Enterprise Fans Buy L.A. Ad

[Sci-Fi]

From Slashdot:

Enterprise Fans Buy L.A. Ad

Fans of UPN's canceled Star Trek Enterprise announced that they will be purchasing a full-page advertisement in the Los Angeles Times to urge someone to pick up the show for a fifth season. The Enterprisefans.com Web site said that it had changed its original plan to buy a USA Today ad when contacted by a fan who works for the Times, who offered to arrange a special deal for one of the ads, which normally costs $35,000.

The ad will appear in the Feb. 21 edition of the paper in the "A" section, the site reported. The site has been raising funds to place a newspaper ad and added that any additional money will go toward relief for victims of the South Asia tsunami.

:salute: :Nsalute:

[Fragmentary]

Uh... Paramount has already stated that they are not willing to shop the show. Unless that ad is directed at Paramount, it's kind of a waste of money.

And honestly, wouldn't the money be better spent bitching at Paramount? Instead of begging like fans are always doing, why not get pissed. Paramount has a recent track record of blaming fans for the Trek franchise's dwindling returns. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone would just get together and say, "hey, Nemisis sucked. Enterprise sucked. We didn't let you down, you let us down!"
A full page ad in the LA times that said something like that would get a helluva lot of attention in the media, especially within the industry. That page of the paper would faxed to everyone's office at every studio by lunch time.

[Darth Marley]

Bakula said that even complaining to Paramount will not help. No one there cares anymore.

The only think likely to make a dent anymore is to exploit the consolidation in media.
Rather than focus on UPN and Paramount, focus on the successful shows on the parent network.
Attack those that advertise on CSI!
Let the network know that we can read the trades.
We know who is who, and they cannot hide behind the corporate shell game.
Pick the most popular show, list their advertisors, and mail the advertisors reciepts for goods you purchased from competitors, explaining that you don't like what Viacom has done with Trek, so any company that feeds the beast you will not buy from. The mailed in reciept gives them a figure on lost sales. Something for them to think about.

Once advertisors view broadcaster conduct as detrimental to their image, then leverage is restored to the people that actually pay for the shows, the viewers.

[Sci-Fi]

I don't know how accurate the following is, but it was posted at one of the ST boards as being the ad they are going to publish:

http://enterprisefans.com/ad/final.pdf

:salute: :Nsalute:

[Darrell Lawrence]

I read somewhere that Spike TV might be going after Enterprise.

I think someone posted something at CA about it.

[Sci-Fi]

I read somewhere that Spike TV might be going after Enterprise.

I think someone posted something at CA about it.

Maybe for syndication. Spike TV is part of the Viacom group, which includes CBS, UPN, MTV, Paramount, etc etc. Many ST fans consider Spike TV as the unofficial Star Trek (rerun?) station. TOS' contract with Sci-Fi will be up after this season, so many expect that Spike TV will try obtain the syndication rights to that too. Now whether or not Spike TV will actually air ENT episodes on a regular basis, like they have with TNS and DS9 (but not Voyager...yet to be aired) remains to be seen.

Anything is possible, but the focus from the saveenterprise group at this point is to take/shop ENT to another channel, in particular USA Network or The Sci-Fi Channel. But at this late date, many networks/stations have or soon will finalize their next season lineups and budgets, plus development projects. Plus, does Paramount even want to make anymore new episodes of ENT or shop ENT to another network? Are there advertisers that are willing to pay the ad rates? There are a lot of "IF'S", some say too many, but if the fans save the show, then its kudos to everyone involved.

ENT really needs to double or triple their rating numbers for the remaining episodes to show it has legs and the viewers have or are coming come back before TPTB reconsider the cancelation decision or for another network to seriously consider picking up the series. But saveenterprise and/or ENT fans knew the show had rating problems for a year or more and didn't, at least I never seen a plan, formulate and implement a season long grass roots campaign to make the public aware of the show and hope they agree with the fans that the show is worth tuning into on a weekly basis and saving.

Think it's also unfair to blame UPN. They renewed ENT when many, if not all the other over-the-air networks would have canceled ENT after the 3rd season, if not the 2nd season. The 4th season scripts are light years better than the previous 3, but was it too little and too late? JMS made a proposal to Paramount about a new ST series. Maybe a change in the guard is needed. ST fans certainly have choice words to say about B&B. The ST franchise has been a money maker for Paramount, so many doubt it will be on the shelf for long, but who knows for sure?


:salute: :Nsalute:

[Darrell Lawrence]

Here it is-

http://www.scifiuniverse.net/news/2005/02/13_01.html

Remember, it's just rumor.

[Sci-Fi]

UPDATE:

The L.A. Times ad is in today's paper, 02/15/2005, on page A21.

:salute: :Nsalute: