With speculation of a possible sale of Hulu, the big online video site has struck a new TV program deal with co-owner Walt Disney Co. that will bring more commercials to shows, according to a number of reports. According to stories in Bloomberg and Variety, who first reported on the deal, the new agreement will include more commercial time during a typical TV program. News Corp., another co-owner of Hulu, recently made a similar deal, according to executives. Currently, there are around four to six commercial messages in a traditional 30-minute or 60-minute TV show that runs on Hulu. Traditional national TV commercial loads can air twenty 30-second commercials in a typical hour-long show, and around ten 30-second commercials for a half-hour show. Overall, non-program time -- which includes national commercials, local advertising and TV promos -- is around 14 minutes to 16 minutes for an hour-long show, and about eight minutes for a half-hour show. Both Chase Carey, president/COO of News Corp. and Bob Iger, president /CEO of Walt Disney Co., have said Hulu needs to do a better job in monetizing its business. Hulu has said it expected to hit the $500 million revenue level this year. Back in February, Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, had blogged about the positive consumer experience of TV programs on the Internet -- that they deliver fewer commercials than those same shows on traditional TV. A Hulu executive had no comment; Disney executives did not respond to messages about the deal by press time. Hulu, whose other two owners include Comcast Corp. and Providence Equity Partners, was approached by a potential buyer recently -- assumed by some executives to be Yahoo.
Free time in front of potential customers doesn't happen for advertisers often, but a video ad model on YouTube makes it a reality for Scripps Network and other advertisers -- as long as the viewer opts out before the 30-second spot concludes. The video ad format -- cost per view -- rolled out last fall on the YouTube network, but parent company Google also is considering making it available across the Google Display Network. Facebook, Pandora, YouTube and Twitter become the focus of the ad media buy for HGTV's "Design Star," with the new season airing July 11. The Scripps Networks wants to reach for "a younger and newer viewer base" that has traditionally attracted adults ages 45 and older. Gay men are avid fans of "Design Star," in addition to women. That demographic insight, in part, comes from monitoring metrics on YouTube. The metrics bleed into the overall ratings for the show. "After marketing a few shows, we're finding some pull in younger viewers," said Jonah Spegman, director of digital media and database marketing at Scripps. Going after younger demos, ads will run on YouTube tapping TrueView, which requires the brand to only pay when the viewer watches the entire ad. Promoted video ads will highlight the show's clips at the top of YouTube search results pages and in suggested videos. HGTV ran 30-second pre-roll spots on YouTube TrueView to separately promote the shows "Design Star," "Cash & Cari" and "Selling New York." "As the ad runs in the YouTube video, a big call to action lets viewers skip the ad, but we found 44% of people actively choose to watch the ad for "Selling New York" all the way through," Spegman said. "The other 56% still see the ad, but not in its entirety. The nice thing is they still watch between 25% and 50% before they choose to skip." A cookie gets dropped in the browser of site visitors who choose to view the ad. The cookie provides a metric that Spegman calls "view through." The metrics can't directly link it to viewership, but he knows a "huge" percentage of people come back to the site once they are exposed to the YouTube video ad. And when viewers don't watch the whole ad through TrueView, HGTV gets the partial view for free." Aside from YouTube, HGTV will buy a variety of Facebook ads that target the younger demos demonstrating through Likes an interest in competitive design shows. On Twitter, Spegman said the social network's sales team estimates HGTV can expect between 55 million and 75 million impressions on the day the ad runs. Internet radio also will play a role in the ad buy. Combining a computer-and-mobile media buy on the Internet radio station, Pandora will target women 25-54. When logging into Pandora, she will see a custom skin on the page that promotes "Design Star." The campaign will provide an option to run a video clip, but also offer an option to add a design-inspired Design Star branded radio station to their lineup. The media buy also includes ads run on SayMedia for video, Lotame for semantic targeting and Apple iAd, which Spegman describes as Apple iAds for Developers, a lighter-weight banner that lets users download to the HGTV iPad app. The iAd runs on a cost-per-click model, so impressions are free. Through the Apple iPad app, users can watch full episodes of the show. "Design Star" will sponsor People's iPad app. "We'll also have a considerable amount of ads running through ad exchanges and demand side platforms," Spegman said, clarifying that "considerable" means about 15% of the total media plan. "The efficiency of buying media through exchanges is tough to ignore." Through ad exchanges, the ability to target and remarket improves. It lets HGTV serve up more easily click-to-play or click-through in-banner video ads.
