NAB'S STRUGGLE TO MERGE PROGRAMMING & TECH

I thought I had said all I had to say about Tim Robbins' remarkable performance at the NAB Show in my column last week.

But there is one more thing.

The speech and the controversy it engendered illustrate that the NAB is still far, far from being the programming convention it wants to be.

Robbins was as out of place at NAB as a Harris 16 kW VHF transmitter would be at NATPE.

As I said last week, that’s part of why his speech has so much impact. Nobody expected such a thing at the NAB. (The other reasons the speech worked is because Robbins is a talented actor who knows how to put on a show and is passionate about what he advocates.)

NAB has grown far beyond its original broadcasting charter. By embracing all electronic media, the NAB has become the premiere marketplace for the tools of the audio and video production, whether for the evening news, the Super Bowl, an HD documentary for PBS or just a wedding.

The strategy has paid off handsomely for NAB. Each show generates millions in profits that can be used by the association in its incessant efforts to have its way in Washington. You can’t argue with that.

But now NAB wants to be a programming show, too. Among other things, it wants to usurp NATPE's role as the place for the buying and selling of syndicated programming. And just like NATPE, it wants to become the place where producers and copyright holders can do business with new media distributors.

That why Robbins was at NAB last week, to put a veneer of Hollywood on the show and announce to the world that it was no longer just about camcorders and encoders.

And Robbins wasn’t alone. NAB also showcased Anthony Zuiker, creator of CBS's CSI primetime franchise; Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, the executive producers of ABC’s Lost; and others.

Variety’s Cynthia Littleton, who interviewed the Lost duo on stage, titled her blog entry on the session “Lost in NAB.” I’m not sure if she was being ironic or what.

Sprinkling creative types into the programs is a trick that NAB learned (stole?) from NATPE. Its coffees with executive producers were always a nice respite from the business of NATPE, which is, of course, business. I remember a pleasant morning with Chris Carter several years back, even though I was no great fan of his X-Files.

But while actors, writers and showrunners complement NATPE, their presence at NAB only seems to provide a contrast that more starkly reveals NAB for the tech show it is.

That’s why I think that NAB may have a tough time glomming programming onto the show as easily as it has post-production, digital cinema and broadband.

Program producers and distributors don’t want to be secondary players in a show that has been and always will be primarily a technology exhibition. They want to be stars of their own show.

At NAB, I talked a little shop with Eric Trabb, a one-time sales rep for B&C, who is now a top executive at New Bay Media, which publishes TV Technology, Radio World and a passel of other techy trades.

He reminded me that programming and technology hate to advertise in the same magazine. My guess is that they would also hate sharing the same convention.

And isn’t the NAB already too big?

The crowds were down significantly this year for whatever reason. And, you know what, people liked it. Lines were shorter, reservations were easier to obtain and it was just easier to get from here to there.

Mike Doback, VP of engineering for the Scripps TV station group, an important hardware buyer, told TVNEWSDAY he welcomed the smaller crowds. “I was able to do more business, more effectively, in a shorter time frame. For me, it was a plus.”

NAB ought to keep such comments in mind as it plots to bring more people to Vegas and make it more difficult for people to get around.

For the syndication folk, NAB is also the wrong time of year.

NATPE’s January dates aren’t great anymore either, but they’re better than NAB’s April ones. Right now, the big syndicators are more or less clueless about what their next batch of first-run offerings will be. Until the late summer, early fall, they have nothing to pitch.

If NATPE or NAB wanted to organize a syndication show that made sense, it would be in October, after everybody has had a chance to size up the shows that debuted in September and the syndicators have settled on at least some projects for the following fall.

NAB has done extraordinary job with its convention over the last two decades, nurturing it into a behemoth that attracts 100,000 people (give or take 10,000) and generates more than $30 million in revenue.

So, despite my skepticism, it would be a mistake to dismiss NAB’s programming ambitions. Chris Brown and his crew of convention organizers are clearly capable.

Plus, NAB has one attribute that trumps all the negatives of its being too techy, too crowded and too early.

TV station owners and top managers go to NAB and the Dick Robertson rule still applies: Where broadcasters go, the syndicators will follow.

Harry A. Jessell is editor of TVNEWSDAY. If you have a comment on this column, drop him a line at hajessell@tvnewsday.com.