India has become a hotbed of holding company acquisition activity in recent months. The latest agency purchase there was confirmed today by Aegis Group, which bought digital shop Communicate 2 (C2). Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Aegis said the agency had gross assets of more than $2.3 million. The search specialist was founded in 1997 and clients include American Express, Travelocity, Aviva Insurance, Tata Consultancy Services, Cleartrip, ICICI Lombard and HDFC Bank. C2 has offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune and over 130 employees. C2 will be merged into Aegis’ iProspect India operation. The London-based holding company stated that the acquisition “is in line with the Aegis Group strategy of increasing its digital profile and capability in faster-growing regions.” It was the second purchase of an Indian agency by a holding company this week. Earlier, Publicis Groupe bought Mumbai-based digital shop Resultrix, which also has offices in New Delhi, Dubai, Seattle and Singapore. Driving holding company interest in the market is India’s rapidly growing ad economy. According to ZenithOptimedia, the country’s ad spending totaled $5.8 billion in 2011 and is expected to grow 30% over the next three years. Aegis itself is set to be acquired later this year by Japanese ad holding company Dentsu, which also has a major presence in India. Last year, it bought out a minority partner to take full control of three leading agencies in the country, including Dentsu Communications, Dentsu Marcom and Dentsu Creative Impact. For Publicis Groupe, the Resultrix acquisition was the company’s second purchase of an Indian shop this year. In April, it bought Indigo Consulting, whose services include Web site design and development, search engine optimization and other online marketing efforts as well as research and testing. Late last year, Omnicom Group also upped its stakes in India significantly with the acquisition of a majority position in the Mudra Group, one of India’s top advertising and marketing services operations. The Mudra group generates an estimated $45 million in annual revenues, with 26 offices throughout the country.
Largely overlooked in the coverage of New Delhi Television’s $1 billion-plus lawsuit against Nielsen and Kantar Media is the fact that Kantar parent WPP is also named as a defendant in the suit. Although WPP CEO Martin Sorrell is not specifically named as a defendant, the suit outlines a meeting he attended in India last year where NDTV executives complained vociferously about the shoddy and corrupt TV ratings product being delivered by a Nielsen-Kantar joint venture known as Television Audience Measurement (TAM) that measures TV audiences in India. According to the suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court July 26, Sorrell made promises to look into the problems. The suit also suggests that he didn't follow up, given the fact that TAM kept issuing what the suit alleges were reports with inaccurate and falsified data. The basic complaint from NDTV is that Nielsen and Kantar underfunded its India TV ratings service to such an egregious degree that competitors -- some owned or partially owned by unnamed Indian politicians -- could easily take steps to manipulate the data, often with bribes to household members where TAM ratings meters are located. According to the suit, some households, for example, would tune sets linked to meters to channels other than NDTV and then actually watch TV on sets not connected to the meters. "The lack of funding by Nielsen and Kantar is the underlying cause that has led to the corruption of TAM data," the suit alleges. "The primary reason that data could be so easily manipulated in India was due to the persistent refusal of Nielsen and Kantar to provide adequate funds for TAM to increase its sample size and invest in the systems/quality/security procedures." The suit details a meeting that Sorrell attended in New Delhi on Aug. 19, 2011. At least 20 people were in attendance including NDTV CEO Vikram Chandra, who expressed the view that many broadcasters favored some sort of government “intervention” into India's audience measurement business, “because the TAM system was broken.” The suit alleges that “Sir Martin assured Vikram that he would look into the complaint. Despite the said assurance and knowledge regarding the tampering of TAM data, publication of such data continues.” WPP issued this reply in response to the suit: "Our lawyers are reviewing the claim but we are satisfied that there is no merit in any claim against WPP."
