Google has acquired more inventory for its auction-based TV Ads system, inking a deal with Verizon that gives it access to an additional 3.3 million homes. Under the deal, Google can place spots up for bid that run in local breaks on 50-plus cable networks on Verizon's FiOS service. Verizon has rights to sell that space, but will use Google as a proxy to try to bring in higher prices for some of it. Google also has been placing inventory up for bid in homes served by DirecTV and Dish Network. Collectively, the two satellite operators and Verizon will give TV Ads the chance to sell space in a combined reach of 35 million homes. It is unlikely, however, that many advertisers' spots will reach that full footprint. Google's arrangements give it rights to inventory that may be different on Verizon and DirecTV and Dish. That brings a reach vs. targeting dynamic. On Verizon, a successful bidder's spots may run on one of 50 networks -- perhaps a CNN or TNT -- but that feed would only be in 3.3 million homes. By contrast, DirecTV offers an opportunity to air ads in more than 18 million homes, but only on 11 lower-rated networks, such as Fox Business and Fuel. Separately, Google does have deals with some cable networks such as GSN and TV Guide Network, allowing bidders to slot ads into their national feeds, which can reach more than the Verizon-DirecTV-Dish combo. It had a similar national arrangement with NBC Universal for some of its networks, but that has ended. Under the TV Ads system, bidders can define the audiences they hope to reach based on multiple demographics. A Fox Business or Fuel may have value in offering relevant audiences for, say, a financial firm or snowboard marketer. Such a placement can be cost-effective for an advertiser with a lower budget that has never tried TV, a group Google has worked hard to bring to TV Ads. Google provides some performance data on how effective the spots were in reaching audiences it collects from set-top boxes. With inventory from satellite operators and now a telco, Google would score a coup by grabbing inventory from cable operators, although they tend to have veteran sales operations and are loath to share.
Just like Fox did the day before, the new Comcast-controlled NBC Universal decided to stay inside when it came to promoting its advertising executives in the newly formed company. Longtime senior ad sales executive Marianne Gambelli will be president of NBC Network advertising sales. She had been executive of advertising sales for NBC since 2004. Mike Pilot, who had been in the post of president of advertising sales for NBC since 2006 -- previously holding a senior position at a General Electric financial unit -- is departing. The announcement was made by Steve Burke, COO of Comcast Corp. and the new incoming chairman of NBC Universal, in a memo to NBC employees early Thursday morning. David Cassaro, who had been president of Comcast Network Advertising Sales for E!, Versus, Golf Channel, Style, and others, will now add all NBC Universal cable network and digital sales, including NBC U's USA Network, Syfy, Bravo, Oxygen. He becomes president of cable advertising sales for NBC Universal. He will report to Bonnie Hammer, who will become chairman of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios; and Lauren Zalaznick, who will become chairman of NBC Universal Entertainment and Digital Networks and Integrated Media. Bravo, Oxygen, and iVillage will continue to report to Zalaznick. In addition to her oversight, including USA Network, Syfy, Chiller, Sleuth, Universal HD and Universal Cable Productions, Hammer gets Comcast's E! and G4 networks. Ted Harbert, currently president/CEO of Comcast Entertainment Group, will have the new title of chairman of NBC Broadcasting, focusing on business affairs -- advertising sales, affiliate relations, research, domestic syndication and the NBC station group. In other expected executive changes, ex-Showtime entertainment executive Bob Greenblatt becomes chairman of NBC Entertainment. Current senior NBC executives Marc Graboff and Angela Bromstad will report to Greenblatt. Time Warner executive Pat Fili-Krushel joins NBC Universal as an executive vice president with a portfolio including business strategy, human resources and legal. Dick Ebersol will become chairman of the NBC Sports Group, responsible for NBC Sports, The Golf Channel, Versus and the Comcast Regional Sports Networks. Steve Capus will continue as president of NBC News/MSNBC; and Mark Hoffman will continue as president of CNBC. Ron Meyer will continue as president/COO, Universal Studios, with Adam Fogelson as chairman, Universal Pictures. Tom Williams will be in charge of Universal Parks and Resorts. Senior Comcast executive Jeff Shell will become chairman of NBC Universal International. Comcast content distribution executive Matt Bond will be executive vice president of content distribution for NBC Universal; Comcast strategic business executive Page Thompson will join NBC Universal as executive vice president of strategic integration, responsible for identifying synergy opportunities between Comcast, NBC, Universal Studios and Parks and the cable channels.