A viral video and a new Web site are the hints of what's to come in the Summer's Eve brand relaunch, scheduled for July. The feminine hygiene product manufacturer announced ownership of the recently launched "That's Vaginal!" video. The initially unbranded, tongue-in-cheek video (which attempts to replace the old idiom, "That's awesome!" with the new phrase, "That's vaginal!") was virally released as the first step in the company's effort to invigorate the brand with new vitality, says Angela Bryant, director of U.S. marketing, feminine care for Summer's Eve. The video, which is also on YouTube, has been viewed more than 255,000 times since launching a week ago. Summer's Eve will debut its new campaign July 18, including integrated television, print and digital creative, as well as a body-awareness campaign. Summer's Eve also infused its new Website with the same candid attitude, Bryant says. Both the Web site and the video are aimed at prompting dialogue about the female anatomy while inspiring women to be proud of their bodies, she says. "The industry, including Summer's Eve, and society have talked in code about the vagina and women's genitalia for too long, and it's time for a change," Bryant says in a release. "Women tell us they're ready to embrace talking about their bodies in an open, honest way. We've been dancing around the word 'vagina' for so long, we wanted to invent an unexpected, fun way to give it a new, positive place in today's vernacular." The video features Carlton, a scholarly talking cat, who is on a crusade to tell America how important the vagina is (or should be.) Likening the vagina to such natural wonders as Mount Kilimanjaro and the rings of Saturn, Carlton drives home, in an amusing way, the need for a shift in conversation, to move away from euphemisms and treating the vagina as a taboo topic. At www.thatsvaginal.com, visitors can also submit videos and praise all things "vaginal." The new Web site is revamped to reflect the brand's new packaging, including other conversation-spurring components such as a "V Power" page with expert articles about the stigmas associated with the vagina and women's anatomy, a glossary of feminine hygiene terms, and a "Vagina Owner's Manual," a document full of fun, educational facts about the vagina.
What would Zeus drive? An electric-yellow Scion tC Release Series. Every year the Toyota division, whose purview is younger auto buyers whose credo might be "personalization at all costs," rolls out a run of 2,200 or so limited-edition versions its tC, xB or xD cars. In past years the size of Scion's promotional activity around the Ltd's has been in line with the volume of cars available. Not this time. For the new tC Release Series 7.0 in High Voltage yellow, the company is rolling out an unusually large TV and viral push -- the largest to date for a Release Series car -- that includes a six-episode viral video series that launches before the TV ads begin. In addition to the size of the campaign, with the TV spots running across a range of cable channels nationwide, the effort evinces a humorous tone that is new for Scion. When Scion has employed humor in the past, it tends to be on the dark side -- with an ironic twist, as in the Little Deviants campaign for the 2008 xD. The new campaign, via San Francisco-based Attik, Scion's AOR since the brand's inception, stars the ancient Greek god Zeus revisited as a toga-wearing cad, a cross between Falstaff and Charlie Sheen. Lacking lightning bolts, but endowed with an Olympian ego, Zeus here is a buffoon who bores women, thinks of his parchment scroll as a mobile device, and commands a cappuccino machine unsuccessfully to brew him a cup when he can't figure out how it works. A source close to Attik points out that comedy is something of an advertising sub-specialty, and that agencies will typically subcontract to a species of director whose expertise is hijinks when they want SNL-type humor. Not so with Scion, for whom Attik creative director Simon Needham has helmed most all the automaker's ads, including these. "It shows how much they trust him at this point," says the source. The company went to Attik early on for this campaign. "This is the first time we have featured a Release Series vehicle in a major campaign," Owen Peacock, Scion's national marketing communications director, says. "Typically, we have done online ads, or a little print and some flyers to hand out at auto shows -- but really, it's been subdued until now." The company decided to go large because the car has the right color, look, package, and technology. "It's such a compelling vehicle we thought, 'why not make a campaign round it?'" He says they typically go to Attik once they have developed and built the vehicle. "Usually, we hand them a completed car; this time we didn't even have the color named." Scion sold about 1,100 