Who said anything about giving anything up to get airtime back? NBC announced not that long ago that they were cutting back on commercial time for some of their programming, I know it's a long shot but I hope that starts a trend.
Interesting reading, thanks for mentioning it.
https://www.axios.com/exclusive-nbc-slashing-prime-time-ads-even-further-3c4c884f-b386-401f-b045-68f425ceaf66.htmlThe idea is intriguing, though NBC's cuts seem to be focused mostly on primetime. And NBC's media empire is pretty broad (MSNBC, CNBC, a third of Hulu, a smattering of sports and entertainment cable channels) while CBS just has CBS, CBS Sports, and half of the CW. So strategies may not work 1:1 across all networks.
Ad revenue for CBS was
1.73 billion in 1Q 2018, out of a total revenue of
3.76 Billion, so 46% of CBS' revenue comes from ads. If Les Moonves is to be believed, a decade ago ad revenue accounted for
over 70% of revenues, so at least it's moving in the right direction.
If something like CBS All-Access takes off, to the point where its scale envelops the regular network, then maybe there's a chance they free up a few minutes (and I've said before, I would
love to see what Drew and co could do with a 44 minute timeslot). But the daytime TV landscape could look radically different if that happens--and Price's value to the network could change as the daytime landscape changes. It's certainly not a sure thing.