Bacardi USA's Grey Goose super-premium vodka is turning up the heat for summer, with a Facebook-driven engagement campaign supported by a new TV spot featuring a Rolling Stones classic. The "Reunion" spot -- the latest TV creative variation on Grey Goose's new "Toast" campaign, launched during the 2010 holidays -- began airing on national cable networks on May 16 and will continue to air through the end of September. The television buy and supporting digital and other media (including streaming video, to commence about a week from now), plus public relations, represent a doubling of ad spending for the brand over last summer's campaign. The campaign strategy is designed to give Grey Goose "the #1 share of voice" in vodka over the summer, according to its brand director, Michelle Beauchamp. The 30-second commercial from @radical.media, shot in the brand's signature black-and-white cinematography, shows a screen title proposing "A Toast to 'It's Been Too Long'" as elegantly dressed couples meet up in a clearly upscale club/restaurant to enjoy each other's company over chilled bottles that span the entire Grey Goose variety line. Aside from a voiceover at the end ("Grey Goose -- the world's best-tasting vodka") and some muted club sounds in the background, the spot's only audio is its driving theme song: The unmistakable Rolling Stones classic "Miss You" (although Grey Goose's usage agreement precludes it mentioning the specific band or song in its press releases, interviews or otherwise). The spot's creative reflects the "Toast" campaign's more "energetic" approach to conveying the vodka's association with celebrating life to the fullest -- and specifically with celebrating by getting together with or reconnecting with friends -- including prominent use of music to establish the tone, says Beauchamp. The brand's previous, long-running "Discerning Taste" campaign (also from @radical.media) used "very little or no music" and focused on the "sensory experiences" of Grey Goose drinkers during typical lifestyle moments (enjoying oysters and Grey Goose during a day of sailing, for example), she notes to Marketing Daily. The "Reunion" spot also subtly reaffirms the brand's on-premises marketing roots (the launch strategy of now-deceased Grey Goose founder Sidney Frank, who sold the brand to Bacardi in 2004). Beauchamp confirms that Grey Goose has in recent months seen a return to greater restaurant/bar patronage among its core audience. But "Reunion" also features two firsts: Use of the original recording of an "iconic" song (very carefully chosen to evoke the reunion mood, says Beauchamp), and a title at the end that directs viewers to Grey Goose's Facebook page link (facebook.com/GreyGoose) -- as opposed to the brand's previous practice of directing viewers to its home site. The brand's completely revamped Facebook area (which currently has more than 260,000 fans) offers multiple "Celebrate the Summer" engagement activities. Those who like Grey Goose there will have access to exclusive branded events, information on how to create their own Grey Goose cocktail recipes, summer home-entertaining tips and -- as of June -- access to an exclusive, branded "It's Been Too Long" app that lets them reach out to and reconnect with friends. The on-premises/restaurant/bar environment of the TV spot, in other words, is being amply complemented with messaging and activities spotlighting Grey Goose's ability to enhance summer's typically outdoor-oriented social activities -- including "summer soirées" that perhaps employ bottles of Grey Goose available in the brand's special summer picnic-basket presentations. For the year ending Jan. 23, 2011, SymphonyIRI data showed Grey Goose leading the premium vodka category in the U.S., with sales of nearly $58 million (up 1.2% from previous year). Super-premium vodka category sales as a whole grew 14% last year, reported the Distilled Spirits Council.
In another important step toward general advertising marketplace assimilation, the audiences of local Hispanic TV outlets will soon be measured via the same marketplace currency as the rest of the local U.S. TV marketplace. Nielsen Tuesday said that effective with its November local TV measurement cycle, all local ratings for Hispanic programming will be based on the Nielsen Station Index (NSI), which is the same sample used to measure all of the U.S. local English-language TV outlets. Concurrent with the change, Nielsen will officially retire its Nielsen Hispanic Station Index panels, which had been used to measure how Hispanic households watched local TV. "We believe using a single underlying currency sample that allows reporting of both general and Hispanic markets will afford additional convenience, ease of use and flexibility to all client constituencies, both buyers and sellers," Nielsen said in a notice sent to clients on Tuesday. Nielsen said it is able to make the transition to a single, integrated English- and Spanish-language sample now, because its general market panels are now representative enough of Hispanic households to measure their viewing behavior accurately. The move follows an earlier convergence that took place in Nielsen's national TV audience sample in 2006, when the major Spanish-language TV networks - Univision and Telemundo - began selling their advertising inventory on the basis of a single, unified general market sample, after years of maintaining a separate national Hispanic ratings service.