Dish Network has taken a 7% stake in Rentrak, while agreeing to supply the measurement company with exclusive access to its set-top-box (STB) data until 2016. In addition to 700,000 shares, Dish will receive $5.8 million in cash. The stock and cash compensation is for past use of Dish’s data, which Rentrak has used since late 2010 to gain a toehold in TV measurement. Going back to 2008, Rentrak has not paid Dish any money, but the two have had a profit-sharing arrangement. Profit-sharing will continue with the new agreement, where Dish will still receive 50% of an income stream generated from Rentrak TV measurement services. The previous deal, which was scheduled to lapse in 2013, did not give Rentrak exclusive access to Dish STB data. Over the next three months, Rentrak expects to record a charge of $16.5 million due to the Dish arrangement. Rentrak also receives STB data from AT&T and several cable operators. CEO Bill Livek said on a conference call Thursday the others are “comfortable” with the Dish arrangement and understand the stock-for-exclusivity concept. He said they want to remain in “a non-exclusive mode.” The Dish agreement comes as Nielsen is launching a refashioned measurement service in local markets and looking to acquire more STB data. One of Nielsen’s suppliers is Dish’s competitor in the satellite TV business, DirecTV. Dish’s 7% stake gives it slightly more equity than Mark Cuban’s 8% stake. In the recently completed quarter, Rentrak expanded its client base to include 188 stations, which include stations owned by Hearst and Gannett. Rentrak’s revenues for its TV measurement business that serves networks and local stations rose 115% in the quarter as it continued to add clients to $3.7 million. Revenues for its service that tracks video-on-demand viewing were nearly flat at $2.9 million. Rentrak will provide VOD measurement for Google’s TV delivery service in the Kansas City, Mo. area. Overall, revenue was up by less than $1 million to just over $23 million. The company swung to a $644,000 loss. Rentrak said it has an agreement with SymphonyIRI to use its data as part of a service attempting to link the impact of TV ad viewing on sales of consumer packaged goods.
AMC Networks -- even with some carriage issues -- still posted double-digit increases in both advertising and affiliate revenue for the second quarter. But more channel troubles could be coming.Advertising revenue for the network group -- which consists of AMC, WE tv, and others -- grew 13.4% to $130 million. Affiliate revenue was 15.2% higher to $176 million.AMC did take note of its ongoing issues with Dish Network -- the second-largest satellite TV provider, with 14 million subscribers. Since May, Dish Network has stopped TV channel carriage of its AMC, WE tv and IFC networks. The company says of the ongoing riff: "The termination of Dish Network’s carriage will have a material impact on our revenues, AOCF [adjusted operating cash flow] and operating income in future periods... Although Dish Network’s termination has reduced the company’s total subscribers by approximately 13%, the impact on our AOCF and operating income, if it continues, will be materially higher."Overall, its U.S. domestic networks had a 14.4% gain in revenue to $305 million, with operating income 21.6% higher to $111 million. Looking at all revenue -- international and digital, for example -- there was 12% gain to $328 million. Net income climbed 47% to $84 million.
Unemployment is clearly a talking point in an election year. Sundance will debut its latest reality series, “Get To Work,” on August 13. It is a hardcore look at the Strive training program in San Diego that targets the chronically unemployed. Like “Push Girls,” which traces the lives of four women paralyzed from the neck or waist down, “Work” provides the “raw authenticity of watching real people documented in a very human, relatable struggle,” explains Sarah Barnett, Sundance Channel GM. "We were attracted to “Get to Work” because it gives us an opportunity to shine a light on people who are experiencing something that many Americans are struggling with -- finding a job,” she explains. In an economically difficult time, “Get To Work” is committed to real change. The eight-episode series, filmed at the nonprofit Second Chance in San Diego, is one of Strive’s most successful partners. Each hour-long episode targets a new class of students in the four-week program. These are bottom-line trainees: Some ordered by court mandate to avoid returning to prison, others trying to kick drug addictions and get back on track. Strive instructors -- many program graduates themselves -- take a tough-love approach. Failure is a reality: about 50% percent of students drop out. However, for those who complete the program, 70% of Strive graduates are employed within 90 days. They find work in the secretarial and administrative fields, as well as in construction, retail and the food and hospitality industries. “More than a paycheck, what they gain is self-respect, integrity and the dignity of supporting themselves and their families,” notes Barnett. Since its founding in 1984, Strive has graduated nearly 50,000 individuals from its core training programs, run by organizations nationwide. In 2011, there were 3,000 graduates and more than 2,200 were placed in jobs. Philip Weinberg, CEO of Strive International, hopes the show will “inspire viewers impacted by the current economy or an unfortunate circumstance to turn their lives around.” In addition to "Get To Work," five new unscripted series are in the pipeline for Sundance’s target audiences -- 18-49 viewers evenly split between men and women. Two examples are “Dream School” and “The Trouble With Sex.” “Dream School” is based on the UK hit by Jamie Oliver. Barnett calls the series an “ambitious social experiment” where accomplished people teach kids who have fallen through cracks in the system. Conversely, “The Trouble with Love and Sex” takes recordings from couples’ therapy sessions and brings them to life as animated stories. Sundance’s acclaimed “Iconoclasts” is also returning this fall for its sixth season. On the scripted front, “Top of the Lake” and “Rectify” will premiere in the first half of 2013, as well as a co-production called “Restless,” which airs at the end of this year. Barnett says each show is defined by “distinctive storytelling, told from a singular vision.”