Around 20% more U.S. TV viewers are time-shifting versus a year ago -- which is about the same increase in overall time-shifted viewing. Some 97.9 million people are regularly time-shifting on a monthly basis, up from 94.6 million, in the second quarter 2010, according to The Nielsen Company. Overall, time-shifted viewing grew 85 minutes to 9 hours and 27 minutes among all U.S. TV viewers. (Time-shifted viewing also includes video-on-demand, DVR machines, and time-shifting services like Time Warner's Start Over.) In DVR homes alone, users are playing back programming at 24 hours and 37 minutes a month -- a 16 minute gain against second quarter 2009. Going against the growth in the time-shifting trend was that second-quarter viewing per month was down nine minutes from the 9 hours and 36 minutes of the first quarter 2010. Nielsen says this is normal, given television's usual trend, heavier TV screening in the winter months, lower in the summer periods. The number of U.S. TV viewers remain flat: at 286.6 million versus 286.2 million in the second quarter 2009. So doe total monthly viewing at 143.3 minutes. The most viewing per month on average is among 65+ viewers, at 196 minutes; the least goes to teens 12-17 at 103 minutes.
In regard to content, Cablevision is going the Time Warner route as opposed to Comcast. Cablevision said it is exploring spinning off its Rainbow programming unit, which includes networks AMC and IFC, by mid-2011. The new company would also include WE tv and the Sundance Channel and the IFC independent film production business. Cablevision would retain Newsday, News 12 Networks, MSG Varsity and Clearview Cinemas. Cablevision said it is exploring a spinoff and not a sale of Rainbow. Rainbow becoming its own stock would follow Cablevision's recent spinoff of its MSG unit. Time Warner has spun off its cable operations to become a pure-play content company, while Comcast is moving to acquire NBC Universal to diversify its assets. Investors, who have long since inquired about a Rainbow spinoff, reacted by sending Cablevision shares up nearly 9% in early trading Thursday, hitting a 52-week high. Rainbow accounted for 16% of Cablevision revenues in the third quarter with $291.4 million, about $30 million more than the period a year ago. Operating income was $63 million. In the recent financial report, Cablevision president and CEO James Dolan cited AMC hit shows "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad" as examples of Rainbow's success. Earlier, the company spun off Madison Square Garden, the home venue of the New York Knicks and Rangers, as well as other sports and concert events.
PayPal and FourthWall Media have partnered with Canoe Ventures on developing new advanced advertising technologies. The pair, along with Catalina Marketing, Delivery Agent and icueTV, is part of Canoe's fledgling Collaborative Innovation Program. The CIP will oversee Canoe's Innovation Lab and explore potential opportunities in interactive television, video on demand and addressable advertising. PayPal benefits from T-commerce applications that allow shopping by remote control. Canoe said it is seeking participation from other companies in CIP initiatives. "This is a call to action for the entire marketplace: We are open and committed to working with others who can help bring the promise of advanced television to life for networks, marketers, agencies and consumers alike," stated Canoe COO Kathy Timko. Cable networks are selling advertisers the chance to run request-for-information iTV ads using Canoe technology, which allows viewers to seek more information about a product (coupon or sample) with their remote controls and have it mailed to them. Canoe is owned by the six largest cable operators: Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems Corporation, Charter Communications, Inc., Comcast Corporation, Cox Communications Inc., and Time Warner Cable. FourthWall's TV Buy Button service will provide developers access to the PayPal Internet payments service. Users can log into their digital wallets from the TV. In September, interactive TV developer FourthWall Media struck a deal with PayPal to let cable operators add the electronic payment service to their EBIF applications to sell products or services. That same month, HSN launched its "Shop by Remote" to more than 30 million households. QVC also has a project underway to let viewers make purchases on their TVs.