ABC wants to turn around an uneven year with a big slate of 13 new series and a marketing strategy to spread out program starts throughout the season. Paul Lee, president of ABC Entertainment, says the network wants "launches all year around. We want to have more originals through the year." Lee says the network is seeking programs with more male viewers to complement its heavy influx of affluent women viewers. For the fall, the network will start seven new series, set to revamp two nights -- Tuesday and Wednesdays -- with new comedies. Many other networks are adopting the same strategy. "We think the winds are blowing behind comedy," says Lee. Concerning the big lineup of new product, Tuesdays will focus on male-oriented comedies: Tim Allen in "Last Man Standing" will run on Tuesday at 8 p.m.; "Man Up," about three guys trying to get in touch with their "tough guys," airs at 8:30 p.m. on the same night. Wednesday brings more female-oriented shows to complement existing comedies, such as "The Middle," "Cougar Town" and its big hit "Modern Family." On Wednesday, "Suburgatory," about a single father who moves himself and his 16-year-old daughter to the suburbs, debuts at 8:30 p.m. after "The Middle." Getting a nice "Modern Family" lead-in at 9:30 p.m. will be "Happy Endings," last season's midseason entry about a couple that splits. At 10 p.m., there is "Revenge," a new drama about a woman in the wealthy Hamptons. Lee also said there are shows like "Charlie's Angels" at 8 p.m. on Thursday night, which are "pure candy." The former 1970s ABC series, and more recent movie franchise, will fight for viewers' attention with NBC sitcoms and Fox's "The X Factor"/"American Idol." "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" makes the move to Fridays at 8 p.m., where Lee hopes to establish a family-oriented programming block. "When you look at that audience on the night, there are mothers and older viewers. We think it's moving to family-viewing night." Sundays bring two new dramas -- one fantasy-mystery and one retro-'60s. "Once Upon a Time," at 8 p.m., pits a modern-day mother meeting the son she gave up years ago. He believes his mother comes from an alternative world -- one of fairy tales. With such fantasy content on the network schedule, Lee believes "Time," if successful, would be a strong licensing-merchandising franchise down the line with the Disney brand. "It would be fabulous to have something to be used across the company," says Lee. "These are times when fairy tales perform strongly." At 10 p.m., "Pan Am" brings 1960s Jet Age-theme stories of sex, jealousy and espionage. "I always felt Sunday night is where there is a real appointment television," says Lee. ABC Fall Prime-Time ScheduleMonday 8:00 p.m. "Dancing with the Stars" 10:00 p.m. "Castle" Tuesday 8:00 p.m. "Last Man Standing" 8:30 p.m. "Man Up" 9:00 p.m. "Dancing with the Stars: the Results Show" 10:00 p.m. "Body of Proof" Wednesday 8:00 p.m. "The Middle" 8:30 p.m. "Suburgatory" 9:00 p.m. "Modern Family" 9:30 p.m. "Happy Endings" 10:00 p.m. "Revenge" Thursday 8:00 p.m. "Charlie's Angels" 9:00 p.m. "Grey's Anatomy" 10:00 p.m. "Private Practice" Friday 8:00 p.m. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" 9:00 p.m. "Shark Tank" 10:00 p.m. "20/20" Saturday 8:00 p.m. "Saturday Night College Football" Sunday 7:00 p.m. "America's Funniest Home Videos" 8:00 p.m. "Once Upon a Time" 9:00 p.m. "Desperate Housewives" 10:00 p.m. "Pan Am"
Canadian-based cable operator Videotron will begin rolling out a TV channel devoted to multiplatform casual and social gaming that consumers can access online through computers and mobile devices, such as smartphones and Apple's iPad. The platform, supported by interactive TV developer Zodiac, powers the gaming experiences. The cable operator, which kicks off the effort later this year, will have an option to integrate targeted advertising across the three screens. Zodiac CEO Brandon Brown said the deal with Videotron adds about 2 million more subscribers to its services. The initial phase will roll out as a cloud-based platform supporting various devices. Information