In an unexpected programming move, NBC's cable news upstart MSNBC on Tuesday began to rerun three shows from the previous night's schedule of sister channel CNBC. For an undisclosed period of time, CNBC's "Equal Time," "Hardball" and "Rivera Live" will run on MSNBC the following morning from 10 a.m.-noon.
MSNBC hopes the CNBC programs will improve ratings and make better use of MSNBC's late morning hours. MSNBC rep Maria Battaglia said that after MSNBC's morning news coverage, "we were kind of waiting for the stories to develop," so the network will experiment with the CNBC shows in late morning.
Battaglia characterized the new schedule as an experiment and said that the shows will be interrupted for breaking news. On Wednesday, "Equal Time" and "Hardball" were yanked so MSNBC could run live updates of allegations that Bill Clinton encouraged a former White House intern to lie about having an affair with the president.
But cable operators do not like when cable networks reuse programming from one network on a sister channel.
"If we're paying license fees for channels, we expect to get value that's commensurate with those fees," said an executive from a top 10 cable operator. "We don't expect to pay twice for the same thing."
The operator added that he would like to have had some advance notice of MSNBC's programming changes. The cable net-work did not announce the new scheme to their affiliates or the press.
"It could cause viewer confusion because it's blurring the identify of the service," he added.
However, cable operators said that David Zaslav, president of cable distribution for NBC, has gotten past much of the bad blood that had existed between NBC and cable operators and they were not going to make a stink about this issue.
"They've done such a good job with the rest of MSNBC's schedule, I can't criticize this," said another large operator about MSNBC's programming changes.
Zaslav said he didn't expect affiliate complaints because "Equal Time," "Hardball" and "Rivera Live" fit into MSNBC's general news format because they all play off of current events.
"These primetime talkshows are about the issues of the day and that is consistent with MSNBC," said Zaslav.
Before this MSNBC move, parts of "Dateline NBC" have run on MSNBC, a practice that has earned NBC heat from its broadcast affiliates. NBC News president Andy Lack, who controls MSNBC, late last year also took charge of CNBC's prime-time lineup. Zaslav said that repeating the three CNBC shows on MSNBC was another example of Lack's philosophy of "breaking down the walls" between NBC's news divisions.
The CNBC shows should help MSNBC's 0.2 rating (65,000 homes). So far this month, "Equal Time" has averaged a 0.4 Nielsen Media Research rating (281,000 households), "Hardball" has averaged a 0.6 (348,000 households) and "Geraldo Live" has averaged a 0.7 (451,000 households). MSNBC has 36 million subscribers.
As for CNBC, cable operators said they were concerned that two recent programs the channel ran in primetime might con-fuse viewers as to the channel's identity. For years after it launched in 1989, CNBC struggled with what format to program in primetime after the day's business coverage ended. Finally, hard-edged talkshows emerged as a good complement.
Two years ago, NBC West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer said he was considering programming entertainment shows, such as "Saturday Night Live," in primetime. That never materialized, but CNBC did run the HBO-produced film "Barbarians at the Gate" on Jan. 16 and Jan. 18. The network also debuted a new series on Jan. 17 called "Ushuaia," described in cable operator materials as "extreme adventure in exotic cultures."
Zaslav said that cable affiliates have asked CNBC to broaden its programming concept somewhat and the award-winning "Barbarians at the Gates," the nonfiction black comedy about the RJR Nabisco takeover, was a way for CNBC "to be more than a stock ticker."
The Jan. 16 airing of "Barbarians" scored a 0.6 rating (394,000 households), far surpassing CNBC's average for Saturday night.
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