Positioning

HA! The TV Comedy Network

1990
 Why subscribers sign-up with cable --

All the reasons --

reception, choice,
exclusive programs, R-rated movies,
events, narrowcast services --
boil down to one:

Cable provides what broadcast TV is missing.

 Why subscribers stick with cable --

They use it.

(Examples: CNN, Murder She Wrote, Double Dare)

Or think they do.

(Examples: HBO's Encyclopedia, The Family Channel)

 Why TV likes comedy --

TV viewers think they use it.

(Ask them, "Do you watch comedies?" They'll answer "yes.")

And, in fact, they do.

(Comedies are always among the highest rated shows...)
 Why create HA! The TV Comedy Network

Because comedy is big.

The big money at the box office is made by comedies.

The biggest stars --

Cosby, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy --
are comedians.

Comedy clubs have usurped music clubs for a night out.

The most popular programs on TV are comedies.

 But who needs it?

Isn't there enough comedy on TV?

HBO and Cinemax promote comedy specials.

Showtime programs original comedy series.
They all, along with The Movie Channel, show comedy movies.
Network TV has the prime time sitcoms,
independent stations run the reruns and
the Comedy Channel, such as it is, is up and running.

Why add more?

 Why create HA! The TV Comedy Network?

Because viewers like networks that specialize.

 Viewers know how to use
channels that specialize

MTV specializes in music.

Nickelodeon specializes in kids.

CNN in news.

ESPN in sports.

With 36 or more choices, viewers like reliability.

 Viewers are loyal to channels
that specialize and are positioned.

MTV is "not-normal" TV. A relief from TV.

Positioning the programming for a targeted audience
has allowed MTV to outlast every other music effort.

Nickelodeon is "Us vs. Them." A place for kids alone.

So Nick does better ratings, more viewer loyalty, than
"children's blocks" on other networks.

Nick-At-Nite is "Hello out there from TV-Land!" Campy sitcoms

for children of the sixties. So the very same sitcoms
do better on N-A-N than other outlets because
viewers are watching Nick-At-Nite, not shows alone.
 Ratings, promotability, loyalty -- and comedy.

Specific channels or programs

get varying degrees of each.

"It's Garry Shandling's Show" is a promotable.

Never would have happened without Showtime.
New and innovative. Viewership is pretty good.

"M.A.S.H." reruns get high ratings.

And there's no promotional benefit to Channel 5,
just that half-hour rating.

"Cinemax Comedy Experiments" or "HBO One Night Stands"

are highly promotable. The newest, hottest comedians.
Risqué, anything can happen.
People like knowing cable offers them the programs,
even though viewership is low, relative to the movies they air.
 Making HA! The TV Comedy Network successful

Positioning for promotability and loyalty

Programmed for ratings.

 Making HA! The TV Comedy Network successful

Uses stand-up and performance comedians...

-- for hipness, news-value, viewer loyalty.

Since stand-up comedy is the comedy of today,

HA! The TV Comedy Network owns comedy
by making stand-up important.
The whole channel feels cutting-edge.

Uses sitcoms and comedy movies...

-- for ratings.

Because sitcoms and movies --

old/new, classics/re-treads -- get ratings.
 Making HA! The TV Comedy Network successful

Can take even over-played sitcoms,

place them in the context of
cutting edge stand-up and new wave comedians,
and give them new life.

Likewise, the channel can take

cutting edge stand-up, put it in the context of
sitcoms and familiar comedy movies,
and make them feel safe.

The channel becomes the authority on comedy.

The leaders.
 Positioning HA! The TV Comedy Network

Ask yourself:

What would I rather do than laugh?

Watch the news about a terrorist bombing? Or laugh?
Take a chance on drama? Or laugh?
Watch Australian-rules football? Or laugh?
 Positioning HA! The TV Comedy Network

People turn to comedy because,

like watching daytime dramas,
their reactions are predictable.
You know how you'll feel when a comedy is over.

Our positioning statement should say

our comedies won't disappoint you.
 Positioning HA! The TV Comedy Network

Over-promising is a danger:

Rarely do people split their sides,

laugh 'til they cry,
find entertainment hilarious,
or riotous, or hysterical.

Our positioning statement should be

common language, a deliverable promise.
 Positioning HA! The TV Comedy Network

Must be competitive.