previous-generation tC Release Series 6.0 "Speedway Blue" cars in February last year. The campaign is also an experiment in reversing the traditional TV first, digital second media schedule for national campaigns. "We are trying something new. We wanted to see what might happen if we led with online and had broadcast come later," he says -- adding, however, that the TV spots, which have Zeus on his throne on Olympus extolling Scion tC's (and his) virtues, direct viewers to YouTube and Facebook where they can see the vignettes. Scion also has a dedicated microsite at Scion.com with the look and feel of the campaign. "That's the hub and from there you can learn more about the car, see the commercials and online videos." The TV ads -- which break nationally on June 27 on channels like Adult Swim, Fuse, Fuel, CBS Sports, History, Spike, SI TV, and Comedy Central -- also conclude with a shot of both the tC RS, and a stock tC. "The beauty of it is, it lets us tell more people that we do special builds, and also does a good job of overall branding. It's also a sustaining campaign for tC." The campaign follows the production tC launch effort "Take on the Machine," which ran through March, followed by a Pure Price campaign spotlighting Scion's no-haggle retail formula. "This is going to run through the summer months and then when this one is starting to wind down, you'll see the next campaign supporting [the forthcoming subcompact] iQ car.
USA is launching what it terms an "interactive multiplatform" comic series affiliated with drama "Burn Notice" on outlets such as the network's Web site, Facebook and mobile devices. The 12 weekly chapters, done with DC Comics, look to link story lines from last season with those in the new season that launched Thursday. Tabbed "A New Day," "Burn Notice" creator Matt Nix and others on the creative side of the hit show produced the series. The comic series has video, related games and other content. The story line follows lead character Michael Westen and his list of people who have "burned" him, which was originally 31, but is now down to two. Stories unfold over the 12-week series about the winnowing. "Now we have the opportunity to see the characters and their lives, but from a different perspective -- one that fans can interact with, play with and share," Nix stated. "We are pushing the technology boundaries to enhance the user experience beyond the one-hour telecast and expanding the story arc into new arenas," added Jesse Redniss, vice president of digital, USA. Panelfly, which works in digital comics, was involved with the mobile offering, while Glow Interactive worked on the Facebook and other iterations. The show features a "blacklisted spy," and this season, he is set to divulge whether he can find his way back to the CIA.
2011 is shaping up to be another crappy year for newspapers, with more reports of financial woes, layoffs -- and now another round of unpaid furloughs. Media General, publisher of 21 daily newspapers including The Tampa Tribune and Richmond-Times Dispatch, announced that it will require employees to take 15 days of unpaid leave in the second half of 2011. CEO Marshall Morton acknowledged that the move "will cause financial disruption for employees and scheduling challenges for our operations." Morton echoed the sentiments of other newspaper executives in his memo to employees announcing the furloughs, writing that "the much anticipated economic recovery continues to be unevenly felt across our markets, and, more recently, the economy has faltered." However, it's open to debate whether the continuing financial difficulties of newspaper publishers like Media General can be attributed primarily to the slow economy, or are simply due to a long-term secular decline in the print newspaper business and the rise of digital media. On that score, Morton acknowledged that "while new revenue and Web site growth initiatives have been successful, these efforts have not produced enough revenues to offset declines in our traditional lines of business." From 2006-2010, Media General's total revenues have declined from $964.9 million to $678.1 million, for a 30% drop in four years. In the first quarter of 2011, total revenues declined 6.2% to $148.9 million. The decline in Media General's newspaper publishing division has been even steeper, with total revenues falling from $601.1 million in 2006 to $328.4 million in 2010, for a 55% decline over the same period. The weak performance of Media General's newspaper division has been mitigated somewhat by its broadcast TV properties, but TV advertising is expected to suffer this year as well, due to the absence of Olympic and political advertising. Moreover, the broadcast TV environment in general is getting tougher. Looking at the long-term, broadcast revenues have slipped 10.5% from $343.1 million in 2006 to $306.8 million.
ABC carved out a win on Thursday night with an entire lineup of fresh programming -- "Wipeout," "Expedition Impossible" and "Rookie Blue." ABC was the only network to get above an average 2 rating among 18-49 viewers, posting a Nielsen 2.1 rating/6 share among 18-49 viewers. In its summer season premiere, "Wipeout" saw a 2.3/7, which was followed by a new reality "Amazing Race"-type competition show at 9 p.m. from Mark Burnett, "Expedition Impossible," which hit 2.4/8 at 9 p.m., the best-rated show of the night. But at 10 p.m. "Rookie Blue" couldn't keep ABC viewers from moving on to other shows/ entertainment, getting to a 1.6/5 for its premiere -- down from a 1.9 a year ago. Fox lost a little steam for its "So You Think You Can Dance?" results show at 8 p.m., grabbing a 1.9/7. This was down from a 2.1 rating a week ago. With a "Glee" repeat at 9 p.m.(1.1/3), Fox averaged a 1.5/5 for the night. CBS, in total repeat mode, was right behind Fox with a 1.4/4 -- the same numbers it had a week ago. NBC was in repeats for the first two hours with four of its usual Thursday night comedies, then scheduled an original for "Love Bites." That show was down two-tenths of a rating point to a 0.8 rating/2 share among 18-49 viewers. But none of this had any teeth for viewers, as NBC landed with a 0.8/3 average for the night. Univision was at a 1.3/4 -- up one-tenth of a rating point from a week ago. Telemundo, another Spanish-language network, also was up one-tenth of a rating point, to a 0.5/1. CW was the same as a week ago, at a 0.4/1.
AMC's "The Killing," which concluded its first season last Sunday, simultaneously engaged and enraged viewers and critics alike with its story of the investigation into the brutal murder of a teenage girl in rain-soaked Seattle. Some of this had to do with the subject matter: a challenging and uncommonly dark blend of murder, madness, grief and desperation. But much of the mixed reaction to the show had more to do with its execution. Was "The Killing" a well-made, meticulously plotted drama that deserved the tsunami of critical praise it received at the time of its premiere -- or was it a poorly conceived exercise in soggy storytelling? Regardless, it was (and still is) one of the most talked-about television series of the year, and certainly one of the most ambitious. For those reasons alone it deserves as much favorable attention as possible. The fact that a brand new scripted basic cable series with no big stars in its cast could make its debut and command so much attention at the start of broadcast television's May sweeps period and continue to stand out while when dozens of high-profile scripted and unscripted shows were building to their seismic season finales was a remarkable achievement. That's a glowing testament to the writers, directors, cast and crew of the show, not to mention AMC, which has become such a distinguished television entity that the arrival of a new series on its schedule qualifies as an event in itself. I was enormously impressed with "The Killing" from the moment I saw a few clips that had been cobbled together for a presentation at the January 2011 Television Critics Association tour. Indeed, I thought from the clips alone that Mireille Enos, the quietly intriguing young actress who plays weary homicide detective Sarah Linden, the central character in the show, was destined for the same award-worthy AMC greatness as Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad" and Jon Hamm of "Mad Men." Now, at the end of its first season, my opinions of the show in general and of Enos in particular have not changed -- even if, as noted by its most vociferous critics (professional or otherwise), its story seemed to be compromised by one too many red herrings, and the Linden character appeared too easily stymied by the circumstances surrounding the murder of Rosie Larsen, a young woman as mysterious and complicated as Laura Palmer, the tragic murder victim in the now-classic "Twin Peaks." I do wish that "The Killing" had consistently maintained the unique creepiness of its early episodes (though some of that seeped back in near the end) and that the writers hadn't waited until so late in the season to beef up Enos' character. But I still think "The Killing" is one of the year's finest new scripted series. The critics' complaints may speak more to their deeply engrained expectations than any flaws in the program itself. I, too, found myself growing somewhat impatient with the seeming lack of progress that Linden and her new partner, former narcotics detective Stephen Holder, were making on the Larsen case. (Holder is played by another exciting television newcomer, Joel Kinnaman.) Over