From Fast Company — Female Cable Execs Talk The Future Of TV
Last Updated on Monday, 28 November 2011 01:34 Written by spence Monday, 28 November 2011 01:30
From left: Bravo's Frances Berwick, Animal Planet's Marjorie Kaplan, and Comedy Central's Michele Ganeless. | Photo by Marvi Lacar
By Ari Karpel — Television is facing tumultuous times. Three of cable’s most powerful women sit down to compare notes.
As television shows become less tied to the TV–and to the hour they’re aired–the networks that thrive may be the ones that know how to answer this question: Do you corral your audience, or follow it wherever it wanders? We sat down to lunch with three of cable’s most powerful women to discuss. Bravo president Frances Berwick and Comedy Central’s Michele Ganeless ordered the salmon, but Animal Planet president Marjorie Kaplan went for the poached egg. Naturally, she doesn’t eat meat.
Do you all talk often?
KAPLAN: Frances and I are in a drinking club together.
BERWICK: It’s true. About once a quarter, this group of women who work in cable meet for drinks.
GANELESS: I need to go to that!
KAPLAN: It’s like a floating crap game.
No men allowed?
KAPLAN: Well, they haven’t been there yet.
In most sectors of show biz, women often hit a glass ceiling. And yet, lots of women run cable channels. Why is that?
BERWICK: Cable is still a young industry. Unlike the movie studios and broadcast television, which started before the era when a lot of women were working, cable has lots of women who’ve grown up [in the business] and hired other women.
GANELESS: I think that’s it. When I started in 1991, Gerry Laybourne was one of the leaders of cable [as then president of Nickelodeon] and Judy McGrath was already a leader [at MTV]. There was never any question of “How does a woman break in?” Comedy Central is 20 years old. MTV–which is old–is 30.
KAPLAN: It’s not to say that all women do and men don’t, but there is data that show that men in business tend to have the hero’s journey–you know, I will go into the battle. Women tend to be, I’m going to create a collective, and we will go into battle together. Again, it’s overstating it, but I think that skill set, male or female, is useful in an industry that is full of innovation, that needs creativity, that needs to create an environment in which people feel and are expected to bring their best selves in to collaborate.
