Scripps Fights The Backlash, Misses The Point

Another post up at ilovefoodnetwork.com. I actually feel kind of bad for them because they gambled are losing big. They obviously thought, “hey, nothing else is working, so let’s pull our ace of spades and see if we can’t force a win.” The ace of spades for them, was/is (of course) their programming. They pulled it thinking there would be an uproar, people (us Cablevision customers who can no longer watch Food Network and HGTV) would threaten Cablevision, and that would force Cablevision to the negotiating table.

So far, that hasn’t worked. At first, seemingly everyone was sympathetic to Food Network, mainly for two reasons: 1) Everyone’s used to Cablevision (and cable companies on the whole) being greedy and awful companies who care about no one but themselves. 2) Scripps said they got dropped by said evil folks.

Well, when it came out that they weren’t dropped, a backlash occurred. Customers like me—and lots of them—understandably feel used. We feel lied to. We feel that FN and HGTV were both highly credible and trustworthy channels, but now that’s all gone away.

So now Scripps is trying to stop the bleeding by posting a lot of mostly useless posts that say a lot of feel good stuff that, frankly, rings true to just about no one. But this latest post of theirs is truly interesting to me. It doesn’t seem like the usual stump speech. Rather, it feels like they’re honestly missing the point.

The bulk of their post is them fighting the notion that they are greedy. To support this, they pull out all kinds of interesting numbers, saying how good their ratings are, and how much less they air paid in comparison to other firms. At one point, they argue that they truly ARE highly rated/watched.

Now, I’m sure there are SOME people out there who think they’re greedy, and THAT’S the problem. I’m sure there’s some people out there who think they’re overrating themselves, and THAT’S the problem. But I don’t think those are the problems, and I don’t think most people think that.

What most people think, Scripps, is what I said at the start of this posted. You rolled the dice, all the while, throwing us in the pot. You tried to use as a weapon in your fight. You did not punish Cablevision (at least not directly); you punished us by depriving us of our favorite shows. Now we continue to pay Cablevision (some of us are unwilling to enter into massive FiOS contracts and the hassle it involves… like my wife and I who may be moving within six months) but don’t get what we pay for. That’s YOUR fault, Scripps. YOU pulled it. THAT’S the problem. You did not settle this between the two of you. THAT’S the problem. You did not really give us any fair warning. THAT’S the problem.

You, Scripps, only BARELY touch on this on your latest feel-good post. I will reproduce the entire (short) section that addresses it:

P.Biondo and others are asking why Food Network went away with no warning.

We imagine it was a real bummer to turn on your favorite channel and be greeted by a blank screen. We’re bummed too! Here is what happened. We continued to hold out hope that Cablevision would begin to engage in a productive discussion with us. When it became apparent that was not going to happen, we did the best we could to alert viewers as soon as we ourselves knew that you would very soon be without Food Network. Technically, the only signal we were able to send was a notice to those cablevision customers who have HD. We also sent out emails to all of our enewsletter subscribers and posted to various online outlets.

We hope you will help us convince Cablevision to come to the table. You can help by visiting http://www.ilovefoodnetwork.com to send an ecard to Cablevision or call 866-695-2378 and tell them you are hungry for Food Network!

My response:

First of all, keep in mind this section account for about 20% AT BEST of the entire post. The rest is justifying numbers and ratings and arguing financial health and viability. My overall comment is this: Do you, Scripps, think that only 20% of the reason your Cablevision viewers are pissed off is because the channels vanished without warning, and the rest is because they’re sitting their auditing your rates vs ratings? I got news for you: 99% of the people are pissed because the channels vanished without warning and have not returned. I mean, this isn’t rocket science. It’s TV! TV VIEWERS WANT TO WATCH THEIR FAVORITE TV SHOW!

So now let’s go through your response piece by piece and see how you’ve missed the point:

“We imagine it was a real bummer to turn on your favorite channel and be greeted by a blank screen.”

You do? You imagine that? Did you imagine that BEFORE you decided we’d’ make great ammunition and you pulled the channel?

“We’re bummed too!”

That’s kind of condescending. If we’re all “bummed” then why don’t we just go ahead and plug us back in? You’re bummed because your roll of the dice didn’t come up a win.

“Here is what happened. We continued to hold out hope that Cablevision would begin to engage in a productive discussion with us.”

See now right off the bat, you’re not taking ownership. You told us from the start you’ve been dropped. When it fact, you pulled the plug. Now you’re right back to putting the blame on Cablevision. Look, we know you don’t like them. Nearly everyone here doesn’t like them, either. Take some ownership, damnit!

“When it became apparent that was not going to happen, we did the best we could to alert viewers as soon as we ourselves knew that you would very soon be without Food Network. Technically, the only signal we were able to send was a notice to those cablevision customers who have HD. We also sent out emails to all of our enewsletter subscribers and posted to various online outlets.”

