TV Land Grabber

Rich Cronin, president of Nick at Nite’s TV Land, can roll with the punches.

As the man in charge of MTV Network’s newest and fastest-growing channel, Cronin is trying to make a household name out of the year-old, 24-hour cable channel devoted to rerunning shows from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

TV Land was launched on April 29, 1996, with 5 million subscribers and a simulcast on Nick at Nite. Today, with shows ranging from “Hill Street Blues” to “Petticoat Junction,” TV Land boasts 20 million subscribers.

But success hasn’t been easy, and Cronin has found that it sometimes takes a mix of perseverance, creativity and a sense of humor.

Since the channel began, Cronin has been pleading with the local cable operator in his boyhood home of Elmhurst, Ill., to add TV Land to its lineup. But when his pleas were unheeded, he decided to enlist the help of a secret weapon--his mother. Claire Cronin baked an apple pie and accompanied her son on a sales call to Continental Cablevision. A photograph of the brazen ploy ran in a trade magazine under the headline “My Mother the Shill.”

Continental still doesn’t carry TV Land.

“They don’t have any channel space,” Cronin says. “But as soon as some opens up, I think we’ll get picked up.”

Meanwhile, Cronin was pulled into the middle of a nasty fight between MCA and Viacom over their joint ownership of USA Networks. In a lawsuit filed in Delaware Chancery Court, MCA argued that Viacom had violated a non-compete clause in their agreement through its ownership of MTV Networks. In addition, MCA argued that TV Land was launched with the intention of drawing viewers away from USA Networks. (Last week, the judge ordered the companies to end their 50-50 partnership in USA.)

Cronin had written in internal documents that TV Land would lure viewers from USA, thus supporting MCA’s case. Asked in court about these memos, Viacom chief Sumner Redstone downplayed their importance by dismissing Cronin as a “middle-to-lower-level, gung-ho guy who wants to run a TV channel.” Ouch.

Instead of getting discouraged, Cronin began passing out gag business cards made for him by a friend that read: “Rich Cronin: Middle-to-Lower-Level, Gung-Ho Guy Who Wants to Run a TV Channel.”

Indeed, Cronin’s good humor has served him well. In 13 years at MTV Networks, the executive--who physically resembles “Happy Days” star-turned-director Ron Howardhas risen from affiliate sales manager to marketing director to the No. 2 person at Nick at Nite.

While Viacom has experienced sagging profit recently, MTV Networks--MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite and TV Land--has remained a consistent bright spot.

“MTV has been strong on a global basis,” says Cowan & Co. entertainment analyst Harold Vogel. “TV Land is new and not a moneymaker yet, but it will be.”

Ex-Viacom Chairman Frank Biondi, now chairman of MCA, gives Cronin most of the credit for creating TV Land and says that the channel’s success will be built on Cronin’s hard work and enthusiasm.

“He’s got an awful lot of energy. He knows the business from many different perspectives,” Biondi says.

Nickelodeon started as a daytime-only kids channel; in the evenings, Arts & Entertainment Network (now called A&E;) broadcast its programming on Nickelodeon’s channel space. Cronin and others at MTV Networks lobbied for the Nick at Nite concept in 1985, when the arrangement with A&E; was ending.

“There was some discussion of a 24-hour kids network. . . . A few of us said, ‘Are you nuts? Kids go to sleep. Let’s put on something that’s suitable for family viewing, but that appeals to adults.’ ” The channel also wouldn’t require refunding for new programming, which would keep costs relatively low.

Nick at Nite was born, creating an instant impact. Boomers could relive their youth watching “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” or “Bewitched,” while a new generation discovered the shows for the first time.

“Now, everyone’s jumping on the bandwagon. . . . [Ford] is using the ‘Green Acres’ theme in their ads,” Cronin says. “I don’t think we’d be seeing these things if it weren’t for Nick at Nite.”

