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HLN Brand Repositioning


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HLN unveiled a new logo and modified graphics today with a new tagline — "news that hits home."

 

[MEDIA=twitter]861566233971437568[/MEDIA]

 

The brand appears to be a continued pivot towards more regional news and human interest, lighter on politics and international. They also seem to be aligning it a little bit closer to the CNN brand again, unlike the last decade or so when they pretended it was its own network. Here's a good article about the brand repositioning:

 

http://adage.com/article/media/hln-trump-bump-pivots-again/308854/?xnl

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HLN unveiled a new logo and modified graphics today with a new tagline — "news that hits home."

 

[MEDIA=twitter]861566233971437568[/MEDIA]

 

The brand appears to be a continued pivot towards more regional news and human interest, lighter on politics and international. They also seem to be aligning it a little bit closer to the CNN brand again, unlike the last decade or so when they pretended it was its own network. Here's a good article about the brand repositioning:

 

http://adage.com/article/media/hln-trump-bump-pivots-again/308854/?xnl

Good. Maybe they can actually air legit programming outside of the endless gobs of "Forensic Files."

 

Not holding my breath on that, though...

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Good. Maybe they can actually air legit programming outside of the endless gobs of "Forensic Files."

 

Not holding my breath on that, though...

 

They seem to be doing that. Carol Costello and SE Cupp's shows should be starting soon, and they've been running some of the CNN Originals instead of more Forensic Files. I think they were just using those to fill airtime while they cut programming to the bone as they figured out what to do with the channel. Better to run tape at no cost instead of producing a show that nobody will watch or has a long term future in the programming strategy.

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I don't know, I don't think this will last very long. HLN is very non existent channel. It is not even in my radar when I think about news channels. What helps them is their legal shows. They stood out with their legal shows, but revolving a whole entire network around generically pretty women don't seem like a big sell. It is the content that matters not that faces. Not many hosts can really build a program around their cult personality as it used to.

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They seem to be doing that. Carol Costello and SE Cupp's shows should be starting soon, and they've been running some of the CNN Originals instead of more Forensic Files. I think they were just using those to fill airtime while they cut programming to the bone as they figured out what to do with the channel. Better to run tape at no cost instead of producing a show that nobody will watch or has a long term future in the programming strategy.

It's already August, and it seems like Costello and Cupp's shows have entered development hell. Still no sign of either of them on the lineup.

 

Unless the June target date for both was either June 2018 or June 2019...

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I skimmed through HLN's schedule earlier. It's still heavy on Forensic Files.

I find it very difficult to see how a network reliant so much on a show that was cancelled SEVEN YEARS AGO and with only a limited amount of episodes is by any means viable.

 

Literally... Forensic Files only had 404 half-hour episodes. Give or take whenever Ashleigh Banfield shows up or if they do triple-runs of John Walsh to break the monotony, they will run approximately 26 of those 404 episodes daily in no particular order whatsoever (sometimes they'll repeat, but in no pattern or method). That means HLN burned through that show's library years ago.

 

The last time a situation comparable to that was with G4, except G4 played out their entire library in marathon blocks of cancelled show after cancelled show until the bitter end mercifully came.

 

If it weren't for HLN tied directly into CNN for cable carriage, HLN would have been yanked from providers like DirecTV and Charter by this point for being a total waste of bandwidth and channel space.

 

And... maybe that's why AT&T really wants to sell off CNN, so the buyer can give HLN the mercy killing it deserves.

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I find it very difficult to see how a network reliant so much on a show that was cancelled SEVEN YEARS AGO and with only a limited amount of episodes is by any means viable.

 

Seven years?!? Yikes.

 

Literally... Forensic Files only had 404 half-hour episodes. Give or take whenever Ashleigh Banfield shows up or if they do triple-runs of John Walsh to break the monotony, they will run approximately 26 of those 404 episodes daily in no particular order whatsoever (sometimes they'll repeat, but in no pattern or method). That means HLN burned through that show's library years ago.

 

If they didn't show them in random order, they'd be cycling to the beginning approximately....[math!]...every 31 days. (I can't believe I just typed that.)

 

And... maybe that's why AT&T really wants to sell off CNN, so the buyer can give HLN the mercy killing it deserves.

 

That seems excessive. Why not just decouple the two channels and replace HLN with something themselves?

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Seven years?!? Yikes.

Make that six years. The show had a nebulous history under multiple show titles and networks.

 

The show will never have new episodes produced because the narrator - voiceover god Peter Thomas - died last year.

 

That seems excessive. Why not just decouple the two channels and replace HLN with something themselves?

 

It baffles me why no one would think of running CNN International as overnight filler on HLN instead.

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Oh, the Forensic Files thing is nothing compared to Cartoon Network's obsession with Teen Titans Go.

