Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, April 7th, 2022

There is a lot going on today in the world of media...

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, April 7th, 2022. 

JASON KILAR'S ROUND OF EXIT INTERVIEWS
Even though it was a forgone conclusion that Jason Kilar would exit WarnerMedia once the merger with Discovery was set to close, the formal announcement of his departure has led to a series of exit interviews with select publications. Since I was somehow left off of that list, I wanted to highlight this interview

Kilar spoke with Vulture's Joe Adalian for his newsletter "Buffering," and this was the excerpt that I found the most enlightening:

Speaking of innovation, HBO Max took a lot of heat from consumers early on because the interface was often buggy and not always user-friendly. But  it’s made massive improvements over its first two years and I would argue it now offers one of the best experiences. Was that a priority for you, and do you think big legacy media companies make a mistake when they don’t pay enough attention to the product part of streaming?

I have very strong opinions on this. Let me give you a picture of what WarnerMedia looked like before I joined in early 2020. Technology reported into the finance organization, and HBO Max was three levels below me. The changes that I made within my first 100 days were to have technology report directly into me; to recruit a world-class chief technology officer who had expertise in direct-to-consumer services, including online advertising; and to elevate HBO Max to a direct report to myself. I mention that because my experience is that traditional media companies have underestimated and underinvested in the product, design and technology aspects of streaming. At WarnerMedia, we’ve fundamentally addressed that, and we tried to do it as quickly as humanly possible. But I think it’s fair to say that there’s a number of folks still in this industry that probably fail to appreciate just how important that is, because they don’t come from that world.

While no executive is perfect, I think a lot of Kilar's decisions ultimately turned out to be correct. And he's identified a problem that continues to plague both Peacock and Paramount+. They have some very inefficient executive structures and decision-making is often split in very non-organic ways. There is a temptation at big media companies to decide that "streaming has its own executive team, but we still make the ultimate decision." A structure which almost never works because the result is that it's often hard to distinguish who is responsible for any decision. 

THIS TELLS YOU ALL YOI NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE STREAMING AUDIENCE AND THE ONE FOR LINEAR TV

NBC NEWS PEOPLE ARE VEXED, VEXED, I TELL YOU
The fine folks at NBC News have always had a love/hate relationship with MSNBC. There has always been a feeling that while the cable news network is a great opportunity for "serious" news anchors to stretch their wings, the more opinionated primetime schedule is filled with well-meaning partisan hacks. Back in 2003, I wrote some pieces about Phil Donahue's exit from MSNBC and one of the issues then was the feeling from NBC News executives that Donahue's show (as well as some others) needed to be reigned in so as not to sully the reputation of the more serious news division.

That opinion has not changed over the years, despite the presence of many NBC News reporters and anchors in MSNBC's daytime schedule. And all of this tension has been playing out in the press over the past few days, as several pieces have appeared in the industry trade press revealing the depth of the split between the NBC News Division and MSNBC.

CNN's Oliver Darcy's NBC News piece focuses in specifically on MSNBC's decision to hire current White House spokesperson Jen Psaki for some not-yet-defined role on the network. I think hiring her was a bad decision, given that she has often been hostile and dismissive towards reporters and has shown absolutely no inclination to be anything but the voice of conventional political wisdom. But as it turns out, the NBC employees Darcy spoke with were less concerned about what she might say on-air than they were about NBC News being associated with the dreaded "perspective" programming:

Noah Oppenheim, the NBC News president, even held an impromptu phone call Friday so that he could address the matter with vexed staffers from the Washington bureau, some of whom have complained to their superiors that the tentative hiring tarnishes the NBC News brand.

Oppenheim, attempting to quell the anger, reaffirmed the distinction on the call between NBC News and MSNBC's opinion programming, some of the people familiar with the matter said.

Oppenheim, who does not oversee MSNBC, told the journalists that NBC News did not have a role in hiring Psaki. And he noted to those on the phone that they work for the NBC News brand and that the hires made for MSNBC's opinion arm should be viewed as unrelated to their work, the people said.

"Here's what he was saying: They have perspective programming. This was done on the perspective programming side. Not anything that reflects on NBC News," one of the people, who was on the call, explained. "People wanted answers on what NBC's role was in this and NBC News had no role in this," the person added. "This is MSNBC's perspective programming."

As I said earlier, while I agree with hiring of Psaki was a bad idea, it's clear that the NBC News people Darcy spoke with were less concerned with her abilities and more fearful of having their reputations as hard news journalists dirtied up thanks to an association with MSNBC's "perspective" programming:

Nevertheless, the moves by Jones have put the NBC News journalists who host shows on MSNBC in a delicate position. On one hand, journalists such as Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, Hallie Jackson, and others report to bosses at NBC News. But on the other hand, they also host shows on MSNBC, which means that — fairly or not — the cable news network's actions do end up reflecting on them.

