Been waiting for this for years:
Fox Chief on the TV Industry: ‘We Have Our Head Up Our Ass’ – by Alex Ben Block
At the HRTS newsmaker luncheon, Kevin Reilly says network executives have not fully realized the impact of the DVR and that he is considering a year-round development process. Fox “will do other things when we get to the upfront this year,” he said.
The behavior of television viewers is changing, but the industry is not changing with them fast enough or in the right ways. That was the consensus of panelists at the HRTS newsmaker luncheon Wednesday in Century City.
“A lot of us — the way we conduct ourselves — we have our head up our ass,” said Kevin Reilly, chairman of entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Co., during the panel, which was titled “The State of Broadcast.”
Reilly said the industry has not gotten its arms around the impact of the DVR or the need to consider how viewers embrace and engage with a show, as well as how it rates. He added that a lot of people who make TV don’t actually watch it the way real people watch it. Habits are changing in the age of the DVR, Netflix and Hulu, he said.
“As an industry, when you’re in the talent business, we are way too obsessed on the competition with each other and not enough with the consumer,” said Reilly. “The consumer has spoken loudly and clearly, and the genie is not going back in the bottle.”
Truth! Wotta concept. We’re in awe of you, Mr. Reilly. Awe, we say.