Relish Launches Daily Dish AppRelish, the monthly food magazine from the Publishing Group of America, has launched its first recipe app for smartphones, "Daily Dish," which combines recipes with photos, videos and articles and allows users to customize recipes and draw up grocery lists. It also features customizable search to help users find the right recipes more quickly. The Daily Dish app, produced by Relish in collaboration with Zumobi, offers advertisers a range of options, including Zumobi’s Brand Integration, which allows brands to create immersive advertising experiences within the app. It also uses Zumobi’s social media integration capabilities to enable users to share articles and recipes with their friends and followers via various social media platforms. A national packaged goods company has already signed up to sponsor the app this fall. This has been the summer of recipe apps, including plenty of seasonally appropriate ones (read: grilling cookbooks). Every Day with Rachael Ray created two free mini-cookbooks devoted to the art of the grill, “The Summer Grilling Hot List” and “Grill-Out Faves.” Meredith’s EatingWell announced the launch of a new mobile app, “Recipes 2 Go,” sponsored by Pfizer’s Lipitor, which is used for cholesterol control. The free app, which is available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android phones and tablets, offers resources to help consumers manage their heart health. Vice Taps Issuu for Digital Editions The publishers of Vice, the go-to guide for all things naughty, marginal, and off-color, are making the magazine available in its entirety online and via mobile with Issuu’s digital publishing platform. The Issuu partnership will also create new opportunities for advertisers, including more exposure and interactive opportunities, through its AdPages tool, which also provides in-depth data on readers’ browsing and reading behavior. The U.S. edition of Vice is the first to become available through Issuu, but Vice is planning to bring its 20+ national editions online by 2013. AMI Buys Soap Opera Digest AMI has acquired Soap Opera Digest from Source Interlink Media, completing a transition that began with an earlier licensing agreement giving AMI responsibility for most of the title’s business operations, including editorial and advertising sales. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sister title Soap Opera Weekly, which was also handed over to AMI through a licensing agreement, was closed in March of this year. Lagani Leaves RDA Dan Lagani has stepped down as president of North American operations for Reader’s Digest, a little over a year after taking up the role in June 2011. RDA president and CEO Robert Guth will assume direct control of Reader’s Digest magazine, as well as sister publications Family Handyman and Taste of Home. Guth himself is a relatively recent appointee, having assumed the top spot at RDA in September of last year. In the first half of the year, ad pages at Reader’s Digest are up 12.8% to 422, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Lichtenstein To Fashion Director, More Jonny Lichtenstein has been named fashion director at More. Lichtenstein previously served as a contributing fashion editor for the title; in his new role he will oversee fashion features and styling for the magazine’s fashion-related content. Previously, Lichtenstein was a market director for Details.