in profiles, play history and scores will move with consumers from device to device. For example, a player could start playing on their television and finish on a smartphone. Consumers control the games either through a traditional remote control that comes with Videotron's set-top box or Zodiac's command and control modules, as well as an iPad or iPhone. About 23.2% of U.S. mobile users played games in 2010, according to comScore. The research firm estimates the number of people in the U.S. this past year that downloaded games to their mobile phone rose 52%, compared with the prior year. By December 2010, only 37% of those who downloaded a game paid a fee for it -- a drop of 17 percentage points from the previous year. This provides another avenue for brands to target ads. Although Videotron has yet to build in ad serving to the strategy, Zodiac's technology does have the capability to provide full multi-screen convergence -- from games to ads -- taking information from many sources and formats and delivering it to devices. Cable operators must take into account where this type of strategy fits into their overall content priorities. "It's not simple or easy to implement because it requires a large commitment and time to do it correctly," Brown said. "Even for us, a company experienced in iTV, there are hiccups. Some of our clients have more than tens of millions of subscribers." Aside from Videotron, Cablevision Systems runs on the package supported by Cisco Systems' set-top box. Cablevision has integrated Zodiac's PowerUp platform in digital set-top boxes across its entire tri-state service area to help differentiate its interactive applications and services, including iO TV shortcuts, search, and dedicated iTV channels. The system is based on models that plug into the main platform as services are adopted, according to Brown. "There's almost no limit of services on the platform."
As usual for CBS over the last few years, the network didn't have much room on its fall schedule and will launch just five new shows next season -- as well as bringing back the high-profile "Two and a Half Men." Although network executives touted continued stability for its prime-time programming, Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, says: "We wanted to get more women [this year]". In that vein, CBS adds another female-targeted comedy "2 Broke Girls" at 8:30 p.m., about two young women waitressing at a greasy spoon. It replaces "S#*! My Dad Says." The much-in-the-news "Two and a Half Men" continues with Ashton Kutcher replacing Charlie Sheen. On Friday, a new medical drama about a neurosurgeon who receives moral guidance, "A Gifted Man," gets an 8 p.m. time period. "It has very strong female appeal," says Kelly Kahl, executive senior vice president, strategy for CBS Entertainment. With the change to Kutcher from Sheen, CBS had few concerns that "Two and a Half Men" would not be back: "We worked under the assumption that we would have a show. We did have backup plans, but we didn't have to go there," says Kahl. Thursday got a big revamped look with new shows -- comedy "How To Be a Gentleman," about an unusual friendship between a traditional, refined writer and an unrefined personal trainer, at 8:30 p.m. and drama "Person of Interest," about a presumed dead former-CIA agent who teams up with a mysterious billionaire, at 9 p.m. "Person" replaces "CSI," at 9 p.m., which had been a top-rated show, but dropped in ratings in recent years. "CSI" now moves to Wednesday at 10 p.m. "We have stability at every hour," says Kahl. CBS takes on new drama "Unforgettable" at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, about a police detective who can remember every single detail of her life. The show replaces "The Good Wife," which heads to Sunday at 9 p.m. CBS made a rare move on Saturday -- in the hope of getting younger viewers -- and will air new episodes of "Rules of Engagement" at 8 p.m. This will be followed by a comedy block called "Comedy Time," where reruns of CBS comedies will play. It will be followed by two hours of "Crimetime Saturday" featuring reruns of CBS