Other channels have comedy, or call themselves comedy --

we are comedy.
Our comedy is dependable, reliable.
Like a truly funny comic, we're always on.

We're the only ones who do it all the time --

in a familiar, comfortable form.
It's HA! The TV Comedy Network vs. Everything Else.

Our positioning statement must separate us

from other sources of comedy programming.
It must express our commitment.
And exclusivity of service.
 Positioning HA! The TV Comedy Network

In sum, it should say:

You like comedy -- we all like comedy.

Your reaction is predictable, and it's a likable reaction.
We don't over-promise. We deliver the goods.
Our channel has something all others left out.
 Positioning statement:

COUNT ON A COMEDY.
 COUNT ON A COMEDY.

This is programming that's familiar to you.

We're not trying to invent a new way of programming comedy --
We don't cut up the programming into tiny, unrecognizable bits --
"count on a comedy" -- a comedy -- means the whole comedy.
No surprises -- you always know what you'll find here.
We know what a comedy can do for you, and so do you.
We don't oversell you -- you won't be disappointed.
And -- no one else can make the promise.

The End.
 POSITIONING
CTV: Comedy Television
aka
Comedy Central
1991
THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF POSITIONING:

Descriptive
and
Aspirational
DESCRIPTIVE POSITIONING DEFINES AN EXISTING SITUATION.

Examples:

Avis was #2, and (at least theoretically) already was trying harder before they
came out with that position.

7-up didn't reformulate to become the "Un-cola". The position merely described
what the product already was.
ASPIRATIONAL POSITIONING DEFINES A GOAL FOR A PRODUCT OR
COMPANY.

Examples:

MTV positioned itself as "MTV vs. normal TV" before the channel even got off the
ground.
The positioning served as an aspirational yardstick for everything MTV did, from
advertising and programming to staffing and acceptance of paid advertising.

FOX's position was that it wanted to become the 4th broadcast network. It was a long
term goal that could not be accomplished overnight.
But it provided everyone at the company with a clear sense of purpose.
It gave a certain savvy section of the public someone to root for.
And, after careful selection of material and development of new product, it bore fruit.

They never would have made it without the position.

 WHAT TO BE AND WHAT NOT TO BE--THAT IS THE QUESTION.

An aspirational position should answer this question:

What can we become that will be successful, generate excitement inside our
company as well as in the world, and be as valid ten years from now as it is today?

Aspirational positioning is especially helpful when the "product" doesn't yet exist, as is
the case with CTV.

It is not intended to determine specific programming questions, like whether to do a

weekend of all stand-up or a Lucy marathon, but it could help point in the right general
direction.

It does not have to be true now in order to be appropriate, as long as it is something we

could legitimately work toward.
 WHAT CAN CTV: THE COMEDY NETWORK
ASPIRE TO?

Let's pause for a quick look at history...

 THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION IS COMEDY.

From its earliest days as an entertainment medium, TV has been dominated by comedy.
While there have been successful dramatic shows, TV's benchmarks are, and will always
be, Milton Berle, Lucy, Sid Caesar, Gleason, Dick Van Dyke, The Smothers Brothers,
Laugh-in, Mary Tyler Moore, M*A*S*H*, All In The Family,
Saturday Night Live, Cheers, Cosby, Rosanne, The Simpsons etc....
THERE'S COMEDY EVERYWHERE.

Viewers don't need more comedy on TV because they have it.

They've always had it.
They always will have it.
All the broadcast channels, and nearly every cable channel programs some comedy every
day.

But so far nobody IS comedy.

WHAT CAN CTV OFFER VIEWERS THAT THEY CAN'T GET EVERYWHERE
ELSE?

Comedy round the clock?

Yes, but that's a basically passive claim.

The home for comedy?

Sounds like a retirement community. (Where comedy goes to die.)

The first stop for comedy?

Fine, but why? How do we give CTV the sense of energy that you find with say, MTV
or CNN?

Maybe we need to ask a bigger question...

 HOW CAN CTV
EARN A PLACE IN TELEVISION HISTORY?

Let's pause for another look at history...

THE HOTHOUSE EFFECT

Now and then in the history of show business, time, resources, talent, and vision
fortuitously come together to form hothouses of creativity.

MGM studios in the 30s and 40s is one example.

