In response to industry and political pressures concerning a potentially historic game, the NFL will make the unusual arrangement of partnering with its broadcast partners--CBS and NBC--to simulcast the airing of the New England Patriots-New York Giants game this Saturday along with the league's NFL Network cable network. The game was originally intended to air just on the NFL's own thinly distributed NFL Network--which only gets into some 35 million U.S. TV homes, about a third of all U.S. TV households. Many politicians in both New York and New England areas were calling on both the NFL and the cable companies to work out an agreement to let the game be aired broadly. The three-way simulcast of the game resulted after the league failed in its negotiations with the cable operators. Cable operators have waged a long-time battle with the NFL, with the cable operators seeking to run the network on an extended basic package of programming in which the consumer pays an additional monthly fee. The NFL has been pushing for its network to be aired on cable operators' basic programming tiers. Both CBS and NBC will air the NFL Network feed on Saturday night, as well as being aired on local stations, WCVB Boston, WMUR Manchester, N.H., and WWOR New York. The telecast starts at 8 p.m. E.S.T. The NFL says this is the first time that three networks have aired a football game at the same time. In 1967, for the first Super Bowl, both CBS and NBC both televised the game. At the time, CBS was the broadcast partner of the NFL, and NBC was the partner of the American Football League. The Patriots-Giants game is important, as the 15-0 Patriots will seek to become the first NFL team to complete an unbeaten regular season since the Miami Dolphins went 14-0 in 1972. The Dolphins went on to win three more games, including Super Bowl VII, to finish 17-0 for the only perfect season in NFL history. The NFL regular season was expanded to 16 games in 1978.
The BPA Worldwide, which audits business publications and other media, issued new rules and standards for its audits at the annual meeting of its board of directors on Dec. 13. The new methodology was made public on Wednesday. Among the new rules: publishers of email newsletters with less than daily frequency tied to print publications can offer readers the option of opting out of receiving an email alert every time a new edition of the newsletter arrives. However, they must also send a separate email allowing the readers to opt out of receiving the print publication itself. In addition, the BPA approved a rule that allows publications to count subscriptions made by personal assistants on behalf of executives, provided that the assistant affirms that he or she either works in an administrative capacity for the executive and is empowered to request subscriptions. Finally, BPA member publications that have been audited three years in a row no longer need to be pre-audited during their fourth year--unless during the previous three years they consistently made errors in one particular area covered by BPA rules.
Network news or cable news? What's the choice? Syndication executives say you are missing a third option: those crazy entertainment/celebrity-oriented magazine shows. Shows like "Entertainment Tonight," "Inside Edition," "Access Hollywood" and the like compete well against "ABC World News Tonight," "NBC Nightly News" and CBS Evening News," according to the industry ad sales trade group Syndicated Network Television Association. In the key adult 25-54 demographic for the first month-and-a-half of the season, "Entertainment Tonight" posted a 2.4 rating. This bested the ABC newscast (2.0), as well as NBC's (1.9) and "CBS Evening News" a (1.5). "Inside Edition" was the next-best after "ET" among syndie shows. It tied CBS and beat four other syndie magazine shows, as well as cable news shows Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor" (0.4) and CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" (0.2). "Access Hollywood" (1.3), "The Insider (1.2), "Extra (1.0), and "TMZ" (1.0) all beat the top cable news shows, according to SNTA. The SNTA also says the median age of its entertainment news shows is the youngest: 51 years old. Network newscasts averaged 57-year-old viewers; network prime-time magazines shows were at 61; and cable news shows came in at 64. Virtually all syndication programming has smaller advertising pods than the broadcast or cable networks. The same template also follows for syndication entertainment news shows. Yet the SNTA says these shows have more "A" positions--61% of all its advertising slots--than network or cable. The "A" position is the first advertising slot after program content, which has been deemed the most valuable among advertisers because of its higher viewership.
Syndication programs showed plenty of resilience going into the holiday season. Many daytime talk shows maintained or improved their ratings performance for the season for the week ending December 16--especially two high-profile shows: Warner Bros.' "Ellen DeGeneres" and CBS Television Distribution's "Rachael Ray." "Ellen" went to the season high, improving 9% to a Nielsen Media Research 2.4 live-plus-same-day rating. "Ray" pointed up 5% to a 2.1, tying its best season number. NBC Universal's "Jerry "Springer" also grew 8% to a 1.4 rating. Other talkers stayed about the same level: NBC's "Maury" at a 1.9; CBS' "Montel Williams" at a 1.5; NBC's "Martha" at a 1.2. On the losing end were the top two talk shows: CBS' "Oprah Winfrey" at a 5.2 rating, down 5%, and CBS' "Dr. Phil" at a 4.5--a 6% drop. Morning talkers: Disney-ABC's "Live with Regis and Kelly" lost 3% to a 3.1. Warner Bros.' "Tyra Banks" dropped 8% to a 1.1. Rookie shows did well to stay in the game: Warner Bros.' magazine "TMZ" held at a 2.0 rating. NBC's "The Steve Wilkos Show" was flat at a 0.9, while Program Partners' "Merv Griffin's Crosswords" grew 13% to get to 0.9. All major syndicated game shows improved: CBS' "Wheel of Fortune" climbed 3% to an 8.1. CBS' "Jeopardy!" went up 2% to a 6.6. Disney-ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" hit a 3.2, after a 7% gain. Debmar-Mercury's "Family Feud" grew 6% to a 1.9. This season's new off-network sitcoms continued their neck-and-neck race: Warner Bros.' "Two and a Half Men" was unchanged at a 4.9, which led all sitcoms. Twentieth Television's "Family Guy" grew 7% to a season-high 4.8.
The Itandi Group, which operates a place-based video network in hair and nail salons, has partnered with Splash News to broadcast a three-minute news segment covering celebrity news and gossip. The segments, produced on a weekly basis, will include 90 seconds of sponsorship time for advertisers every 30 minutes. Itandi claims to reach over 100,000 viewers a month--touting this "captive" audience as relatively affluent, with a high level of disposable income. Aggressively partnering with new salons, it hopes to reach 1 million viewers by the end of 2008 and 4 million by the end of 2010. Gary Morgan, CEO of Splash News, remarked: "When we saw Itandi in a Manhattan nail salon, with every woman watching the screens, we saw the huge potential for accessing a captive and exciting new audience." Salons and barbershops are proving to be increasingly attractive to marketers as platforms for reaching consumers in a friendly social setting where they may be more receptive to ad messages. In late September, Alloy Media + Marketing's urban and multicultural division, Alloy Access, announced the launch of an out-of-home ad network targeting African-American and Hispanic consumers via barbershops and salons. The barbershop and salon agreement with the Black Owned Beauty Supply Association opens up potential relationships with all 1,700 of its members. At launch, the new network includes 400 venues in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Alloy plans to double this number by the end of 2008.
City Year and BusRadio have a new mission: bringing kids a positive message during their ride to school. BusRadio, a national radio network, brings age-appropriate music, original programming and public service messages to more than 1 million kids between the ages of 6 and 18 every weekday during their daily bus ride. BusRadio reaches more than 10,000 buses in 120 school districts in 23 states. City Year, a nonprofit organization, encourages young people to spend a year as a mentor or tutor. BusRadio will help deliver that message. "Our partnership with BusRadio is an innovative way to directly share City Year's commitment to helping young people make a difference with students," said Michael Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of City Year. Steven Shulman, president and co-founder of BusRadio, adds that his company supports City Year's aims and hopes to introduce young people to "the importance of civic engagement and social entrepreneurship in their communities."