"It's a challenge for all of them to navigate," an NBC News staffer familiar with the internal dynamics told CNN.

The conflict is even more stark in this recent Brian Steinberg piece in Variety, which revealed that NBC News is apparently focusing its streaming efforts on the NBC News Now app, while MSNBC focuses its attention on Peacock:

Under NBC News President Noah Oppenheim, executives are funneling more resources into NBC News Now. The company poached Tom Llamas from ABC News to serve as the central anchor of the streamer’s evening lineup, and added hours led by Hallie Jackson and Joshua Johnson. NBC News has also spent time trying to out-market WarnerMedia’s push behind the launch of the subscription-based service CNN Plus, with NBC pointing out its efforts are free and distributed widely (The new CNN service is not currently available on Roku).

Under President Rashida Jones, success in streaming for MSNBC is being defined differently. NBCUniversal recently unveiled its decision to make some of MSNBC’s most popular opinion programs available to subscribers of its Peacock streaming hub a day after they air on cable, along with new specials led by hosts such as Wallace and Rachel Maddow.

The result: NBC News is operating with the mindset that it needs to generate video views for NBC News Now, while MSNBC has been tasked with getting consumers to take out new subscriptions for Peacock.

One of the people familiar with the situation suggests the moves could conjure up memories of another era when NBC News producers were wary of pairing their anchors and correspondents with MSNBC personnel. As MSNBC increases the number of opinion programs, the NBC News correspondents on its air in the daytime face the awkward prospect of being surrounded by vociferous hosts and guests taking a more aggressive tone.

If you notice some similarities in the complaints, I don't think you're imagining things. It's pretty clear that at least some of the impetus behind these pieces is that people from NBC News are out there speaking to reporters about their overall unhappiness with MSNBC's editorial approach.

In the end, these arguments about "serious journalism vs opinion news" are counter-productive. The fact that this conflict is essentially creating two separate news products is a bit insane - both from a financial standpoint as well a an editorial one. 

There is room for both of these approaches at NBC. But only if both sides are willing to work together and not a game of "we're more pure than you are."

HBO MAX IS GETTING A NEW APPLE TV APP
If you have ever used the HBO Max app on Apple TV, you know that it can be a frustrating process. It has some awkward bugs and lacks some of the features available on other platforms.

The good news is that changes are coming as soon as next week, which is unfortunate timing given the upcoming merger. Still, company executives are promising that the new app will provide a much-improved experience, with more stability and added features designed to allow subscribers to increase their personalization of the interface:

Visually, the new tvOS app is not all that different from the previous iteration of HBO Max on the platform. But WarnerMedia promises that the app, rebuilt on its next-generation platform, is more stable than the prior version. In addition, it adds a number of enhancements, such as easier sign-in and sign-up; the ability to skip credits (aka “binge mode”); and a new homepage view with a scrollable “hero” banner.

In addition, the upgraded HBO Max for Apple TV provides more user-curation capabilities with a full “My Stuff” experience that allows users to edit and sort their My List and Continue Watching lists. Eventually, the new HBO Max app for Apple TV will be able to take advantage the devices’ processing horsepower to provide more dynamic interface animations — “cooler, whiz-bang stuff,” said Sarah Lyons, WarnerMedia’s EVP, direct-to-consumer global product management.

This version of the app has already been rolled out on the majority of the other platforms, with Amazon's Fire TV set to get its new version within a few months.

TWEET OF THE DAY

ODDS AND SODS
* HBO Max has a new boss. JB Perrette has been named CEO and President Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment. Perrette was previously Discovery's head of streaming and international.

* Season twelve of The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills premieres Wednesday, May 11th on Bravo.

* HBO has ordered a second season of Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty.

WHAT'S NEW FOR THURSDAY
Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:

Barnwood Builders Season Premiere (Magnolia)
Chef Boot Camp Season Premiere (Food)
Close Enough (HBO Max)
Cursed Films (Shudder)
Laura Pausini: Pleased to Meet You (Prime Video)
Queen Stars Series Premiere (HBO Max)
Return To Space (Netflix)
Senzo: Murder Of A Soccer Star (Netflix)
Serving The Hamptons Series Premiere (Discovery+)
The Dropout Series Finale (Hulu)
Tokyo Vice Series Premiere (HBO Max)
Trinity Of Shadows (HBO Max)

Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU FRIDAY! 

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.