By early spring, Cablevision plans to launch a service that can turn the iPad into a mobile TV screen at home. "You'll have our full cable television service on it in the home," COO Tom Rutledge said Thursday at an investor event. The launch could come toward the end of the first quarter next year, or early in the second, he said. Comcast also said it will debut a service later this year allowing customers to watch some content on the iPad. Rutledge said Cablevision is actively pursuing rights to also allow out-of-home access, possibly using a pay-VOD model. "We've put the infrastructure in place to do that ... depending on the rights structure, we'll be able to feed that content either to the [iPad in the] home as cable TV service, or we'll be able to feed it out of the home, [to] wherever the customer is, in whatever country they are," he said. Cablevision already allows customers to control their DVRs from an iPad, and Rutledge says the devices have further potential as a kind of souped-up interactive program guide, particularly in relation to VOD. "One of the values of Netflix is the fact that you can navigate it so easily and order a piece of VOD out of a huge menu," he said. "That is not easy to do on a television because of the nature of the remote and the set-top box. But if you can do that from an iPad and have it play on the TV, it makes our existing VOD assets a much more valuable transactional thing -- and just makes managing content easier."
Internet radio's invasion of the automobile is continuing: Toyota will offer Clear Channel Radio's iHeartRadio mobile app as a factory-installed feature in some vehicles beginning next year. IHeartRadio offers users access to streaming audio from over 750 radio station Web sites and digital channels maintained by Clear Channel. Clear Channel Radio president and CEO John Hogan said the integration deal will offer drivers "literally hundreds of radio stations and dozens of programming genres to choose from -- whether that is your hometown favorite, a station in the city you are driving in, or a category of music or information that engages you." He added: "You'll be able to have your favorite entertainment, nationally or locally, with real-time traffic updates." This move by the nation's largest broadcast radio group comes as pure-play digital audio services like Pandora are making inroads in the coveted automobile listening marketplace, which has historically monopolized valuable "drive time" audiences. In October, Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren told the Los Angeles Times: "Our goal is to be in every new car that rolls off the manufacturing line," adding that the company is "working with Ford, Mercedes and other companies that we can't talk about now." Heralding direct integration with auto manufacturing for greater safety, Westergren said: "The future is in being able to control Pandora right from your steering wheel." In January of this year, Pioneer announced that it has begun manufacturing a multipurpose navigation and media device priced at $1,200. It will allow consumers who own iPhones to stream Pandora content to their car stereos via the mobile devices -- after they download a new app that lets the devices link up.
In a trend that appears to defy media planning logic, if not actual physics, America's consumption of TV continues to expand, despite the expansion of other multimedia options. In an update to its quarterly "State of the Media" reports, Nielsen Co. indicates that U.S. consumption of television continues to expand, albeit with a little help from a frenemy: the DVR. The rate of TV consumption is, " essentially flat compared to the same period a year ago," Nielsen said, adding that, "the emergence of the DVR as a widely distributed device has changed viewing behaviors in many homes. "The average person living in a DVR home watched 24.5 hours of DVR playback during this period," Nielsen continued. "Looking at demographic groups more closely, the age group that watched the most television by DVR playback was viewers age 25-34. That demographic watched 29.5 hours of DVR playback per month." While the number of Americans watching TV during the second quarter of 2010 is up only 0.8% over the second quarter of 2009, the number watching time-shifted viewing has grown 18.4%. The result is that overall time spent watching TV by Americans is essentially flat, as the amount of viewing done on a time-shifted basis continues to grow. One thing that does not appear to be changing, according to Nielsen, is that teens continue to consume the least amount of TV, while consumption is growing among older viewers. Overall Usage Number of Users 2+ (in 000’s) – Monthly Reach Q2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2 2009 % Diff Yr to Yr Watching TV in the home° 286,648 286,225 284,306 0.82% Watching Timeshifted TV° 97,914 94,599 82,677 18.43% Source: The Nielsen Company
