Chris McCarthy and Nina Diaz have recently been appointed as president of content and chief creative officer.
McCarthy and Diaz have among the toughest assignments in media as they seek to reinvent a clutch of ViacomCBS channel brands that once defined cable television but have struggled amid the sea changes in media consumption during the past decade.
McCarthy’s unit encompasses MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, TV Land, CMT, Pop TV, Logo and Smithsonian Channel. McCarthy’s star at ViacomCBS has soared in the three years since Bob Bakish took the reins of Viacom in late 2016 after a long period of corporate turmoil. Amid this fast rise, McCarthy has plotted a course that fundamentally shifts the prime focus of the company away from running a suite of linear cable channels to using the division as a giant studio that generates programming for the linear channels and a host of other platforms inside and outside ViacomCBS.
Among his first moves after inheriting oversight of Comedy Central was to establish a relationship with “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah. The two were getting to know each other just as the pandemic lockdown began in March, which provided a good foundation for McCarthy and Noah to work out a bold plan for Noah to host a quarantine edition of “Daily Show” from his home — a move that other hosts soon followed.
“Having our content on other platforms outside of our group, we will really be able to bring out the kind of things that MTV was known for — telling the stories of young adult life that resonated with all of us, whether you were a teen or a grown-up,” she says.
But the obstacles the two face are manifest. The ad-supported basic cable channel business these days is a melting ice cube, something that is inevitably going to shrink as ratings dwindle, advertising dollars go elsewhere and cord cutting takes a steady toll on affiliate fees that flow to ViacomCBS’ bottom line.
Although no one at ViacomCBS is ready to say it publicly, the number of channels in the company’s portfolio will inevitably shrink in the coming years. McCarthy’s studio-focused strategy aims to position the division as an important program supplier that can deliver hits to ViacomCBS’ many in-house platforms, as well as generate advertising and content licensing windfalls from third-party sales.
The new approach was evident earlier this year when McCarthy’s group opted to sell Darren Star’s dramedy series “Emily in Paris” to Netflix rather than have it air on ViacomCBS’ Paramount Network (not available in Africa) as planned. McCarthy recognized that the show would perform much better in a binge-watch streaming environment than it would as a weekly series on linear TV. “Emily in Paris” has ranked as one of Netflix’s most watched series since its Oct. 2 premiere.
For sure, figuring out the right formula for scripted programming for the linear cable networks is one of the big challengers McCarthy has to tackle with his expanded channel portfolio.
Paramount Network, which has enjoyed a sleeper hit with Kevin Costner-starrer “Yellowstone,” has set a new course that will emphasize original telepics with a focus on providing opportunities for emerging directors . Comedy Central, meanwhile, is significantly upping its investment in animated series in the hopes of finding a next-generation “South Park.”
McCarthy and Diaz are also navigating major changes at a time of heightened focus on social justice and anti-harassment concerns as well as industry demands for diversity and inclusivity at all levels. The executives have strained some relationships in the unscripted production community as they moved forcefully on a $250 million initiative to seed a new generation of independent production companies owned by BIPOC producers and showrunners.
On Wall Street and among ViacomCBS’ industry peers, there is skepticism that ViacomCBS can navigate the streaming wars as a content supplier to in-house platforms as well as outside partners.
McCarthy’s content-focused strategy for his universe of channels is seen as a long shot even among those who are rooting for the company. The only certainty is that sticking with the status quo is not an option.
“There are a lot of people who will tell you all the reasons why something can’t happen,” Bakish says. “Chris doesn’t do that. He’s a problem-solver. He comes in and says, ‘Here’s how we’re going to grow.’”
As with all traditional TV networks, the uphill climb of reinvention has only gotten steeper in the environment of a global pandemic and the heightened entertainment industry focus on advancing social justice and combating workplace harassment.
For instance, the goal of McCarthy and Diaz’s BIPOC-producer initiative is admirable, but the process of getting there has been bumpy. Many in the close-knit world of unscripted TV producers are dismayed by the decision to take a number of MTV and VH1 shows away from long-standing production entities.
“I really feel like I want to represent for people coming into the industry that anything is possible,” she says.
McCarthy asserts that the effort by ViacomCBS to add BIPOC production companies is a natural progression for the firm that has been a trailblazer in shining TV lights on underrepresented communities.
“We think of it as three phases. Making sure we had diversity on-screen was the first wave, and getting the right people behind the camera was the second wave.
The third is ownership of their companies,” McCarthy says. NPact, the advocacy organization that represents dozens of independent unscripted production companies, has long sought to protect producers from being forced out of shows that they produce on commission for networks that own the underlying copyright.
“Across the entire NPact membership, not locking production companies to the content they create is the No. 1 deal-making issue for producers, even beyond shrinking budgets and fees,” NP act said in a statement.
“Production companies front entire full-time development teams that serve as the networks’ creative incubators. That overhead traditionally was supported by a business model through which producers could recoup their upfront costs in success — the longer term that success, the better.”
Some producers with long tenures at
ViacomCBS channels say the working
environment under McCarthy and Diaz
has been difficult amid budget
tightening and efforts to revamp or
reboot long-running franchises such as
VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop.”
Mona Scott-Young, an executive
producer of “Love & Hip Hop,” says she
admires McCarthy for his tenacity and
his abilities as a strategic thinker. “It
cannot possibly be an easy task to
reimagine a network and be forward-
thinking about transitioning into being a
studio,” she says. But there have been
strains in the relationship around the
production decisions.
“Sometimes in the pursuit of that
growth there are casualties,” Scott-
Young says. “I hope they see the value of
the partnership that has been long-
standing and that this can aid in the
success of what they’re trying to build.”
ViacomCBS CEO Bakish has no doubt that the conglom’s flagship global brands have growth years ahead of them. And he has every confidence in McCarthy and Diaz as key drivers of the company’s transformation as it bets on free ad-supported streaming through its Pluto TV service and the enhanced Paramount Plus subscription service set to debut early next year.
“It’s a different growth model than it was 20 years ago or even five years ago,” Bakish says. “The trick is to use all of our content assets to supply all those platforms with compelling new offerings and library franchises that people know. Nina and Chris are going to be programming a lot of platforms.”
For the foreseeable future, the challenges ahead will include keeping productions up and running around the world in the face of the COVID-19 threat.
“It’s been wildly impressive what our teams have been able to accomplish in such a short time,” Diaz observes. McCarthy adds, “Sometimes you have to run into change or it will run you over.”
The “table stakes” for traditional media amid the streaming transition are extremely high, McCarthy notes. Like Bakish, he is reassured by the fact that the company has a clear vision of where it needs to go. The ability to see the goal is half the battle, as McCarthy realized some 15 years ago in the MTVU credit card activation tent.
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