Forum - View topicNEWS: Adult Swim Moves Code Geass R2 TV Series to 2 a.m.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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True. But then why didn't Adult Swim bother to advertise Code Geass? Or put it in a decent timeslot? The sort of logic that they use is self-fulfilling. If they believe that Anime ratings will be low, they will put it on at a horrible timeslot with no advertising. What happens? Any Anime they put on will of course get rock-bottom ratings, no matter how good. The fact that Adult Swim changes their schedule more often than a politician changes their tune doesn't help either. |
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kakoishii
Posts: 741 |
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^ point in case. I've been pondering that same question for a long time. If AS is so bothered by these "low-rating" anime series that they've already bought the rights to air and are now obligated to show all of in their entirety, why don't they at least put the effort into making sure they can maximize their profits i.e. ad revenue. If they were so worried they might lose ad revenue showing Geass and Moribito earlier in their line up why didn't they advertise the sh** out of those titles?
I want to say it may be because since they don't get any of the revenue from the merchandising (if any) and dvd sales, they aren't too bother with ensuring people watch them. However, if that were the case the question becomes why bother buying the rights to air these titles at all? And then you take a look at the schedule they had previous to this revamp and the answer clearly becomes "because if we air them around our crappy home brewed comedies then people will watch our horrible shows and we can make more money through the merchandising of these shows because we actually do get revenue from those shows unlike anime" or something like that. Adult Swim is truly a business, but really people if the business aspect only stretched as far as "oh they moved Geass and Moribito to 5AM because of bad ratings" and that's the sort of logic people have been spilling out for years now, then what business would still keep buying these failed commodities if they're proven not to deliver? A business with ulterior motives quite obviously. |
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Kid Ryan
 Posts: 506 Location: Sacramento, California |
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I'm really happy and excited about this
 . As for the whole staying up until 2 AM deal, thats nuthin. I normally stay awake until 4 AM before finally deciding to go to bed  .
Sucks for non-americans and people that don't have the Cartoon Network channel though  .
Because then they would have to rely on downloading the dub. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14796 |
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Ads cost money too, one way or another. An ad they devote to a show takes away an ad they can devote to another show where they can potentially earn more profit or to a paying ad sponsor. And it's not like they can just show Adult Swim ads on timeslots reserved for kids, which mostly CN is (remember, for ad purposes, CN and Adult Swim are treated as separate networks). So, their projected Return on Investment (primarily just ad-selling) must exceed all those costs (producing the ads, airing the ads, etc); otherwise, it won't be worth it to spend AS' limited resources. AS doesn't have a lot of resources nor money; that's why they have to produce on the cheap. Airing pre-produced anime to fill the timeslots when they hardly have to do anything else is on the cheap. If they have to spend more labor and resources into it, then it would no longer be on the cheap and may not be worth it for them. It's the cruel business side of things.
To fill the timeslots where they won't have to spend money, as long as the show earns enough ratings to pay for its rent. If they think another tenant could do better, then they'll consider it.
A famous saying: "never attribute to ingenius malice that which is adequately explained by simple stupidity." 
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Servant of the Path
 Posts: 90 Location: United States |
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I am not convinced that the problem is really a ratings issue. In fact, I'm surprised by how little a difference there often is, between the ratings numbers I've seen for the in-house comedy shows on AS (the comedy shows tend not to do as well on Saturdays anyway) and the anime block, especially in light of the fact that AS no longer promotes their anime while constantly shoving advertisements for their comedy shows down our throats. Of course, there will always be shows like Futurama or Family Guy which will pull in approximately a million viewers but they are in the minority and, to compare them to anime, it isn't so much that the anime is failing as it is that those shows enjoy a far, far greater exposure and an established fan base. This, obviously, begs the question of why anime isn't more popular in America than it is which I think, among other things, is largely a function of the advertising based business model that seems to dominate the American television market. I think the problem is that anime on AS suffers from certain innate disadvantages against its competition. For the in-house comedy programs it produces AS saves money on advertising, licensing fees and still has the opportunity to obtain revenue from DVD sales. I also think that a lot of it has to do with the nature of the entertainment itself. AS's comedy shows don't require the viewer to invest much in the way of time, attention span, reflection, the obligation to return for subsequent episodes and suspension of disbelief and as such they will naturally appeal to a lower common denominator. Aside from making it easier for the comedy shows to draw more viewers these factors also make it more difficult for AS to retain viewers who were willing to begin watching the anime block in the first place. I myself, for example, am very unlikely to continue watching if I've missed an episode somewhere in the middle of a story and I doubt I'm the only one. All of this speaks to why I believe anime is especially susceptible to AS's frequent schedule changes and low-brow pranks which only serve to alienate people like myself who inevitably become fed up (if/when AS introduces new anime I will not be tuning in). Many will say that it's silly that AS would want anime to fail but I'm not convinced of that either. Is it a business? Of course it is. Are AS's choices good business decisions? I don't believe they are. Most networks, and in fact businesses in general, at least attempt to diversify the products they offer. The very nature of the comedy shows offered by AS undermine the development of a stable, long-term viewing audience. Those shows are relatively cheap to churn out but how many have come and gone and ultimately failed or have already exhausted their 15 minutes in the spotlight? What do you suppose will happen when their current shows have spent their time in the sun and they've become boring or their quality has dropped? The network will be left with a fickle, intolerant audience and an increasingly steep hill to climb to regain an audience that they will have, by then, very successfully disaffected. AS can always create more series but beyond their largely brain-dead comedy they have very few alternatives, if any, to anime and their approach is myopic and ultimately risky. Considering that there are certainly quite a few people at AS who hold a degree of contempt and derision for the anime audience and/or its shows and the short-term, quick-money practices they seem to have adopted it wouldn't surprise me at all if those with decision-making influence within the network really did want the anime to fail. |
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