!” He explained that my biggest battle, “Inventory” is nonexistent on the web. And unlike television, with their Neilson ratings, which is a random sampling of viewers then a projected idea of eyes on sets, with the internet I can see exactly how many viewers have watched my cooking segment, how long they watched, exactly when they click off, where they are watching from and even which devices they are using, ie; Windows, Macintosh, Blackberry, Iphone, Ipad. All of which helps me decide what to cook, how long and how deep to go with the information. And this gives advertisers hard numbers and demographics, which then allows us to put a dollar value on my work. And once a video is launched and capitalized it just keeps working it is a library of my work that anybody in the world can watch at any time they choose. And if I do my job, which is to have an strong opinion and state it clearly, in format that entertains, viewers will share the information with friends and viola, we’ve got an audience!
So we have started shooting segments that we will have on line in the next few weeks. We are getting equipment and people in place for a launch. So as we used to say, in that old, tired medium called TV… Stay Tuned!
P.S. If you’re wondering would I take a contract on local TV. Would I go back to that dinosaur and fight an uphill battle for a dieing medium... you bet your ass I would!
