Devoted to show business and the entertainment industry

When I read about ABC offering ten new shows this coming fall, it brought back some thoughts that I had written about on a business management blog I also post on. It was concerning not the quality of what was being done, but one whether what was being done was the right thing or not.

It's like the comparison we always hear in reference to the buggy whip makers when automobiles were starting to gain market share. It no longer mattered how high the quality of the buggy whip was if nobody was using buggies.

I get the same feeling here when I read about the same old thing that doesn't change over the years.

Here are some of the bullet points made by ABC:

It's an aggressive schedule

We're rolling the dice with "Grey's Anatomy"

We are in a rebuilding mode

There is risk in it

We will market different this year

The network will use a multi-platform media strategy to jump-start its fall marketing campaign

We have to do things differently

Our comedies don't have laugh tracks this year

With all of these points being made, when you really look at it, nothing has really changed, other than the names and some multi-platform marketing.

The question is this: are they working on the right thing anymore? Is linear TV something that the majority of viewers want? Does anybody even care about this stuff. Customers' care about themselves; not this stuff. Do they just need to demolish their business model and change everything?

Disney, in the area of movies, understand that the world has changed. They understand that the pie is shrinking and have responded by cutting back on productions and laying off workers. All of the talk about this falls schedule by ABC gives me the feeling that they aren't seeing any of the right things, but are trying to resurrect something that is shrinking.

I think they're missing something substantial here.