In a sign of how seriously publishers view the ramifications of the new wave of tablet computers, the Financial Times told its roughly 1,800 staffers they would receive a bonus of around $480 to purchase an iPad or similar tablet computer. That comes to $864,000 to equip the entire company with the latest in mobile computing technology. In a memo to staff, FT Group CEO John Ridding explained: "The FT is making this investment because digital channels and tablet devices are becoming increasingly important for us and the media industry in general." He added that the subsidy is also "a recognition of your contribution to our strong performance this year." FT was among the first newspaper publishers to launch a dedicated iPad app. Since it launched in May, a month after the iPad's high-profile debut, the FT app has attracted over 400,000 users and earned over $1.6 million from advertising sales, according to the company. Earlier this month, The Washington Post introduced a new app, which includes a subscription option costing $3.99 per month for readers who don't subscribe to the print edition. Print subscribers can access the digital subscription on their iPad for $0.99 a month -- assuming they are willing to pay an extra dollar for the added convenience. In September, rumors circulated that Apple was planning to partner with major publishers to offer paid digital newspaper subscriptions, but little has been heard about these plans. When the iPad launched in April, USA Today offered free digital subscriptions with support from corporate sponsors. Apple has shipped around 7.4 million iPads since the device went on sale in April. Analysts predict total sales of 10.7 million by year's-end. Estimates for 2011 iPad sales have ranged from 21 million to 40 million.
Online Hispanic consumers tend to be younger than non-Hispanic consumers -- and have better and more positive responses to online advertising, according to comScore. The comScore study says 31% of U.S. Hispanics enjoy watching ad messages compared to 19% for non-Hispanic consumers. U.S. Hispanic also have higher expectations when it comes to entertaining ad messages, with 48% anticipating online ads to be entertaining compared to 39% for non-Hispanics. U.S. Hispanic consumers have higher recall -- 35% to non-Hispanic's 22%. Some 30% of the time, advertising is also more likely to influence Hispanic consumers' product decisions when buying for their children, compared to 15% of Non-Hispanics. "The U.S. Hispanic online marketplace is a fast-growing and potentially lucrative sector that marketers cannot ignore," stated Josh Chasin, chief research officer of comScore. "Online Hispanics are younger and more acculturated than their offline counterparts and they are quite receptive to advertising when it is sufficiently engaging. What's especially interesting is that engagement with advertising has more to do with narrative elements and storytelling than it does with actually running the advertisement in Spanish." Average Hispanic online consumers are younger than non-Hispanics by over three years -- 31 years old to 34.5 years old. The study also says 52% of Hispanics prefer English as their primary language, with 26.1% choosing bilingual and 21.9% preferring Spanish as their primary language.
Newsweek.com, Daily Beast Combine Forces A helpful tip to companies that are about to merge, divest, lay off, or otherwise shake things up: Make sure you know what is happening before you make the news public. Otherwise, all sorts of needless, regrettable confusion may occur. Take, for example, the merger of Newsweek with The Daily Beast. Shortly after the merger was announced, again, The New York Times ran a piece quoting the incoming CEO Stephen Colvin to the effect that "Newsweek.com will cease to exist after the merger, and anyone who types the URL into their browser will be redirect to TheDailyBeast.com." At first glance this may seem like a very clear, definitive statement of future plans -- because it is. But don't be fooled: CEOs aren't always fully briefed on the orders they are going to execute. This sweeping pronouncement of doom stirred understandable controversy, prompting Tina Brown to tweet that "Newsweek.com's superb content will live under its own banner and URLs on the new site. Not shutting down, combining." In short, not the annihilation pictured by Colvin in his earlier statement. Both positions can be reconciled in a more moderate, less alarming (and perhaps more accurate) statement: Newsweek.com will cease to exist as a stand-alone Web site, but its editorial operations will continue, and Newsweek-branded content will be distinguished from Daily Beast content on the Web site. Too bad they didn't just say that. Perlis Named Forbes CEO In a major shift for the family-owned publisher, Forbes is getting a CEO from outside the eponymous owners: Mike Perlis, previously a general partner of Softbank Capital, a venture-capital firm. Before Softbank, Perlis served as president and CEO of Ziff Davis Publishing. His appointment is effective Dec. 1. Tim Forbes, previously the company's COO, will continue to serve as chairman of Forbes Digital, as well as a board member for Forbes Media. American Media Inc. Files for Chapter 11 As expected, American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, Shape and Men's Fitness, has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The bankruptcy reorganization has the support of 75% of the company's bondholders and 70% of its creditors, as measured by the value of their holdings. The company will not seek debtor-in-possession financing, and expects to exit Chapter 11 within two months. Variety Gives Wolinsky the Boot After less than a year on the job, Leo Wolinsky has been relieved of his position as editor in chief of Variety, The Daily Variety newspaper, and the New York-based edition. Wolinsky previously worked as managing editor for the Los Angeles Times; he was hired by Variety Group Editor Tim Gray in December 2009. The news of his departure comes not long after Richard Beckman's e5 Media relaunched rival magazine The Hollywood Reporter as a hybrid trade-consumer glossy with former Us Weekly editor Janice Min at the helm.