time, however, I came to realize that executive producer Veena Sud was carefully and deliberately reflecting the reality of real-life crime solving, which doesn't always play out in the swift and satisfying ways of standard television crime dramas, just as she was slowly and painfully exploring the effect that profound grief can have on a murder victim's loved ones -- in this case Rosie's parents, Mitch and Stan. I do believe that Sud dedicated a bit too much time to one apparently false lead: the identification of one of Rosie's teachers, Bennet Ahmed, as a suspect in her murder. Much of Ahmed's story felt like uninteresting filler - until the grief-ravaged Stan beat him to within an inch of his life, further complicating matters for everyone involved. In a bold and brazen move, the season ended without resolution, meaning we still don't know who killed Rosie Larsen. That's not a problem for me, but it seems to have pissed off many other people. Instead of answers, we were left with multiple tantalizing questions, observations and events to ponder during the year to come. Is councilman and mayoral candidate Darren Richmond the killer? (He sure looks guilty, given the disturbing details that Linden discovered about his personal life, as well as the fact that Rosie's body was discovered in the trunk of a car belonging to his campaign.) Will he survive the assassination attempt by oddball Larsen family friend and employee Belko Royce? Does the distraught Mitch know more than she's letting on? (She's been totally odd right from the beginning, even before she learned that her daughter was dead.) Did Rosie's murder have anything to do with her father's past involvement with the local mob? What became of her nasty classmates? (They were some of the most interesting characters on the canvas.) And what about Holder, who was seemingly revealed at the last to be one of the bad guys? On CBS' "The Mentalist," it took Patrick Jane three seasons to finally stake out serial killer Red John and end him (unless that wasn't the real Red John). That's after 70 episodes! At only 13 episodes in, surely we can allow "The Killing" a few more hours to continue exploring the increasingly dark details of the Larsen case before we get our answers.
Viacom's dispute with cable operators -- first Time Warner and now Cablevision -- over iPad apps is not only about license fees but also advertising revenues. Right now, viewing of TV shows on a iPad, while important, doesn't give advertisers all the information they are used to getting from traditional TV media deals. Cablevision and Time Warner want to retransmit Viacom's networks -- MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Spike, BET and others -- to iPads because they believe they are just additional screens into the home that they control. More importantly, they not only want to give their viewers more value, but want to wrap themselves around the cool-factor of the new digital video environment. Next in importance for cable operators is the growing mobile video advertising market. By transmitting the exact same channels on mobile devices, cable operators -- according to their legal folks -- can now sell two to four minutes per hour of mobile ad avails. This is based on the two to four local ad minutes per network that they now get under their deals with the cable programmers. Viacom also expects advertising revenues from mobile devices and, like all TV content providers, wants full control over them -- plus possible extra monthly fees from cable operators. If this happens, cable operators would need to charge customers more for mobile apps -- now, or in years to come. Nielsen still controls much of the video "currency" by which big national TV advertisers and TV sellers wheel and deal. But the big TV measurement company still hasn't worked the bugs out when it comes to what comparable data is available from "second," "third" and other screens beyond the TV box -- especially concerning different commercial inventory loads in traditional and digital TV platforms. If Nielsen can work out its measurement problems for all TV sellers, groups like Viacom can monetize all those potential mobile video advertising opportunities. Cable operators already see mobile as an existing opportunity to sell advertising -- one that they believe doesn't require cable networks' legal permission. But what if cable operators don't just target local-market advertising deals as they do under traditional arrangements with the cable networks? What if they were to include a broader national advertising footprint? All of which makes for interesting, confusing, and -- definitely -- litigious cable TV industry times.
