Meredith Corp. saw television ad revenue climb almost 30% for its fiscal first quarter 2011. The company credits its 27% gain in TV advertising to a large $12 million in net political advertising and an 8% increase in non-political advertising, which rose to $58 million. Eight of its 10-largest non-political advertising categories grew revenues, led by automotive, retail and media-related advertisers. Overall, at its Local Media Group -- primarily TV station group and associated digital businesses -- revenue rose 25% to $76 million. Meredith Chairman and CEO Stephen M. Lacy stated: "Local broadcast television remains the most effective way for advertisers to efficiently reach large consumer audiences and drive them to retail." Going forward, the company expects the Local Media Group will see non-political advertising revenues rise in the low- to-mid-single-digit range for the coming quarterly periods. It expects political advertising to grow $15 million to $18 million in its coming quarterly reporting period. At its National Media Group, primarily its magazine division, revenues dipped slightly to $268 million versus $272 million a year ago. Operating profit rose a bit to $39 million. Looking at just print magazine advertising, total revenues were about the same, at $136 million. Circulation revenues slipped 4% in the first quarter of fiscal 2011. National Media Group expects advertising revenues to rise in the low- to-mid-single-digit range in the coming periods. Other highlights: Meredith says online advertising revenues improved 21%, from higher pharmaceutical, consumer packaged-goods and retail categories. Overall, Meredith posted revenues of $344.4 million are up slightly -- 4%, from $332.4 million in the period. Net earnings grew 40% to $25.7 million.
News Corp. is said to be working on the first national, all-digital American tabloid targeting the growing market of tablet computers, especially Apple's new iPad, according to Forbes, which cited sources familiar with the project. The multinational media publisher is hoping to introduce the as-yet-unnamed digital tabloid, tentatively titled "The Daily," as early as December. All told, the new publication will employ about 150 people, including editorial, business and technical responsibilities, with a first-year budget of $30 million. Jesse Angelo, the former executive editor of the New York Post, will lead the team, wilth Greg Clayman, who formerly served as head of digital distribution for Viacom, in charge of business operations. News Corp. may be the first company with plans to launch a major digital-only newspaper for tablet computers. But plenty of print publishers are hoping to take advantage of the iPad's huge popularity. This summer, The New York Times unveiled plans for a new digital publishing platform, Press Engine, which is scheduled to debut in the fourth quarter. Drawing on the NYT's experience creating its own apps for the iPhone and iPad, it is available to other newspaper publishers for a fee. The new service will provide app templates that save articles, share content, have photo galleries, audio and video features, horizontal and vertical reading, simple search, and device-standard advertising units. It also allows for partial offline reading. Currently, Gartner is forecasting global tablet computer sales of 19.4 million units by the end of 2010 -- due largely to brisk sales of the iPad, climbing to 55 million in 2011. As of late October, Apple has currently sold about 4.2 million iPads in the U.S.
The potential for set-top-box (STB) data to help buyers and sellers in the near term is greatest in local markets, as opposed to national programming, according to an industry research consortium. Many local broadcasters view Nielsen data as limited and are eager to move swiftly in exploring how STB data can upgrade measurement in their DMAs. STB-based metrics are not foolproof, but are "considered a vast improvement over the imperfect" system in place in local markets. The result: "local measurement should have a fairly short timeline for implementation and adoption, perhaps within the next year," according to a report from the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). CIMM did not elaborate on how wide deployment might be. While hurdles remain in STB data becoming a marketplace currency -- nationally and locally -- CIMM Managing Director Jane Clarke said a groundswell of interest across the 200-plus local markets should hasten deployment there. "In the local area, we actually think that market is developing on its own ... we think that's going to work out as more data comes into the market," she said in a presentation unveiling the CIMM report, available on the group's Web site Wednesday. The pressing need locally looks to be greatest in the Nielsen diary markets, where ratings come out only four times a year and rely -- at least partly -- on a viewer's dedication and memory. But there is also a hunger for STB data in bigger markets, where it could bring larger sample sizes; a measure of commercial ratings; and viewing levels in particular ZIP codes. Charles Kennedy, a senior vice president at ABC, said deployment of STB data is important "even if it's just to spur Nielsen to do better ... competition tends to always bring out efficiencies and innovation." Media companies, advertisers and agencies fund CIMM. Its report is intended to serve as a primer on the STB research landscape. The data offers the promise of second-by-second tracking of viewing patterns. CIMM, however, noted that the data is far from a cure-all for frustrated local broadcasters. It does not gather data from homes without digital cable or that use over-the-air TV. In Milwaukee, for example, nearly one-quarter of homes in the top-50 market receive over-the-air reception, the report said. There are also issues with the "complexity" in how ads are served locally, and CIMM said that "makes it difficult to ascribe viewing to specific ads." And STB data, for the most part, does not offer information on demographics, such as the gender and age of viewers watching. Furthermore, STB data is voluminous