crime dramas. Two mid-season shows are on deck: "Undercover Boss" will return, as well as a new police drama, "The Two-Two" from Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal. CBS says it is only debuting seven drama pilots, all of which were good enough to be added to the schedule. "We needed another night," jokes Tassler. "We needed a Schnrusday." CBS Television Network 2011-'12 Prime-Time Fall Schedule (N=New, NT=New Time, all times EST/PST) Monday 8:00-8:30 p.m. How I Met Your Mother 8:30-9:00 p.m. 2 Broke Girls (N) 9:00-9:30 p.m. Two and a Half Men 9:30-10:00 p.m. Mike & Molly 10:00-11:00 p.m. Hawaii Five-0 Tuesday 8:00-9:00 p.m. NCIS 9:00-10:00 p.m. NCIS: Los Angeles 10:00-11:00 p.m. Unforgettable (N) Wednesday 8:00-9:00 p.m. Survivor: South Pacific 9:00-10:00 p.m. Criminal Minds 10:00-11:00 p.m. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation(NT)Thursday 8:00-8:30 p.m. The Big Bang Theory 8:30-9:00 p.m. How to Be a Gentleman (N) 9:00-10:00 p.m. Person of Interest (N) 10:00-11:00 p.m. The Mentalist Friday 8:00-9:00 p.m. A Gifted Man (N) 9:00-10:00 p.m. CSI: NY 10:00-11:00 p.m. Blue Bloods Saturday 8:00-8:30 p.m. Rules of Engagement (NT) 8:30-9:00 p.m. ComedyTime Saturday 9:00-10:00 p.m. CrimeTime Saturday 10:00-11:00 p.m. 48 Hours Mystery Sunday 7:00-8:00 p.m. 60 Minutes 8:00-9:00 p.m. The Amazing Race 9:00-10:00 p.m. The Good Wife (NT) 10:00-11:00 p.m. CSI: Miami
Time Warner Cable, which is interested in boosting ad revenues for its video-on-demand offerings, has made an investment in BlackArrow, a firm that powers dynamic ad insertion in VOD. With the investment, Joan Gillman, Time Warner Cable president, media sales, will join BlackArrow's board of directors. Other investors include Comcast Interactive Capital, Intel Capital and Motorola Mobility. The Time Warner Cable investment completes a funding round that has raised up to $27 million. "BlackArrow has played an invaluable role in accelerating dynamic VOD ad insertion and is well-positioned to be a growing part of the ad ecosystem," Gillman stated. She called the investment a commitment to "supporting our partners as the industry continues to develop new business and advertising models across a broad spectrum of television distribution platforms and devices." BlackArrow is involved in an industry initiative to bring scale to advertising in free VOD, with programmers, advertisers and the 4As involved. Dynamic ad insertion allows new ads to be slotted into a VOD stream during a program's time housed on a menu.
Belo CFO Carey Hendrickson said the station group has experienced cancellations by auto advertisers related to the trouble in Japan, but not at an unanticipated level. That has "remained within our initial expectations" for the second quarter," he told investors Wednesday. Since some auto marketers have had to deal with issues affecting the manufacturing chain, Belo had previously adjusted its expectation. It said it expected spot dollars in the second quarter -- excluding political dollars -- to be in the flat to low-single-digit percentage range, compared to the same period a year ahead. Hendrickson did say that it is notable that "the disruption in automotive [spending] related to Japan is a temporary setback and a supply issue, not a demand issue." The company is optimistic that production for Toyota will return to a more normalized level in the third quarter. "Certainly, we believe when there are cars to be sold they will turn to television to do it," he said. Belo operates 20 stations in 15 markets, including the ABC station in Dallas, CBS stations in Houston and St. Louis and NBC stations in Seattle and Portland. On potential acquisitions, Hendrickson said Belo would consider them primarily if they could generate a duopoly in a particular market, notably a chance to add to the CBS affiliate in Houston. In general, the acquisition market, he said, has a "disconnect" in what sellers are seeking and buyers looking to pay. Sellers want to use prices based on performance this year and going forward. Buyers want to use costs based on performances during the past few rougher years.
