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Sean Cunningham

Member since June 2005Contact Sean

  • CEO Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau
  • 830 Third Ave 2nd Floor
  • New York New York
  • 10022 USA

Articles by Sean All articles by Sean

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  • Candidates Need To Break With Tradition To Win In 2014 by Sean Cunningham (Marketing: Politics on 10/09/2014)

    Abby, two other points you made call for some more detail: 1. While it’s correct that (in Phoenix) “another 46% receive television via Alternate Delivery Systems (not Cable),” what’s omitted is the fact that “Cable” (Cox Media & NCC) now also sell the ads locally for Direct TV and Dish in the Phoenix market. This has boosted the “Cable” HH coverage by 63% over the past three years. 2. While the “top 100” point was mighty relevant during 1960s/70s era elections, in 2014 those 100 shows are less than 5% of what people watch on TV (again – the viewers are now distributed up and down the dial). A deeper look reveals that the Broadcast top 100 have not only lost over 60% of their rating points in the last decade, but Cable’s top 100 programs generate 30% more rating points than the Broadcast 100… but I digress. My point remains a simple one. The majority of viewers and voters are more habitually distributed outside the few local stations that political buyers are pouring ever-more dollars into; and Phoenix Late News is a good example of what happens (136 total minutes of airtime – with 101 of a total 102 ads being political ads) when political buyers want to “party like it’s 1999.”

  • Candidates Need To Break With Tradition To Win In 2014 by Sean Cunningham (Marketing: Politics on 10/09/2014)

    Hello Abby! I’m glad you jumped in, not just because two TV voices are better than one, but because “too much agreement ruins a good chat.” As you used the Phoenix market, let’s stay there. Interestingly, your assertions of ad dollar dominanace “more like 85%” bring me back to the point of both my opinion piece (above) and that of Michael Beach who wrote ”The Top 10 Worst Places to Live”. Both examine the politcal buyer’s legacy practice of over-saturating a few local TV stations with 80%+ of the TV ad budget and the bombarding effect this has on some voters. My pivot simply called out an ever-growing number of political ads chasing an ever-dwindling group of voters. A Phoenix example of bombarding? Checking station logs of the 4 local broadcast stations in Phoenix in the days just before the 2012 election shows that in the Late Local News daypart, some 101 (yes, one hundred and one) political ads ran on one night during the same 34-minute window across just 4 stations (34 mins. per news broadcast x 4 channels = 136 total minutes of airtime), with 101 of a total 102 ads being political ads. That’s what anyone would call bombardment. As you know, what ironically causes those ever-more ads is ever-less rating points. In the Phoenix Late News case it was a 60% free-fall in ratings compounded through progressive political cycles (from 12,464 A25-54 Broadcast Late News rating points in 2004 to only 4,990 in 2012) that set fertile ground for politcal ad inundation, while the other contributor is politcal buyers looking to buy the same gross rating point loads “as they always have” (or more). In Local Late News the only way to get that done is to strip-mine the news content out in favor of more ad breaks - - to the point where the news content serves as occasional breaks among the bloated political ad pods. What’s the bottom line on bombarding the Phoenix broadcast viewer? The 25% loss of salable rating points (from 117,937 in 2004 to 88,865 in 2012) was answered with a 225% increase in rating points (from 7,479 to 24,271) from politcal buyers. Again, an ever-growing number of political ads chasing an ever-dwindling group of voters. Certainly a point we should agree on is that the best political media investment in 2014 is TV advertising and more TV advertising. It’s not a choice of one channel vs. another. It’s about using the full dial, as stated in the article, and avoiding overkill. All any political buyer need do is look at the audience share figures cycle-over-cycle to better distribute the ad dollars widely and deeply across the TV dial. The changes in 60-days-prior-to-election audience shares in the top 50 local markets (24% share for Broadcast, 45% for Cable, as of 2012) support thinking, planning and buying wide and deep across many channels. (to be continued…)

  • TV Ratings Erosion: Sports Metaphors Fit Bill by Wayne Friedman (TV Watch on 05/26/2009)

    This would have been a factual story if only the first word of the story was "Broadcast..." In 2009 assuming that the reader "knows" that the term "network TV" is meant to refer to the declining sub-sector of Broadcast TV, which holds roughly 40% of the national TV rating points, and mentioning Cable among a list of also-rans (including sandwich boards) is akin to assuming in 2009 that if you use the term "automotive business" that the reader "knows" that you means "the big three" and that listing "import autos" (Toyota, Nissan...you may have heard of them) among a list of also-rans including skateboards is appropriate. The simple fact is that TV usage and ratings continue at record high levels despite a proliferation of media options.

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