and can be difficult for stations to process, marking "a major hurdle and barrier to entry," CIMM said. And while stations may complain that ratings are slow to come in Nielsen diary markets, STB data is not easily used on a daily basis. "Not overnight data -- there is a lag time," CIMM wrote. Nielsen is looking to respond to local broadcasters' interest in STB metrics and has recently completed some data collection in a test. TiVo has had an STB-data product for some time, although it is unclear whether it has found any clients. Rentrak appears to be having the most success in making the data part of local markets as it culls information from boxes owned by Dish Network, AT&T U-verse and Charter Communications. Gannett Television has purchased the Rentrak offering for its stations in Denver and Grand Rapids, Mich. The data could be particularly helpful in Grand Rapids, which is a diary market. Gannett executive Tom Somers said it is frustrating that a new TV season launched last month, yet the ABC station in Grand Rapids doesn't have ratings for the new shows, in addition to some games with the thriving Michigan State football team. The station could be selling spots at lower rates than it could command if, say, "Dancing with the Stars" is doing better this season than last year. Somers said Gannett is experimenting in both Rentrak markets on how to make the data part of negotiations. At the very least, it can provide guidance. "It certainly gives you a way to go talk to advertisers that we didn't have before," Somers said. "That's positive for both the station and the advertiser ... this isn't an us-against-them kind of thing." Janice Finkel-Greene, an executive vice president at Magna Global, said STB data is "giving us some insights we haven't had on a local level." She said Magna got a free trial with TiVo, but turned down a chance to buy the product, partly because the data comes just from TiVo households and may not be a representative sample. She said Magna is considering purchasing Rentrak, while Kantar is at least exploring a local product. In its report, CIMM suggested STB data could allow buyers to better compare performance across the markets served by the three Nielsen measuring sticks: local people meters, set meters and diaries markets. Buyers could better compare performance between Los Angeles and Little Rock -- "it does offer consistent measurement."
The average amount of time spent by 12- to-24-year-old Americans online has roughly tripled from 59 minutes per day in 2000 to two hours and 52 minutes per day in 2010, according to Edison Research's American Youth Study 2010, which follows up on a similar survey conducted 10 years ago. The two studies provide a snapshot of a society undergoing radical transformation by digital technology. The proportion of young Americans who own a mobile device has surged from 29% in 2000 to 81% in 2010, according to the 2010 survey of 1,533 young adults, conducted by Edison in September. Among mobile phone owners, it found that 50% have used the devices to play games, 45% to access social networks, and 40% to listen to music stored on the device. The Edison findings also checked in with the cohort from the first study, now ages 22-34, and found a decline in traditional media consumption. Ten years ago, 44% of this group said they started their day with radio, but that number has dwindled to 29% today. Of course, this might reflect changing schedules and behaviors, as individuals move into adulthood. However, other surveys have turned up similar findings. For example, over the last five years, the number of kids and young adults who own an iPod or MP3 player has more than quadrupled, according to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The proportion of people between the ages of eight and 18 who own one of these devices jumped from 18% in 2004 to 76% in 2009, representing an increase of 322%. Separately, the average number of radio sets in the homes of these Kaiser respondents decreased from 3.3 to 2.5, and the average number of CD players fell from 3.6 to 2.2 over the same period. In June 2008, Coleman Insights found that daily radio listening by teenagers was on the downswing, losing share to the new media options. Specifically, Coleman found that 84% of the 14-17 cohort listen to music daily on an MP3 player, iPod or computer, versus 78% for radio. A second Coleman study found that the 15-17 cohort favors iPods and MP3 players as primary destinations for listening to music -- with 41% choosing the personal devices, compared to just 22% for FM radio.
McGraw-Hill's TV business follows that of other TV groups -- double-digit revenue gains from strongly improved advertising results. The company's broadcasting climbed 23.5% to $23.6 million in its third quarter compared to the same period last year. McGraw-Hill's benefits stretched across the board -- political, national and local sales. But McGraw-Hill's publications and print business struggled. Revenue for its information and media group -- which includes its broadcasting assets -- declined by 4.7% to $227.8 million. But taking out the sale of BusinessWeek, the group climbed 5.1%. The company says operating profit improved 55.1% to $45.8 million in the third quarter. The company's biggest driver continued to be McGraw-Hill Education, which witnessed a 5.5% gain to $1.1 billion in revenue. McGraw-Hill is pushing many digital services in its education unit. The company says a growing number of students and instructors are registering for McGraw-Hill Connect, as well as other online homework management, assessment and tutoring products. Through September, registrations for these products and services have grown to 1.9 million, a 26% increase over the same period last year. Financial services, which includes Standard & Poor's Investment Services, rose 9.5% to $697.3 million. Revenue at S&P Credit Market Services is up by 27.6%, to $163.0 million -- much of this propelled by ratings needed around stronger refinancing activity. Total revenue at the company was up 5.5% to $1.98 billion. Net income was up 13.9% to $389.6 million.