Kimberly-Clark is launching a new campaign for its GoodNites brand, a product designed to deal with bedwetting, aimed at reaching moms of children between the ages of four and six who have been potty trained but are still wearing training pants. The campaign's message is that it's a good idea to ditch them for GoodNites underwear. Kimberly-Clark says the product, which has been in the market for 17 years, fills a gap because moms want something better than training pants but are still worried about bedwetting. "It was through our conversations with these moms that we realized they were looking for a better solution for nighttime wetting," said Tim Abate, marketing director for the brand, in a statement. The company says the campaign touts GoodNites' design and fit, with -- for the first time in three years -- a TV advertising component. The ad illustrates how quickly kids grow, as the creative shows a child getting bigger overnight. The TV ads run through September on programs like "The Today Show," "The View" and "Good Morning America." The effort includes digital ads, a social media program, an online community, sampling, point-of-purchase elements, and a continuation of its "NiteLite Panel," a support center composed of pediatricians and parenting experts. Kimberly-Clark has also redesigned the brand web site, GoodNites.com. The company says the new site is easier to navigation, has educational information arranged by user preference, an area where you can ask questions of the NiteLite Panel, and third-party content on the issue of bedwetting, or night time enuresis. The brand's last big campaign was in 2009, an effort that included a "Special Bedtime Moments" contest dangling a $2,500 room makeover. It also introduced the four-member NiteLite Panel. The company is still the category leader. The company says bedwetting affects 5 to 7 million U.S. kids per year. The company says that last year 2.2 million families bought GoodNites.
Sprinting toward the finish of the TV season, a number of shows improved ratings results because of season finales on the next-to-last Monday night of the season. But ABC conquered all, easily coming out on top. ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" and "Castle" gained versus previous performances, posting a Nielsen 4.5 rating/12 share and a 3.3/9 among 18-49 viewers, respectively. "Stars" had a 4.3 rating the week before; "Castle" was at a 3.1. Overall, ABC had a 4.1 rating/11 share for the night versus a 3.8 the week before. Fox and CBS were well behind: Fox was at a 2.7/7; CBS earned a 2.5/6. Both networks were up versus a week before. Fox averaged a 2.3 rating and CBS scored a 2.2 rating. Fox had the next-best-rated show of the night, "House," which greatly improved to 3.6/9 up from a 2.9 the week before. The now-canceled "Chicago Code" also gained to a 1.9/5 from a 1.8. CBS also witnessed improvement with its best show coming from "How I Met Your Mother" -- a 3.0/6 up from a 2.5 at 8 p.m. "Hawaii Five-0" finale did better with a 2.5/7 versus a 2.3 rating the week before. But it ended up in second place at 10 p.m. to the "Castle" finale. "Mike & Molly" took a 2.5/6 in its finale versus a 2.2 rating the week before. NBC was in deep fourth place. "Chuck" perked up a bit for its finale at 8 p.m., a 1.5/5 versus a 1.3 the week before. Next season will be its last. Two other canceled dramas, "The Event" and "Law & Order: LA," completed NBC's Monday with a 1.3/3 and a 1.1/3, respectively. For the night, NBC earned a 1.3/3 versus a 1.2 rating the previous week. Univision fared better than NBC, at a 1.5/5. CW's finales for "90210" and "Gossip Girl" were up a bit -- a 0.8/2 in 18-49 viewers and 1.0/3 in 18-34 viewers for "90210" and 0.7/2 in 18-49 and a 0.9/3 in 18-34 for "Gossip Girl."
Last week there was an important conference called the On Demand Summit 3.0. Now, I'm not a big fan of the use of the word "summit" -- unless there's a meeting between world leaders to sign treaties. I mean, this is still television. But there were big issues discussed, including the industry's view of the on-demand advertising opportunity. The opening keynote was given by Carl Fremont, EVP Global Media Director of Digitas, who delivered a strong, thought-provoking message on the challenges and the opportunity ahead for advertising in the free VOD space. He noted that we are in a transformative time, when a consumer-led market is becoming increasingly demand-driven -- and that part of our task in the (near) future will be to "test and champion new video formats, especially those that create consumer engagement." Digitas has coined this "Active Branding." Much of Fremont's address focused on the first public release of the Phase 1 report of the Advanced Advertising Media Project, or AAMP. (Disclosure: my company conducted this study and authored the report.) This three-phase, industry-wide initiative was designed to test and quantify the impact of advertising within free on-demand television. This first phase report provided the results of in-depth interviews with twenty key media decision-makers. Among the issues those decision-makers discussed: a concern with the pace of change in the on-demand space, and gaps in media analytics and consumer research. There was a call for dynamic ad insertion as a potential game changer. There were frustrations with past efforts and "frozen perceptions" that need to be addressed. Still, as Fremont noted, there was a continuing expectation of major growth for FVOD advertising, and the potential for a powerful new role for VOD as a platform that would act as a bridge between linear TV and online -- one that combines the characteristics and attributes of both. He reported that VOD is seen as "advanced television, with differences that permit viewer-directed, intentional engagement." Thoughtful ideas. There was a call for a greater priority on understanding the end user, and on more product-marketing-like thinking in promoting VOD. All of this led to a singular conclusion: that the industry must embrace a larger vision for VOD. Those words are important in many ways now. As we all deal with the day-to day tasks of mastering and creating value from new capabilities, let's not forget the "vision thing" (as a former president once said.) The final point was a call to action to join the AAMP initiative by emailing aamp@BlackArrow.tv. To download a free copy of the findings, access the website at http://aamp.BlackArrow.tv Vision and direct response. Well done.