What is real in an age when purported "reality TV" has "finales" and one-named self-branded celebrity wannabes posing as people? When being on a show like "Survivor "or "Jersey Shore" is just another path to celebrity in which every move is self-conscious and calculated to achieve effect? You want real? Try enduring the clip below - the emotional climax to the 1973 PBS series "An American Family." On July 7 PBS will run an anniversary 2-hour compilation from the original series. Extended clips from the 12 episodes are available online. Notice how different the visual style was in this first stab at reality TV. No manipulative editing. No suspiciously trumped up reaction shots and outrageous set ups. The long pauses that make up real conversations are part of the drama and the tension. This was the birth of reality TV, but in many ways the peak from which it descended. For 12 weeks many of us were absolutely transfixed by this well-heeled but profoundly lost and aching Southern California family. Bill and Pat Loud's clan of teen kids, including the first openly gay characters on American TV, Lance, became the cause celeb in this country as documentarians Alan and Susan Raymond chronicled their privileged but arguably vapid lives. Unbeknownst to anyone when the novel project of recording everyday existence began, the Louds were headed straight for the heart of the defining trend of 70s America - divorce. In the scene below Bill returns home from one of his chronic business trips only to be handed the business card of Pat's divorce lawyer. Almost 40 years later, I still recalled the chilling calmness of the scene and all that is left unsaid but clearly felt. In the face of this, modern programming should be ashamed to take the name "reality TV." The next time we hear critics bemoan that unscripted programming has gone too far, they might well consult their media history. "An American Family" should remind us just how manufactured our TV "reality" had become in four decades. In its capacity to make us think, feel and gain insight about how we live and why we live this way, our "realty TV" hasn't gone "too far." It is lagging far, far behind what came before it and where video truly is capable of taking us. Watch the full episode. See more THIRTEEN Specials.
I am writing this column on a flight home from a very important industry conference. No, this is not going to be another one of those effete dispatches from the south of France and the Cannes Lions, filling us in on yacht parties, celebrity sightings and media exec sound-bites. I skipped Cannes this year, choosing instead to spend the past three days in Orlando at Nielsen's Consumer360 conference. No, I didn't draw the short straw among my several colleagues who did go to Cannes. I had a choice, and here's why I chose Florida instead of France: 1. The oracles of TV media were going. I am still quite new to the TV media market. While Cannes was certainly full of TV ad and agency folks, Nielsen's conference brought together virtually all of the industry's top researchers from agencies, clients, networks and programmers: folks like CBS's David Poltrack, Turner's Jack Wakshlag and Group M's Lyle Schwartz. For someone trying to understand how data drives the TV ad market, there was no other place to be. 2. They invited me. In my online years I had not been a Nielsen customer, so I had never been invited to their annual client conference. Now, as a TV ad seller, I am and they did. As many of you know, I hate to turn down invitations to conferences. 3. Facebook's measurement team was going. The folks that manage Facebook's audience and ad data were going to be there. If the data team for the world's hottest media property was going to be there, how could I not be, too? 4. Wanted to see if the "new" Nielsen was just talk. There's been a lot of talk that the new management at Nielsen is reshaping the company. I wanted to see it for myself. After hearing CEO David Calhoun talk about his "demand-chain" market vision and media president Steve Hasker talk about online campaign ratings and the company's efforts to move past sex/age demographic measurement with their CBS/Catalina partnership, I sense a new Nielsen is emerging. 5. Good place to contemplate "DisneyWar." I have been reading a number of TV-related books lately, like "Desperate Networks, "Cable Cowboys," "Cutthroat" and "The War for Late Night," to better understand the people and personalities who built the industry. I just finished "DisneyWar," the story of Michael Eisner, and wanted to go someplace appropriate to contemplate his tumultuous reign over the Disney Empire. Unfortunately, Cannes was too far from Disneyland Paris to make a visit practical. Nielsen's Consumer360, however, was being held at the Marriott right across the highway from Disney World, and I was able to get a room on the 17th floor with balcony view of the entire park. 6. Always wanted to see Train. Nielsen may not have had all-night yacht parties for us, but they did have Train come in for a Tuesday night concert. It was pretty special, particularly when they played Led Zeppelin. (It was another sign that Nielsen is accelerating with the times. Last year's entertainment was Donna Summer.) 