NBC's unusual commercial-free debut of new comedy "Go On" during the London Olympics gave the network some expected high sampling. The late airing of the new comedy, starring Matthew Perry, earned "Go On" a big Nielsen 5.6 rating among 18-49 viewers, as well as a hefty 16.1 million average viewers. The special episode ran from 11:06 to 11:30 p.m. in the East and West Coast markets. Since there were no commercials in "Go On," it will not be measured or inserted into any of Nielsen's national TV ratings reports -- a longtime Nielsen policy. The 12th day of NBC's Olympics coverage dropped down a bit from its 31-million-viewer average. Wednesday night's prime-time three-hour coverage gave NBC a Nielsen preliminary 28.7 million average viewers for the night with an average 9.2 rating/27 share among 18-49 viewers. This was down 5% in 18-49 viewers from last Wednesday night's early results -- but up from the 8.1 rating on the second Wednesday night at the Beijing Olympics four years ago. Moving from the Olympics to the special showing of "Go On," NBC's 9.2 prime-time rating dipped to 6.1 from 11:06 to 11:18 p.m., then down to a 5.1 rating from 11:18 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. While most networks have been in rerun mode for the last two weeks, given the Olympics' popularity, a few networks have braved the storm. Early in the evening at 8 p.m., CBS' "Big Brother" matched its series low with a 1.8 rating/6 share for 18 to 49 viewers, down 10% in ratings from last week's 2.0. Later in the evening, ABC's "Final Witness" took in a 0.8/2 among adults 18-49, up 14% from last week's 0.7. Univision came in at second place for the night to NBC, averaging a 1.4/4 among 18-49 viewers. CBS was at 1.2/3; ABC, 0.9/3; Fox, 0.7/2; and CW, a 0.4/1.
At least once a day I face in the direction of the last known location of a Crazy Eddie store and bow my head to thank what gods there be that I am not in retailing. It's not the women who can shoplift 80 lbs of product wedged between their thighs, or the increasingly frequent power failures that melt everything in the display cases and in the cold locker. Nor it is the employee who stuffs a percentage of each cash sales into his waistband. Not even the shopper who allows his/her dog to take a crap on the new showroom floor carpet. Or the new Walmart, or increasing Chinese labor and shipping costs (Although it could reasonably be any of those). No, it is the Internet. Just when store owners got used to customers bringing in printer paper festooned with online prices they expect to be met or beat, from giant warehouses that can buy at crushing volume or ship grey goods like they didn't "fall off the back of a truck" -- warehouses that don't pay for storefronts or parking or sales staff and often don't collect sales tax -- comes showrooming. This is where consumers see (and feel and perhaps try on) a product in the retail store, then search for a better price online, often on their mobile devices. It is no wonder that some retailers are installing devices to block cell signals in their stores. There are lots of tactics retailers use to fight back -- from loyalty programs, to offering unique products that cannot be bought online, to stepping up their customer service hoping that killing them with kindness will outweigh the savings from buying elsewhere. This of course in addition to moronic promotions like "free ice cream for your kids while we try to sell you $1,000 suits." All this attention is lavished on folks who even bother to go into stores anymore. If you are like me, your default is to try and find it online first, then trudge into a local store. Not very supportive of my retail community, I admit, but it is hard to beat that Xmas-morning thrill of opening up an item just ordered the day before from Amazon. And for every retailer that has stepped up customer service, there are five who have cut back on head count and are now staffed by high school dropouts who know less about products than my dog, Emma. Are you listening, Best Buy? Just when you are about to write off retailing as we know it today (thanks to the Internet) comes a report that says retailers in the study saw double-digit increases in both the number of shoppers and the amount of time they spent in stores when the owners ran Google AdWords campaigns. RapidBlue apparently maps shopper behavior in stores and shopping centers: how many visitors, where they go, how long they spend in the store, what they look at. For the study, after gathering baseline data, RapidBlue asked retailers to conduct a Google AdWords campaign. Then, while controlling for time-of-day and day-of-week variability, it rechecked shopper metrics. (After pausing the campaigns, it continued gathering baseline data, in order to control for other variables that could be causing shopper behavior changes.) “What we’ve found and what seems to be quite encouraging," the CEO told the press "is that online campaigns for retailers seem to have a brick-and-mortar impact." While RapidBlue used the finding to promote its tracking technology -- and there is, to my knowledge nothing to verify its findings -- the study must certainly count as one lonely positive note in the retail vs. Internet contest. Unless your reasoning follows along these lines: "I use my money to pay for a Google AdWords campaign, which drives more traffic into my store -- traffic that then showrooms and goes back to Google and uses natural search to beat my prices. I knew I shoulda been a dentist."