Remember when a cable channel's brand used to mean that they played programming surrounding that brand? Right now on the Biography Channel they're playing 'Murder She Wrote'. Monday on G4, a channel that used to be all about video games and technology, they had an 'Arrested Development' marathon. The best one I've seen of late was a few weeks ago. Bravo, the channel that for ages raced A&E for snootest channel out there, ran 'Friday the 13th: Part VII - Jason Takes Manhattan'. Bravo played a slasher film and not even a very good one.
Now, apart from the Bravo item that I still don't understand, the basic idea is obvious. The channels in question aren't programming towards the brand of the channel or, if you will, the concept behind the channel, but they are programming towards the demographic they expect to be watching the channel. Both channels, and I'm sure they're not the only ones, no doubt have survey information handy that shows what demographic is primarily watching their channel and the other interests that demographic has. Presumably swerving from the brand in this way just increases the amount of time that demographic stays on the channel.
I still think it's a dumb idea. There are plenty of more 'generic' channels out there that can do this sort of thing. However, if you've done all this work to generate a specific brand identity, why throw it away? This would be like Spike, the 'Man' Channel, showing 'chick flicks' or Sci-Fi playing a Masterpiece Theatre period piece that lacks aliens in it. Or the NFL network showing a hockey game. It defeats the purpose. By making themselves more generic they make themselves more disposable and more easily replaceable.
And why would they want that?
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