7. Was just in France. I was just at the eG-8 in Paris three weeks ago. I wasn't sure what my board of directors would think if I took another junket to France so soon. 8. Am lousy French speaker. I took two years of French in high school, twelve credits in college, traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland four times a year for six years, but my French is still lousy. Our head of sales, John Piccone, lived in Paris for the better part of seven years and is fluent. Language skills won out to lead our delegation. 9. Was hoping to meet a Nielsen panelist. I've always wondered what kind of people sign up to have a Nielsen box or diary in their home to record all of their TV viewing. I thought that they might bring one or two of them to the conference to show us. No such luck. 10. Wanted tohear Bob Lutz and Malcolm Gladwell beat up on bean-counters. Lutz, Gladwell and Fortune's Adam Lashinksy had a lively discussion about how overbearing corporate bean-counters have killed (or almost killed) great companies by stifling creative leadership. Gladwell's solution: "Bean-counter Island," a place where companies could exile their finance departments to keep them away from product and operations. Jokes aside, Orlando is no Cannes, but Nielsen put on a great conference with Consumer360. I learned a lot and met a lot of great folks. What do you think? Cannes or Nielsen?
Nielsen takes look at today's American teen, raised in an age dominated by media choices like never before, from the Internet to cable channels to web connected devices galore. Kids Today...
CIMM is taking a pro-active role in advancing new media nomenclature and processes with both its Lexicon(terms and definitions associated with Set-Top-Box data measurement) and recently released Asset Identification Primer (glossary of asset terms). These documents form the basis of the Word-A-Week column, which offers a common language for Set-Top Box nomenclature that can expedite the roll-out of the data for its many industry applications. This week we begin a full examination of an important component of Set-Top-Box data measurement and its capabilities -- addressability in all its forms, as well as the hardware and software that facilitates scheduling, tracking, measurement and metric standardization for sales purposes. The term "Addressability," which is defined below, is a fairly recent concept in our current understanding of Set-Top-Box data capabilities. But it has gained understanding and interest in media buying circles as a way to optimize the scheduling and targeting of marketing messages to the right audiences of interested consumers. Addressability is not without its detractors -- particularly from governmental and consumer circles who fear a breach of privacy. But every precaution is taken to insure that any form of addressability conforms to strict privacy rules and regulations. Instead, addressability is said to offer demographic democratization where smaller niche groups can be offered better representation via programming, products and services that fit their unique needs and interests. Here is the generic definition of Addressability. Next week we examine the term as it applies to advertising.AddressabilitySee also: Advanced Advertising CIMM DEFINITION : The ability of an operator or provider to direct specific content to specific geographies or audiences. 2 : "The ability of a digital device to individually respond to a message sent to many similar devices. Examples include pagers, mobile phones, and Set-Top Boxes for pay TV. Computer networks are also addressable, such as via the MAC address on Ethernet network cards, and similar networking protocols like Bluetooth. This allows data to be sent in cases where it is impractical (or impossible, such as with wireless devices) to control exactly where or to which devices the message is physically sent." (Source: Wikipedia) 3: "Functionality that enables the delivery of targeted content by allowing a cable operator (or multichannel operator) to remotely activate, disconnect or unscramble the signal received by a subscriber." (Source: Nielsen Media Research)