Disney Studios in the 40s and 50s is another.
Motown in the 60s and Saturday Night live in the 70s are two more recent "hothouses"

All of these emerged from relatively humble beginning and became creative factories
where exceptional talent could be discovered and thrive.
They were places where people who were passionate about movie making, or animation,
or music, or live TV comedy, were eager to come to work often for peanuts --they were
drawn to these places because there was an aura about them of being "the" place where
their dreams could come to life.
WHAT WOULD COMEDY CENTRAL BE?

CTV should see itself as encompassing all of TV comedy's past and future.
The place where TV comedy lives, in the form of classic shows, new shows being
created, new talents being discovered, and eventually new venues being explored (i.e.
feature films, Broadway shows, who knows?)

Like FOX becoming the 4th network, this will not happen overnight.

Like MGM, Disney, Motown and Saturday Night Live, it will mean slowly building a
consumer following around the talents that CTV has nurtured.
CTV COULD BECOME
THE TELEVISION COMEDY HOTHOUSE OF THE 90's...

"COMEDY CENTRAL."

Before we laugh that off as being too grandiose, let's look at what we have going for us.

Time: This is a time when cable is ascending and the broadcast networks are on the
wane. (CNN is already assuming a prominent role in TV news.) Soon virtually all
American households will have cable, and the distinction between broadcast and cable
will blur until it disappears completely.

Resources: CTV is beginning life with a fair amount of publicity, thanks to the war
between HA! and the Comedy Channel. It is the offspring of the most credible, successful
parents in the basic (MTVN) and pay (HBO) cable businesses. It has the combined
financial and subscriber bases of the two, plus an impressive programming roster to
choose from.

Talent: The hottest new talents would spark to this positioning if it were properly
expressed to them. More established talents would be intrigued and would gravitate to us
as time goes by.

Vision: The sky's the limit.

 TWO ROLE MODELS: COMPARE AND CONTRAST

ESPN is a cable channel with no vision and very little energy.

All they do is put sports on TV. Not the top sporting events (they can't get them) or the
most complete, incisive coverage of sports--just sports.
If they started the ESPN play-by-play Institute to teach sport casters how to do better
commentary, people would laugh. ESPN is unlikely to ever become "the world's place
for sports."

CNN, on the other hand, positioned itself as the world's place for news. They opened
bureaus and placed equipment in tiny burgs around the world. At first, people were
skeptical of CNN's vision. But now we're all watching live CNN feeds from Baghdad, the
Secretary of Defense cites CNN as giving the best coverage of the Persian Gulf war, and
the broadcast networks are interviewing CNN reporters on their air. CNN has, in fact,
become the world's place for news.

CTV has a little-known studio which can literally be the "hothouse" where talent and
material can be nurtured. Comedy fans (read: everybody) will be rooting for a channel
that not only gives them great comedy round the clock, but also is growing it from within.
It is the only channel that actually could become the "mythic visionary" of TV comedy.
 SUMMARY

CTV is in a unique position to become the MGM Studios of television comedy. It can
provide and develop every type of comedy for every taste. It can build and nurture fresh
new material and talents. It can be Comedy Central, a home for everything from the solo
stand-up to the next Ghostbusters.

What would Comedy Central mean?

WHAT COMEDY CENTRAL WOULD MEAN TO CONSUMERS.

Comedy Central would win support and patience from the public.

It would place CTV in the role of pioneer, instead of just being one more cable channel
vying for attention.

It would make CTV a channel to watch, regardless of what you might see any specific
time you tune in.
WHAT COMEDY CENTRAL WOULD MEAN TO THE CABLE TRADE.

Comedy Central means that CTV would be a focused channel with vision.

A focused channel with vision translates into an exciting place on the dial--and therefore
an additional lure for new subscribers.
WHAT COMEDY CENTRAL WOULD MEAN TO THE
PRODUCTION/CREATIVE COMMUNITY.

Comedy Central would attract adventurous young talent.

It would represent a chance for freedom and experimentation for more established talent.

With careful development of material, it would eventually become the place to be for
anyone working in comedy.
WHAT COMEDY CENTRAL WOULD MEAN TO CTV.

Comedy Central would build pride and energy within the company.

It would give ad sales, marketing, on-air promotions, and programming a horn to blow
and a target to aim for.

And--if the history of television tells us anything--with luck, vision and hard work,
Comedy Central would succeed.