 

That show doesn't even have 200 15 minute episodes. Cartoon Network aired the show 300 times last week.

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Oh, the Forensic Files thing is nothing compared to Cartoon Network's obsession with Teen Titans Go.

 

That show doesn't even have 200 15 minute episodes. Cartoon Network aired the show 300 times last week.

Oh yeah, THIS. I still can't believe that actually happened.

No one should ever complain about Forensic Files on HLN again after that shit happened.

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Oh yeah, THIS. I still can't believe that actually happened.

No one should ever complain about Forensic Files on HLN again after that shit happened.

It's not even the first time they've pulled this kind of stunt over at Cartoon Network.

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It baffles me why no one would think of running CNN International as overnight filler on HLN instead.

 

Why isn't CNN International cleared on most providers, let alone considered to replace the imminently castoff HLN is puzzling. BTW, ION should run few more canadian shows a la PBS and their british shows rather than being just a 'jukebox'.

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Why would I cry when I like watching SVU and Criminal Minds?

Yes there's violence and scheming there too, but the characters and writing are more tolerable (...well, some barely).

What ION has successfully done was later implemented at MyTV and apparently at Cartoon Network... airing marathon blocks of shows ad naueum. Yeah, you might like the shows... but to binge-watch the entire day? No thanks. (Actually, ION wasn't even the first -- Spike ran marathon blocks of CSI reruns throughout the day for the longest time as early as 2008.)

 

It's that a freaking so-called NEWS NETWORK on a NEWS TIER on cable systems is airing FORENSIC FILES for as much as 14 HOURS A DAY ON SAID SO-CALLED NEWS NETWORK. At least Team Titans GO is a cartoon on a network supposedly devoted to... cartoons (and a network so strongly, and blatantly, dayparted).

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Why isn't CNN International cleared on most providers, let alone considered to replace the imminently castoff HLN is puzzling.

 

It's a mystery for the ages...and the same goes for BBC World News.

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Why isn't CNN International cleared on most providers, let alone considered to replace the imminently castoff HLN is puzzling.

 

We have CNN-I on FIOS here, but it's in the very high end package that we don't get, which also includes BBC World News (only SD), the HD feed of Oprah's channel, GSN in SD/HD, Logo, and a few others. Surprisingly, we get OWN in our package, but only in SD.

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I'm guessing the 9pm-6am hours will still be Forensic Files.

I would guess so too; but for better filling of the schedule,

they should air their originals and CNN original docu-series instead.

Better shows to air and won't cost them as much money.

(At least from 9pm to or 1 or 2am, then air Forensic Files after)

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CNNI is available on CNNgo. Even if you don't get it via your cable package on your TV, you can get it through CNNgo. CNNI looks great in streaming on AppleTV.

 

And I don't think simulcasting CNNI onto HLN is a serious programming strategy. Let's set aside the huge differences in brand and target demographics between HLN and CNNI for a moment and just look at the logistics. CNNI and CNN USA are much closer than they ever were before, so there would be a fair amount of overlap between the three.

 

You couldn't do it after Ashleigh Banfield's show because CNNI simulcasts AC360 and that Don Lemon show. I'm not 100% sure what CNN USA does after their primetime block as it seems to vary from day to day, but they can and often do seem to pick up at least one hour of CNNI's Newsroom from LA and sometimes the Atlanta edition too.

 

I suppose you could simulcast CNN Today in that two hour block before Ashleigh Banfield's show, but then you'd have World Sport leading into it. I'd argue that Forensic Files is probably a better match as far as content and demographic go.

 

I'm not necessarily saying that airing Forensic Files on a loop is the right way to go. It isn't, but there isn't really any right way to go until they just figure out what they want to do with HLN and how distinct HLN's brand needs to be. I thought this newest rebrand of HLN was supposed to position it a little closer to the mother CNN brand for the first time in a while, so perhaps reruns of CNN originals would be the way to go. On the other hand, would it confuse viewers to see CNN stars Anthony Bourdain et al on a network that is not and has not been called CNN for the last decade?

 

What I always thought would be a relatively easy filler show for HLN at night would be an anchorless Euronews-style newscast. Just take all the content that the mothership is producing constantly, slap some cool looking graphics and music to transition between packages, turn vo/sots into something that looks like those Facebook-style videos, and run the whole thing on a loop. You could even add in other things like the Great Big Story features. It wouldn't require too many resources (a few producers/writers and some editors), but at least it would be fresh and could be fully branded as an HLN show. But of course, they probably would never do this as it would cost more than a dime.

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I would guess so too; but for better filling of the schedule,

they should air their originals and CNN original docu-series instead.

Better shows to air and won't cost them as much money.

(At least from 9pm to or 1 or 2am, then air Forensic Files after)

 

At the very least, they should hold off on Forensic Files till after primetime hours....

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