Programming Pattern?

[Erebus]

Don't look now but I'm making my first topic in this here refugee type place:

Regarding TCM programming, it would be interesting to learn just how often TCM shows films over a given period of time. I am prompted to ask that just now as I again watch, or more rather monitor, “Crossfire”, a fine film with the Roberts’ Ryan, Young, and Mitchum. I don’t possess the energy or wherewithal to graph such things, but I do wonder just how much redundancy TCM offers, albeit non-adjusted for the hour of the day. Obviously there’s a difference between 2 a.m. weeknight and primetime Saturday.

I’m not complaining, at all, but I am interested in the rotation over time, and it’s not as if I think there’s much of a design out over the course of, for instance, a year. But it is appropriate that there be a core of five or even two hundred films over a year. Have the TCM programmers ever publically announced much related to their formula or pattern? Of course we see the birthdays and the genre cycles, but through it all there is, by default or design, a playlist, as is right and indicative of taste.

It’s an interesting mix of familiars and obscurities, really rather well culivated to our tastes, judging at least from my own satisfaction. I tend to not pay that much attention to this or that acquisition of a given library, though it’s clear TCM has recently added a bunch of new stuff. Mostly I’m a dumb beneficiary after the fact, and so much the better.

Anyway, though I suspect there is not, is there any objective tracking of such things? For example, to go high profile, just how often does TCM screen “Casablanca”? Or “Little Foxes”? Or “Thunder Road”? Funny thing about the past: it’s finitely defined and yet seems almost like an unexplored, infinite void, or at least such is the blessing of the relatively ignorant, like myself. Hell, I always knew about Rita Hayworth but it was only last month that I discovered how much I love her, present tense: red hair, cheekbones, that smile, and something else I'll never understand. I’m just askin’: how does TCM do what it does? Or at least how often?

[Erebus]

I guess I should take that as a "no, there is no such tracking".

[movieman1957]

Smarter people than I may know but if there is a tracking system it must be internal. All of this, my guess is, just comes down to what is their core library. I know they don't own anything but some arrangements must have longer contracts than others.

I'm sure there is some sense of recycling the favorites as a way to bring in new viewers but I think your comment is correct.

[CoffeeDan]

Back on the TCM boards, tcmprogrammer has mentioned that the programming department has a database that tells how many times each film in the TCM library has aired, and the last day and time it aired. As films repeat, they repeat in different times of the programming day. If I remember right, the TCM programming day is divided into these blocks (times approximate):

Morning -- 6am-12pm
Early afternoon -- 12-4pm
Late afternoon -- 4-8pm
Prime -- 8pm-2am
Overnight -- 2-6am

I suspect that some films fall naturally into several different programming schemes, which is why certain well-known films are aired often. TCM must have some kind of rotation system like Top 40 radio (heavy, medium, and light) that may determine the number of times a film is repeated. Sometimes leases with other studios determines how often a film can be shown. The terms of a lease may indicate a certain period of time or a certain number of showings.

I once asked Sheldon Wigod, the manager of the New Mayfield Repertory Theater in Cleveland, about this and he told me that he could show a genre film like CASABLANCA every six months and still turn a profit. I know that TCM doesn't quite function on that model -- but take it for what it's worth.

I guess I should take that as a "no, there is no such tracking."

Silence doesn't always mean "I don't know." It can also mean, "Wait, I'm looking for an answer." As I was told so often when I was a kid, nothing good comes quickly.