As it continues to build its research on how shoppers react in stores, the IPG Emerging Media Lab has a deal to use Entourage Advertising, a software provider specializing in digital out-of-home marketing, to handle the testing ground. IPG calls the lab a Retail Experience Center; it seeks more insight into a shopper's experience at the point of purchase. Entourage propels displays that could include video streams in store aisles. "The software at the lab needed to be flexible enough to push different kinds of content segments to various retail screens ... to deliver targeted and contextually relevant content at specific locations," stated Sonya Rosas, digital out-of-home strategist for the IPG Media Lab. The Entourage platform serves more than 50 digital out-of-home networks in various fields, including hospitality and quick-service restaurants nationwide. At the IPG lab, Entourage says its capabilities complement existing testing, such as examining test-to-mobile options for shoppers, where they could send a text seeking a coupon while in an aisle considering a purchase. The lab also is testing an option for a store to turn its front window into a large touchscreen, and in-store kiosks allowing consumers to dial up a sales associate for advice.
So I have had a few days to play with Logitech Revue and the new Sony Blue-ray player, both powered by Google TV, and one thing is very clear. It could be debated that Google TV is a "game changer," but it is most certainly a "catalyst for game change." I have seen and even worked on some of its game-changing predecessors like AOLTV and ZillionTV. The main difference here is that the consumer can walk into Best Buy today, set it up fairly easily today, and it works very well. Today. Set-up was straight-forward, but it still took half an hour because I had to manually enter my TV make/model, cable box make/model and router information. It makes sense one has to do this, since the box works "with" these devices, but clearly there is room for setup assistance from Best Buy, another third party, or dare I say someday an integrated MSO box. Next is the interface, which after a few minutes is easy to understand; it is in line with the familiar Google interface millions use every day. The ability to hit the Search key, type in a TV program via the supplied keyboard, and arrive at a list of all available permutations of that show is powerful. For instance, type in a show, and it will list a video link to setting your DVR to record the next full TV episode, links to archive full episodes on the ad-supported Web site, and links to Amazon to buy the program pay-per-view. Or go to Applications to watch video there (more on this below). Also nice for the consumer is the What's On section, which lists programs by genre first, then by channel/platform. Then there is content. Cable vets HBO, CNBC and Turner (Adult Swim, Cartoon, and CNN) continue to innovate and have Applications, that is, navigation and programming optimized for TV remote controls and viewing. CNBC Real-Time allows users to track stocks and access news feeds while watching financial news from CNBC. HBO GO has full length Movies and Series available, while Turner has clips from popular programs. As for the business model: CNBC has TV spots from the linear feed. HBO is utilizing TV Anywhere authorization. Turner does not have either and has no banners and pre-roll ads yet, but TV Anywhere or ads can't be far behind. There is, of course, the much-publicized absence of broadcast networks. I agree with Marc Cuban who wrote: "I personally can't think of anything stupider for the big broadcast networks to do than give their shows to Google... because they are finally getting billions of dollars in retransmission fees from their distributors". However, they should want to play at some point for the promotional value alone. The real showstoppers here are the Applications from the independent professional broadband video channels, such as The Onion, CHOW and CNET. All have been optimized for Google TV viewing, and all have the ability to play out on-demand or flow from video to video in linear fashion. It is easy to see how soon many comedy consumers will "Watch TV" on The Onion or Funny or Die sites and not on Comedy Central. No TV Anywhere authorization issues here; the pre-roll ads are limited now, but sure to come. Then there is You Tube, which has looked great on AppleTV and does the same here, with overlay ads and all. I agree with Bill Niemeyer who wrote that Twitter and NBA also have outstanding showings, and there is Netflix, with its intuitive navigation and 20% of Internet traffic in prime time, and Amazon pay-per-view. So while many will say dedicated programming is limited, and I agree, there is plenty to get started with here. All in all, this is a very good version 1.0 showing out of the box. There are huge business issues, both on distribution and ad sales for organizations to deal with, too many to innumerate here. In addition, many creative and interface issues need to be worked out for programmers who think their Web page will suffice. However, because this product is here and works, it's a catalyst for groups to talk about change today. Some will make it happen today rather than tomorrow.