Even after the success of Nick at Nite, Cronin knew it would be an uphill battle to get TV Land carried by “channel-locked” cable operators. Bombarded by competing channels and bound by “must-carry” rules to broadcast local stations, many operators just didn’t have enough channel space available. TV Land was up against a number of new entries, including Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet and the Fox News Channel.

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Partly at the suggestion of Biondi, Cronin offered a sweet deal to cable operators: no charge for five years, plus $1.20 per subscriber in “marketing support.” The idea was to encourage rapid growth that would soon allow the channel to be advertiser-supported. (This should become a reality after paid ads debut on TV Land this fall.)

TV Land was the first channel to offer this type of deal. Animal Planet and Fox News Channel soon followed, paying up to $12 per subscriber. Faced with tough competition, some companies tried every possible financial and political incentive to gain carriage.

TV Land “definitely did a lot of lobbying for their service. But they didn’t do the kind of heavy-handed, down-and-dirty stuff that we’re seeing from other companies,” says Tom Schaeffer, Los Angeles general manager of Media One (formerly Continental Cablevision).

In his bid to bolster TV Land subscribers, Cronin--who exceeded his year-end goal of 15 million subscribers by about 25%--has resorted to aggressive tactics.

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Before Schaeffer added TV Land last fall, he says, his company got many requests for it. But behind the scenes was a multimillion-dollar awareness campaign mounted by Cronin. Extensive TV ads--on sister MTV channels as well as other networks--were supplemented with print, radio, billboard and bus ads.

In New York, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said last fall that local cable should carry the new Fox News Channel in a much-coveted opening in the cable lineup. TV Land countered with large advertisements featuring an open letter to the mayor in New York papers from fictional detective Joe Mannix, who urged people to call in to register their support for TV Land over the news channel. More than 55,000 calls were logged to Mannix’s 800 number. So far, neither channel has been picked up.

In keeping with its nostalgic theme, TV Land pays a small licensing fee to companies to run old commercials for such products as Alka Seltzer (“That’s a spicy meatball!”) and Life cereal (“Hey, Mikey! He likes it!”). The channel, which now has no paid advertising, will begin accepting paid commercials in October.

“We don’t have enough inventory [ad time to sell] on Nick at Nite as it is,” Cronin says, predicting quick sales success for TV Land.

Ad agency representatives seemed enthusiastic at last week’s presentation for advertisers at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The ad reps were treated to two hours of speeches and jokes from Lenny and Squiggy (Michael McKean and David L. Lander) and Mike Connors (“Mannix”). Writer-director Garry Marshall had them howling with reminiscences about creating “Happy Days” (network execs had been afraid that Fonzie would be too much of a “hoodlum”).

Nick has given many stars of the past a new livelihood. Connors says he now gets more fan mail than ever, and he’s talking to Paramount about a “Mannix” TV movie.

Rep. Sonny Bono--Cher’s ex-sidekick--says he’s also gained a whole new fan base.

“Now, a lot of kids know who I am without their parents having to explain about ‘Sonny and Cher,’ ” he says. He credits the show’s renewed popularity to its “family” appeal.

Cronin still faces challenges, including expanding Nick at Nite and TV Land into real brand names. Sister channel Nickelodeon has excelled in the area. Cronin touts Nick at Nite books (from Viacom’s Simon & Schuster) and Nick at Nite records (in partnership with Sony) as “brand extensions,” but neither one has yet made a mark.

Another battle will be to keep the formula compelling as others jump on the nostalgia bandwagon.

Though Nick has no real direct competitors, other studios are certainly watching enviously as Paramount Television, a Nick sister company, begins putting its old shows like “Laverne & Shirley,” “The Flip Wilson Show” and “The Brady Bunch” on Nick at Nite and TV Land. (Cronin estimates that 40% of the current lineup on Nick at Nite and TV Land are Paramount shows.) The new programs are scheduled to join the lineup starting August 1997 through September 1998.

“There’s a great benefit in being first,” Cronin says. “But we do have to constantly reinvent ourselves.”