Nearly three years ago, I (un)gracefully bowed out of the TV ratings battle, having come to the realization that a market internally closed to innovation can only be a worthwhile venture to those inside the quiet quarters of power. With master and slaves playing roles in name only, mutually aligned behind the façade of WWE-style bravado, left no real hope for change -- at least not from the outside, where I am (gleefully) destined to remain. That's not to say we haven't been keeping an eye on things. Most recently, the eighth and final erinMedia-era patent was finally granted by the USPTO, providing Maggio Media Research, our IP holding company, with a fairly toothy portfolio of ratings products that can be sprung on the marketplace fairly easily. As I've told a handful who still drop by virtually, on occasion, once an enterprise like Project Canoe fully grasps that all of the ingredients for nearly flawless second-by-second demographic ratings are already in plain sight, other forms of media will yearn for the granular truthiness of TV ratings drawn from tens of millions of anonymous voices. And the final patent, which allows ratings companies to use even a small portion of privacy-compliant data to generate a ratings graph that moves as content is displayed, seems destined for use (or at least licensing) by many who were still in high school when prodigies Foster and Vinson (the Orville and Wilbur of modern ratings) thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if....." The announcement of the MRC's likely temporary revocation of Nielsen's diary market product sounds to me like a dry run for a coming catastrophe, one that will impact more than those who buy and sell media, from Abilene, Texas, to Zanesville, Ohio. After all, the MRC is to TV as Moody's or S&P is to bonds or nations -- merely a single point of credibility in an industry that relies on confidence and confidants to survive. Whether we are measuring MBS's (Mortgage-Backed Securities) or NBS's (you figure it out...), the seal of approval of an accreditation body is but one, often misleading, signal of viability. As we are seeing in the other, more important currency market -- the one our whole global economy relies upon -- accreditation does not a valid or legitimate currency make. No, what we all need to discern is, in a world where currency makes it go 'round, "What is the real lesson one learns when a vital currency becomes flawed... or compromised... or defunct?" Whether it is TV currency, national currency or global currency, the key to survival in any currency-dependent environment is the key to the survival of our imperiled nation: The separation of power, and open competition that yields uncompromising innovation and, as important, a benchmark for triangulation. As Frank Foster so wisely remarked in 2005, when erinMedia contemplated seeking MRC approval for its products, "Why bother? We pay all that money, disclose our methods, just, so that at the end of the day, we have the same accreditation as.... a diary?" The lack of competition in currency means that you are beholden to the bank; your very lifeblood is measured by the maker of the measurement tool. Said another way: "The ruler becomes the ruler, and the measured, ruled." What is the value of a dollar, when all the common man has is the same dollar by which to measure itself? What is a rating point worth, when it is comprised from the voices of only 0.015% or so of the entire viewing public, and ignores 99.95% of us? Can a currency truly and accurately speak for an entire nation, when two-thirds of that nation has rejected support of that currency? Watching TV can teach you a lot; watching the TV currency might just save this nation.