NBCUniversal executives announced Tuesday that their upcoming television adaptation of the popular web puzzle will provide a crucial new revenue stream by successfully expanding a quiet, solitary morning habit into a 60-minute block of broadcast commercials.
NBCUniversal announced Tuesday that its television adaptation of the New York Times puzzle Wordle will provide a crucial new revenue stream by successfully expanding a quiet, solitary morning habit into a 60-minute block of broadcast commercials.
The game show, set to be hosted by "Today" anchor Savannah Guthrie and produced by Jimmy Fallon, represents a major strategic victory for the network's prime-time division. By securing the television rights to the popular five-letter guessing game, NBC has manufactured a way to sell premium pharmaceutical and automotive advertising against a simple spelling exercise that most Americans previously completed in total silence before getting out of bed. Industry insiders estimate the program could generate upwards of $40 million in ad revenue per season simply by dragging out the reveal of a yellow vowel.
When we looked at the internal data, we saw millions of highly engaged consumers spending three to five minutes every morning staring at a grid, completely unmonetized.
Kell assured investors on a morning call that Fallon's production company has developed an innovative format to stretch the game's minimal, text-based mechanics to fill a standard broadcast hour. The network plans to introduce six-minute commercial breaks between each of the contestant's six available guesses, supplemented by lengthy, emotional video packages exploring the traumatic personal history that led a player to guess the word "CRANE."
Shares of Comcast, NBC's parent company, closed up 1.2 percent following the announcement. Media analysts on Wall Street widely praised the licensing agreement with The New York Times, noting that if the Wordle adaptation proves successful in capturing the lucrative demographic of people trying to kill a few minutes, NBC is well-positioned to greenlight a sprawling, multi-season prime-time procedural based on the Connections board.