A week after unveiling an aggressive plan to convince the ad industry to use its new Facebook panel as the "GRP" for online advertising and media buys, Nielsen Wednesday began informing clients about a major snafu with the one that generates GRPs for the multibillion television advertising marketplace. Nielsen said the glitch has been generating incorrect data for most of this year for GRPs and the reach and frequency estimates used as the basis for most TV advertising plans. Nielsen said the problem is under investigation, but some agency executives already believe it could lead to big problems with their TV audience guarantees that could result in millions of dollars in "makegoods" from television networks. In the notice it sent to clients Wednesday, Nielsen said the problem began when it implemented a new method for calculating average audience estimates in its main TV ratings processing system beginning in February, and that it appears to have been delivering "incorrect data for time-shifted data streams" since Jan. 31. Nielsen's so-called C3 ratings, which include time-shifted viewing for three days after a program and its advertising have aired, is the official currency for the national TV advertising marketplace, and the basis for most TV advertising buys and audience guarantees. Nielsen said it became aware of the problem when clients "inquired about elevated average frequency levels" for the time-shifted viewing data, indicating that the glitch may have over-inflated TV audience estimates. "This is another embarrassment for Nielsen similar to not picking up the entire URL for their Net Ratings service last year," groused Brad Adgate, the head of research at independent media agency Horizon Media, referring to a major glitch Nielsen disclosed with its online ratings processing in 2010 (Online Media Daily Dec. 2, 2010). Adgate said the system where the new TV ratings problem occurred, Nielsen's NPower platform, is what most advertisers and agencies use to get their reach and frequency and GRP, or gross rating point, estimates for their advertising buys and guarantees, as well as their "post buy analyses" for evaluating their performance. Asked if the glitch could lead to makegoods for TV advertising buys, Adgate said, "potentially," but he also noted that the GRP estimates could be processed manually, if necessary. The timing is unfortunate and ironic, because it comes at a time when Nielsen is making a major push to gain industry confidence - especially among major advertisers and agencies - to make its new Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings (NOCR) the GRP equivalent for online advertising buys (Online Media Daily Sept. 14). Wayne Friedman and David Goetzl contributed to this story.
The TV ratings gods both gaveth and tooketh away Thursday as two unrelated stories sent the shares of Nielsen plummeting and rival Rentrak soaring. News that Nielsen had disclosed a major TV ratings glitch contributed to a sell-off driving its share value down 9%, while reports that billionaire Mark Cuban had upped his stake in Rentrak sent its shares up a corresponding 9%. "We think this is an over-reaction in the case of Nielsen but potentially warranted for Rentrak," Deutsche Bank analyst Matt Chesler opined in an equity research report sent to investors this morning. Chesler said the glitch disclosed by Nielsen would actually have "minimal impact" on the bottom line of the research giant, because it was not the type of error that would cause Nielsen to "be on the hook" for "restitution or lawsuits" related to any makegoods television networks might have to offer advertisers. "While concerns are understandable," he wrote, "this scenario is highly unlikely based on our understanding of the facts and conversations with multiple senior media execs." Chesler said Deutsche Bank's investigation found that the error does not affect the "media tape files" that are fed into ad agency buying systems such as Donovan Data Systems that actually process the data for "transactional purposes. "In other words, the glitch has nothing to do with day-to-day trading models as media is not negotiated on reach & frequency metrics." That wasn't 100% clear to some of the agency executives Wednesday when they were contacted by MDN Sept. 22) about the Nielsen disclosure. That story incorrectly implied that that the glitch may have impacted Nielsen's C3 ratings, which are the currency of national TV advertising buys, and the basis of most audience guarantees between networks and advertisers. Nielsen's initial disclosure said it had been distributing "incorrect data for time-shifted data streams" in its NPower system since Jan. 31. It said the NPower system is used by clients to calculate the reach and frequency and "qualified GRPs," or gross rating points, which are what ad agencies use to plan their TV advertising buys. Nielsen was not available to comment on the glitch Wednesday or Thursday morning when MDN contacted a company spokesperson, but issued a statement