So says Pattie from Oaks Hills, Calif., in an email to diginet MeTV. And she felt so strongly about it, she used all caps. “I’ve been in the business for 30 years,” said Neal Sabin, MeTV’s president, “and it’s the first broadcasting entity that I’ve been associated with that gets fan mail for its promos.” […]
So says Pattie from Oaks Hills, Calif., in an email to diginet MeTV. And she felt so strongly about it, she used all caps.
“I’ve been in the business for 30 years,” said Neal Sabin, MeTV’s president, “and it’s the first broadcasting entity that I’ve been associated with that gets fan mail for its promos.”
MeTV (Memorable Entertainment Television), owned by Weigel Broadcasting, airs classic TV shows. It started locally 10 years ago in Chicago, and went national about five years ago, according to Sabin.
“Our shows are, without a doubt, the greatest television shows since the medium debuted,” says Will Givens, Weigel’s VP of network marketing.
“And they’re universally praised.”
What classic television shows are we talking about here?
M*A*S*H, The Andy Griffith Show, Star Trak, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, The Beverly Hillbillies, to name just a few.
“Every show on the network is somebody’s favorite show,” says Givens. Hard to argue with that.
And there’s gold in them thar classic television shows.
MeTV reaches over 26 million people per week, and covers about 97% of the country through its affiliations with broadcast groups like Hearst, Media General and Gray, according to Sabin.
“In the older demos,” Sabin says, “35-64, we’re a top 10 network compared to all cable networks. We have several million page views a week on our home page and our average quarter hour is about half a million people.”
In terms of ratings, MeTV’s strongest shows are M*A*S*H, Andy Griffith and Perry Mason, says Sabin.
You’d think with these types of well-known, classic American TV shows, marketing them would be easy. After all, you have all the shows for fodder.
“We put a real significant emphasis behind the promos for MeTV,” says Sabin, “because it’s part of the ‘stationality’ of the network, it’s our personality.”
“What drives the messaging for MeTV,” says Givens, “is the notion of charm and quality. We want to make sure it’s creative and that it’s art in service of commerce.”
When I mention to Givens that I think he has the best job in television today, he agrees.
I mean if you needed a lawyer, wouldn’t you consider these two guys?
Givens says he’s been in broadcast television for 30 years, “and far and away the most fun has been working on MeTV.”
We talk about what it must be like in the creative meeting, everybody pitching promo ideas.
“If I were sitting in a creative meeting and somebody says, I’m going to take Star Trek and the Andy Griffith show and we’re going to come up with a spot that sells both, with charm and quality, with this crazy, absurd, high-concept twist, you’d be scratching your head saying how we going to pull that one off?”
With aplomb, I might add.
Givens mentions another crazy idea that become a spot.
The idea was to “insert Dawn Wells into the courtroom with Perry Mason for a spot that’s actually about The Twilight Zone. Now who does this?” says Givens as he laughs.
MeTV does and fans of classic television shows everywhere, love it. (To see more clever MeTV commercials, click here.) Here are just some viewer emails:
We don’t know who’s been creating the advertising Commercials for Me-TV but keep em coming! — William, Greer, South Carolina
I have to say, your commercials that cross shows; Star Trek meets Andy Griffith, Telly Savalas as Kojak, phones Telly Savalas in the twilight zone. Great commercials!!!! — Graeme, Hawthorne, CA
Just had to tell you how much I enjoy your on-air promotion. It’s LOL funny and very creative. I was struck by your promo for the Westerns that feature the spare, grim guitar and the sound of guns being cocked, the saloon door swinging shut etc. Brilliant. I would love to know if your promo producer–and I am thinking there may be just one–is male or female. For some reason, I think it’s a woman. — Susan, Plattsburgh, NY
I mean Aunt Bee shooting a bow and arrow, amazing. That whole commercial deserves award. WELL DONE. — Pattie, Oak Hills, California
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