The ratings may have fallen during its four week run, but that didn’t stop ABC’s V from being one of the largest moneymakers on television last year. How good a position does that put the show in for next year?
Forbes lists V as the fifth largest moneyspinner on television in 2009, but notes that that’s mostly due to positive pre-premiere buzz, as opposed to the show itself:
Unfortunately for those enthusiastic buyers who collectively shelled out $5.6 million per hour-long telecast, the remake of a popular 1980s miniseries shed more than a third of its audience over the course of its limited run, from an impressive 14.3 million viewers on premiere night to only 9.1 million. Ordinarily that would lead to a pricing correction for subsequent in-season (or scatter market) purchases, says [Ad-spend tracking company Kantar Media Senior Vice President of Research, Jon] Swallen, “but since V was a limited-run series, it was insulated from potential pricing adjustment.”
What it does mean is that the show will be much less successful on its second run, starting at the end of this month, according to Swallen:
Now the show has a track record… buyers and advertisers have a more realistic fix of how it should perform.
V returns to ABC on March 30th.
TV’s Biggest Moneymakers [Forbes]