late Thursday after the story published. It states: "There is no impact to C3 commercial data, ratings and projections, electronic data files used by other processors, or to reach or any other NPower-reported data." But media buyers contacted by MDN Wednesday said the glitch "potentially" could lead to requests for makegoods, and that it was at the very least "another embarrassment" for Nielsen. It also comes as the company is making a major push to convince Madison Avenue that its new Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings, or NOCR, should become the "GRP" for online advertising buys. The timing may have been coincidental, but the disclosure Thursday that dot-com billionaire Mark Cuban had significantly increased his holdings of shares of Rentrak sent that company's value soaring. In a regulatory filing, Cuban who owns and operates high-definition cable and satellite TV network HDnet, as well as the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, said he had acquired an additional 207,000 shares of Rentrak stock, bringing his total holding up to 973,000 shares, or 8.7% of its shares. The Deutsche Bank report noted that Rentrak shares soared 9% on the news closing at $13.63 per share. The report gives Rentrak shares a "target price" of $15. Deutsche Bank's Chesler wrote that the Nielsen snafu does represent an "opportunity" for Rentrak investors: "Nielsen's TV glitch does, however, probably open up an opportunity for Rentrak, which is seeing disappointingly slow rates of adoption for its competitive offering. It is not unreasonable to think that TV stations and cable networks currently on the fence might now give Rentrak another look as a source of highly granular data. That said, simply because Nielsen's credibility has suffered a blow does not mean that the issues with set-top box data instantly go away and that the industry will start trading on Rentrak data." Cuban, who is known to be a shrewd investor, especially when it comes to media and technology companies, told MDN that his decision to increase his position in Rentrak was based mainly on the quality of its products and services. "In my opinion it's the best source of audience information and the future of audience measurement on both a local and national basis," he said. Wayne Friedman contributed to this story.
You weren't in a time warp, Bruce Horovitz assures us in USA Today, and pardon you if thinking you were while watching the likes of the late Michael Jackson and Ray Charles pitching Pepsi on the debut of Simon Cowell's "The X Factor" on Fox last night. There were other no-need-for-last names megastars of another generation in the 60-second spot, dubbed "Music Icons," such as Brittany, Mariah, Kanye. But it also features a "Pepsi-exclusive remix" of the song, "Tonight is the Night" by Yonkers-own Outasight. PepsiCo Beverages CMO Simon Lowden says, "'Tonight is the Night'... perfectly captures the spirit of music today" and "that the spot is about re-igniting the timeless connection between Pepsi and iconic pop music and also about celebrating our partnership with 'The X Factor.'" Another spot that rolled out last night stars Kevin McHale, the actor who portrays the wheelchair-bound Artie Abrams on "Glee." He was selected "because of his genuine affinity for the brand," PepsiCo Beverages chief global consumer engagement officer Frank Cooper tells Ad Age's Natalie Zmuda. "He was effusive about it. It wasn't a one-word answer, 'Pepsi is cool.'" In addition to the nods to its heritage, there will be some decidedly contemporary twists to the campaign, and we're not just talking the "X Factor" tab on Pepsi's Facebook page. McHale tells viewers that "with Pepsi, you'll experience the show in ways you have never imagined," but Cooper is cagey when Zmuda presses him on exactly what that means. He does say the brand "will be focused on second-screen activity, as well as aggregating conversations and interacting with viewers" and that "we're making an effort to move beyond the traditional sponsorship and think about how the Pepsi brand can add to the viewer experience." Isn't everybody? Getting back to the nuts and bolts of product placement, Pepsi received more than $6,500,000 in free media exposure through verbal mentions, product consumptions and other forms of screen time including cups on the judges' table and vending machines in the main contestant waiting room last night alone, according to a release from Front Row Analytics. And the Boston Herald reports that a hometown company called Pongr is behind technology that recognizes the "X-Factor" logos on photos of cans of Pepsi that customers send in from their mobile devices. In return, they get back videos featuring behind-the-scenes footage and 56 contestants will eventually win a trip to Los Angeles. "Mobile users are getting very familiar with the concept of the 'check-in,'" says Pongr CEO Jamie Thompson, who claims he's ready to handle hundreds of millions of photos. "But Pongr is all about bringing