This is disingenuous. First of all, you were in talks—bad talks—for over six months (you said so yourself; here’s the source). That should have given you plenty of time to come up with a better communication plan. Secondly don’t say you did the best you could and make it sound like you actually alerted people. You didn’t. Even you said you can imagine how bummed we were when we turned on our TV and saw a blank screen. This is 2009/2010 we’re talking. You could have done what Fox did and put up notices. You knew Thanksgiving was coming, and you got turkey-related programs on the air. Why couldn’t you have put together a few 15-second bumpers about this situation? We could have gotten on Cablevision’s back a long time ago! Also, let’s be honest: you could have taken better advantage of the internet and gotten the word out ahead of time. It took me roughly 45 seconds to set up this blog. And I’m never been a blogger. If you guys really made an effort to get the word out then you need to fire your PR staff and get rid of whatever PR agencies you’re contracting out. If you can’t get “SCRIPPS WILL PULL FOOD NETWORK AND HGTV FROM THE AIR ON JAN 1st IF CABLEVISION DOESN’T NEGOTIATE” on some bigger media-related sites, then honestly, you’re doing something wrong. You could have given that to a Public Relations 101 college class, and they would have had at on the frontpage of CNN.com.

“We hope you will help us convince Cablevision to come to the table. You can help by visiting http://www.ilovefoodnetwork.com to send an ecard to Cablevision or call 866-695-2378 and tell them you are hungry for Food Network!”

Or, you can do what I’ve done and call them and say, “I was hungry for Food Network, but now I’m insulted by them, and they don’t deserve a tenth of a cent more than you’re giving them. Drop them for all I care.” Though, I still think Alton Brown is the man. And my wife still loves Giada. But, hey, maybe they’ll move to PBS someday.

Just for reference, let’s look at the other points you addressed in your last post. This won’t take long:

“Several people seem to think Scripps is in dire straits (Scripps Networks is the parent company of Food Network and HGTV and is part of Scripps Networks Interactive). You may have seen or heard from Cablevision that ‘In effect, Scripps Networks is asking Cablevision customers to bail them out of their financial difficulties with a $20 million annual increase in fees.'”

You then go on to boast:

“This simply isn’t true. First, Scripps is not experiencing financial difficulties. Scripps Networks is an extremely well-run company with our networks performing well despite the challenging economy.”

If you’re looking for people to not think you’re greedy, I wouldn’t go around talking about how you’re in such great shape despite the recession, YET you ALSO want a raise. Just sayin’… it kinda makes you look greedy.

“There is also some confusion on this point; Food Network does not want Cablevision to pay more than other providers.”

Honestly, few of us care. You’re putting us in the middle of things that we shouldn’t be in the middle of. We don’t care. We’re not the cable provider police, and few of us really have any vested interest in your rates being all the same across the board. We just want to watch our shows.

Facebook Fan Bill Rubin says “Apparently it (Food Network) was not in their (Cablevision’s) top 50% of channels, from what I’ve read.”

I like how out of all the thousands of people who are pissed off because they can’t watch their favorite shows, you select Bill Rubin out of the crowd. Bill, what say you? “Well, I hear they’re not even in the top 50%!!!!!” If you guys really want to address this point, email Bill directly. Few of us care. And few of us are going to be performing our own independent survey akin to Nielsens to verify your rankings. We just want to watch our shows. Truthfully it’s almost like you addressed Bill Rubin’s point because it was easy to debunk. It’s like better than a strawman ‘cos it’s not really a strawman. It’s a Bill Rubin.

“Amanda Ponnwitz, Nancy Thalblum and Le Roy Malmendier value Food Network highly and want to know what gives. Many of you join them saying Food Network is 80 or 90% of your viewing; yet you’ve also read that we are asking Cablevision for huge increases of 200 or 300% over what they are paying now for low rated networks.”

Ah yes! We only think you should be asking for a 200 to 300% raise if it accounts for 2oo to 300% of our television viewing! What an absurd point to manufacture and address. Why are  you combining one thing into the other. The point is not how much you’re asking for. It’s why did you pull the plug on US?!

“Fans – Andrea Stumme, Andrew Chowder Kranichfeld, Dan Holland and others -miss Food Network. Is there anywhere else to see Food Network shows?”

Please see my previous post. The fact that you’re airing ONE episode of ONE show on another channel is not sufficient. I’ll remind you, some of us are STILL paying customers.

You see, the point is Scripps, the people who love your shows…we’d have loved to see you get a raise. And you know what? You don’t have to convince us that people like your shows or that people watch them. We know! We’re the ones watching!

The point is, if you wanted to use as your foot soldiers, you should have asked us. We’re almost like your shareholders. We make you, and we break you. Sure, not just one of us. But en masse we do. Had you alerted us ahead of time and asked us if we’d participate in notifying Cablevision, and if they STILL didn’t listen, you’d pull your programming from them, then we could have said, yeah go for it, or no. Hell, if the FTC or Justice Department (or whatever other governing/regulatory bodies) would’ve been cool with it, you could have even maybe worked out a special seal with FiOS where we could have switched on 1/1/10 for a discounted price. Instead, you didn’t check with us. You gambled and you lost. And now it’s apparent to many of us (and hopefully you, though you haven’t admitted it) that you went about this the wrong way, and despite your kind words, you really don’t care about us as viewers.

After all, how can we be viewers when we have nothing to view?

Facebook Fan Bill Rubin says “Apparently it (Food Network) was not in their (Cablevision’s) top 50% of channels, from what I’ve read.”