As the broadcast networks head boldly into another season, they should reflect back on their big mistakes -- the ones that may be hard to recover from. Think about NBC's 10 p.m. Jay Leno move and, a decade ago, ABC's over-running of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" These risks may have deepened viewer erosion for those networks, a nasty trend that has continued for over two decades, hurting networks and advertisers. Instead of holding the line, NBC -- courtesy of now departed chief Jeff Zucker -- went all out a couple of years back in making the Leno move. Irwin Gotlieb, global chief executive officer of media agency giant GroupM, called the Leno move an unacceptable risk. Robert Greenblatt, the new chairman of NBC Entertainment, didn't mention the Leno move in his recent upfront address. However, he did admit to a problem with the 10 p.m. time period. That's an honest assessment. Now a couple of years removed from this major programming error, the situation has worsened for the 10 p.m. time period, where viewing of time-shifted programming has made big inroads. The question to ask now is, "Are other networks making risks of this type that will be hard to recover from?" Not really. In fact, things have gone the other way. Networks are so risk-averse now that they continue to cut costs -- even on sure things. Fox's "House" -- still a top-rated drama on network television -- is coming back for an eighth season. But Fox decided to cut salaries of three actors in the ensemble cast. Two accepted the lower salaries, and one, Lisa Edelstein, has decided to leave. Is it risky to schedule too many sitcoms, or too many "fairy-tale like" drama shows, or too many singing competitions or singing-themed scripted shows? Maybe a bit. Sure, "Lone Star" failed miserably. But it was only one show. It didn't take down what amounted to around 20% of NBC's prime-time schedule which is what the Leno 10 p.m. move did. And the move didn't just affect the 10 p.m. time period. Now back in his late-night time slot, Leno's ratings are not nearly as dominant as they were before the Conan O'Brien fiasco. That's a double-whammy for NBC. Few networks now have time to see if something really risky might work -- if a different kind of show can grow, if a new programming scheme can work out. These are unacceptable risks in today's TV environment. So networks give consumers sitcoms that look like sitcoms, dramas that look like dramas, reality shows that look like reality shows. Recently announced new shows from NBC, ABC and Fox haven't seemed all that unique to many media agency executives over the last several days. Networks have far fewer chips to play with these days. NBC's Greenblatt said honestly that it would take "years" for NBC to get back on top. That might indeed happen. But if it does, it will be at a much lower rating level. And advertisers may not want wait around until it happens.