Hulu needs to be an independent company so it can compete in real-time, real-world business. Trouble is, consumers still seek out TV network content. The cliche is real: Content is king (make that mostly TV network content). The move to independence ould free up Jason Kilar, Hulu chief executive officer, to say and do what he likes, even when verbalizing the obvious: there is a glut of commercial messaging on traditional TV and less on the likes of Hulu. The problem is the kind of current Hulu video content: As long as Hulu remains, for the most part, a de-facto DVR on the Internet -- for many of those U.S. viewers who don't have actual at-home DVR hardware -- it will be limited. And a lot of Hulu's problems will remain. When and if Hulu becomes the main transmission vehicle of network shows for network shows is the real question to ask current Hulu owners -- News Corp., Comcast, Walt Disney, and Providence Equity Partners. Another question: When will real original big- marketed (as in "marketed on traditional TV") -- programs appear on Hulu? Viewers were deservedly excited when Hulu launched, and the video Web site got well-deserved accolades. But many -- including CBS, which decided not to sign with Hulu -- knew that its growth curve would be small. Hulu is on track for $500 million in revenue this year. But News Corp's Chase Carey and Disney's Bob Iger have seemingly soured on it -- or at best have mixed feelings, wanting it to be more accountable and future-thinking. Premium-priced Hulu? There's little in the way of consumer sentiment for that. If Yahoo is a real bidder for Hulu, you can understand why. The valuable, but sometimes maligned, long-time Internet brand needs a strong facelift. Having Hulu in its camp could do that. But Yahoo or anyone else would still be beholden to the TV networks, who would, we assume, drivie a harder bargain when it comes to what value TV shows should command -- in terms of both wholesale and retail pricing.
Back in the days when the TV was a "box" not a "display," when "boob tube," "idiot box" and "vast wasteland" were synonyms for the most powerful medium of the 20th Century (we weren't being ironic, either) the very symbol of television shallowness was the laugh track. Few artifacts of communication history so well embody media condescension to its audience. Programmers not only gave us tepid situation comedies; they tried to convince us the shows were funny by piping in canned laughter. From the gentle twitter when Jay North as Dennis the Menace might hide melting chocolate in his overalls to shocked shrieks when Lucy Ricardo takes a header in a vat of wine grapes, there were recorded chuckles for every level of televised amusement, good or bad. True videophiles, get your checkbook ready. At an auction gallery in California this weekend (June 25-26) two of the original and long-lived canned laughter machines will be up for auction. According to the catalog from Don Presley's auctions, the original "Laffbox" created by Charles Rolland Douglass and the "Jayo Laughter" device by Jess Oppenheimer, producer of "I Love Lucy" will be up for sale. Like many aspects of TV development, the canned laughter machine was developed concurrently by separate minds, both of whom seemed to think Americans needed prompting to laugh. Douglass got the patent, and his original LaffBox provided tracks for 20,000 episodes that are logged in a book that accompanies the gadget. Only two years ago the Laffbox along with its usage logs were found in a storage locker. The Oppenheimer machine had been retired when Douglass got the patent for the concept in 1954. Both machines are now up for bids. Apparently Douglass was very protective of the secret to bottled guffaws. According to auctioneer Presley, the inventor kept the box padlocked when it wasn't being used. But it was used a lot. If you ever saw a situation comedy before the laugh track subsided in the 1980s, then you likely heard his box in action. The laugh machine did not just insert laughter into sitcoms that had no live audience but it "sweetened" the real laughs of audiences too. Douglass was a maestro of mirth, tuning the level and kinds of laughter for the different sorts of show. By the 1960s when Hollywood-driven sit-coms were done on sound stages, the Laffbox" was called upon to provide full simulations of audience interactions. He was a laugh monopoly. According to Wikipedia's history of the box, CBS tried to run a test of a laugh-less sitcom in 1965 with "Hogan's Heroes," which (believe it or not) the network had hoped to pitch as a more cerebral comedy. In tests the laugh-less version failed and a Douglass'-enhanced version convinced network executives to put the show on the air. Much of the laughter we do hear from the machine came courtesy of a single comedian, Red Skelton. According to the auction catalog, Douglass spent countless hours recording portion of that show's natural laughter into capsule of laughs he massaged into a laugh machine. Skelton. The last man on TV for decades to get an honest laugh. Maybe the last one to have deserved one.