This week the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) announced the results of a feasibility study for the Trackable Asset Cross-Platform Identification (TAXI) project. This study, in partnership with the ANA, 4A's and the IAB is a first step in implementing open and interoperable industry standard codes for content and ads across all content. I sat down with CIMM's Managing Director, Jane Clarke to talk about TAXI and other CIMM initiatives. CIMM could not have chosen a better Managing Director than Jane Clarke, whose extensive and deep experience in Cross Platform and Set Top Box data contribute to her stellar reputation in the media industry. CIMM has two major initiatives: to facilitate the understanding of STB data and help facilitate Cross Platform measurement. In a series of video interviews, conducted a few days before the release of the TAXI findings, Jane discusses not only the specifications and back story of TAXI but also CIMM's Cross Platform industry position, STB data and privacy. She also shares some predictions for the media landscape over the next few years. The videos can be viewed here. Below is an excerpt. CW: Jane, can you talk about the TAXI initiative? JC: Yes. TAXI stands for Trackable Asset Cross-Platform Identification. This acronym was developed to cover this whole area of content identification, meaning both creative programming content and advertising as content as well. As we started on the cross platform initiative, one of the problems we saw was verifying exposure to assets as they travel across platform. The way it is now, everyone has their own proprietary tag and code. So if you want to follow an asset you may have to work with one company and use their code or their tag. There isn't an open and inter-operable standard. And so we just kept saying to ourselves, as with the UPC code, couldn't there be a UPC code for media? So we put out an RFP and talked to many consulting firms and hired Ernst & Young. We worked with them for the last six months, talking to all of the different players in this whole area of content identification to better understand it. We are just about to put out the paper and the Primer, with a lot of these terms explained up on our website. What we have found is that actually, surprisingly, the industry is very supportive of developing an open and inter-operable standard. It solves a lot of problems - and not just research problems. As one company mentioned to me, that when talking about content identification there are the "Four R's", which are Research, Royalties, Rights and Residuals. So this is something that impacts the whole media ecosystem and we are having the researchers come to the table to say how important this is for the research companies. There are some asset identification techniques that we are exploring. There are some companies and associations that have been developing ways to identify both content and advertising. There is Ad-ID that has been developed by the ANA and the 4As for ads. There is something called EIDR (Entertainment ID Registry) that has been developed out of MovieLabs and CableLabs and the movie studios for identifying content. And so we are evaluating all of these and are trying to put them together and come up with a Pilot Test. That is what we would like to do next - to actually test out if we can really, technically do this in the media ecosystem and what are the business benefits? We would like to be able to more clearly lay out the business benefits for all of the senior executives in the media industry so they can understand how important it would be for the industry to adopt this going forward. So we have basically finished our first phase which is the Feasibility Study and then we are hoping to move into a Pilot Test phase next.
The upfront season brings the usual excitement and disappointment when it comes to new programming -- as well as new business opportunities. But TV -- in reality the most popular consumer sport -- should now consider one big improvement, an idea that TV Watch has floated in previous seasons: TV needs a commissioner. Like other major entertainment options, TV is a game unto itself -- where viewers root for their favorite shows, and jeer long-hated enemies. This week, networks will unveil some outrageous programming ideas -- a few of which should never see the light of day, others that are obviously on the wrong network. A good TV commissioner would stop these moves dead in their tracks, all for the sake of us struggling TV fans. Don't agree that Fox's "House" should do another run on the top-rated network? A commissioner might say -- for the good of the game - that the acerbic and funny NBC Universal production should stay at home. C'mon, tell me the smaller universe of NBC fans wouldn't like to see "House" on the NBC network. It's smart, witty -- just the stuff NBC has been touting to advertisers for years. Sure, NBC Universal probably gets a nice license fee from Fox, but we are thinking about the fourth-rated network here, after all. All of which could bring up another idea: a TV draft. Just like in TV sports, the bottom-rated network should have the ability to pick from the best ideas and best producers. Think the new "Charlie's Angels" is a catch? Hey, what better network for it than The CW, which could benefit from a drama starring three young women targeted to CW's audience of young women. Sorry, ABC. Even though it's your franchise, you should be thinking of others less fortunate -- for the good of the game, after all. One could even do a PSA touting one's beneficence. Free agency? Sure, as long as a series puts in its time. (Another reason the soon-to-be-seven-year-old "House" could move to NBC). Trading should be promoted. Think of the headlines: "ABC trades 'Extreme Makeover' and 'Private Practice' to CBS for 'NCIS: Los Angeles'... and a TV show to be named later." Who would be commissioner? A while back TV Watch nominated Garth Ancier, the long-time veteran network programmer, who has seen it all. He is someone who is enthusiastic about all things TV, someone who would be fair. Other programmers/executives could fill the bill as well. C'mon TV industry, own up to your business-as-athletics contest. The NFL is already one of your highest-rated programs, so let's make it official. And let's be frank: TV is a contact sport. Take a clue from Charlie Sheen, the current seer of all things entertainment: It's all about the winning.