that concept down to the product level, getting people to check in to a product, and hopefully buy that product." Meanwhile, Age's EJ Schultz reports PepsiCo is forming a Global Snacks Group to coordinate international marketing and innovation, as well as Power of One Americas Council to jointly promote snacks and beverages in stores. Both efforts will be led by John Compton, CEO of PepsiCo Americas Foods. "The group's creation comes as analysts have questioned PepsiCo's ability to market food and beverage together. Some analysts have gone so far as to suggest the company split in two, separating its fast-rising snacks business from its underperforming beverage unit," Schultz writes. Down in Atlanta, Coca-Cola is "backing off supersizing" Mike Esterl reported earlier this week in the Wall Street Journal. In an exclusive, he reported that Coke is launching 12.5-ounce, 89-cent bottles to accompany the 16-ounce, 99-cent bottles it rolled out nationally last year as an alternative to 20-ounce bottles and is also reducing the suggested price its eight-pack of 7.5-ounce Coke "mini'' cans in supermarkets by about 20% to $2.99 to try and lure more customers. In a video interview on Bloomberg, Coke CEO Muhtar Kent takes the long view. "We're generating that growth not because of what we've done in the last quarters, but what's happened in the last three years -- how we've invested in our brands, how we've created an infrastructure, how we're communicating with our consumers and how we're generating and commercializing innovation," he says. And, according to WARC's report on the conversation, Kent is grateful for little things, too: "We're fortunate that we are in a business where we sell, in a way, moments of pleasure at cents at a time. So we're not selling refrigerators and we're not selling big ticket items." Okay, who can we get to say it? Hmmm, how about Robert Thompson, professor of TV and pop culture at Syracuse University? "I suppose we could call this Cola Wars II," he tells Horovitz. "The war to end all cola wars." Right. I'll bet you a case of generic seltzer water the battle will still be raging when we're all in "Rock and Roll Heaven."
Viacom ad growth is projected to come in below expectations in the current quarter, partly because of program scheduling matters, but the overall ad market remains robust, according to CEO Philippe Dauman. Dauman indicated Viacom would post a high single-digit increase in ad revenues in the July-September quarter, which would be below the double-digit growth domestically that it had projected. (The company had a 12% domestic increase in the April-June quarter.) Despite help from MTV's "Jersey Shore," Dauman attributed some of the reasoning for the slower-than-expected ad performance to "short-term issues" in programming schedules, such as Nick at Nite only recently adding "Friends." Still, he said "despite the macro economic headlines ... the tone of the advertising market remains strong." As the fourth quarter begins, Viacom should begin to benefit from strong upfront commitments. Dauman cited potential growth as movie advertisers look to promote a run of forthcoming new releases. He appeared Thursday at a Goldman Sachs industry event. Separately, Dauman said Viacom is content with its Hulu arrangements, where it distributes "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" the day after air. He said they had actually helped drive ratings for the shows, rather than cannibalize it. Viacom also distributes shows on the paid Hulu Plus product, which brings advertising and licensing dollars. "It replicates the dual revenue stream that you get in the traditional world," he said. Digital distribution offers opportunities to break into new international markets, where gaining TV carriage can be tough, Dauman noted.
Amazon Prime -- a digital premium video competitor to Netflix and others -- just added to its stable of big TV and movies -- signing an expanded deal with Fox. The deal for the instant streaming service will now have Fox-produced library shows, including "24," "Arrested Development," "The X-Files," "Ally McBeal," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "The Wonder Years." Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says in a blog on the site that Amazon Prime has now doubled the number of titles this year -- now totaling some 11,000 movies and TV shows. With the addition of Fox, Amazon now has deals with CBS, NBCUniversal, Sony, and Warner Bros. Amazon Prime is priced at $79 a year -- which comes to a little under $7 a month. This compares with Netflix's new $7.99-a-month price for streaming. ($16 for Netflix's combined DVD-mail order and streaming service). Netflix claims slightly more streaming titles -- some 15,000 or so -- than Amazon Prime's 11,000. Netflix's longtime DVD-mail order business amounts to 100,000 titles. Last week, Dish Network restarted a Blockbuster streaming service, called Blockbuster Movie Pass, for its Dish satellite subscribers. For $10 a month, there are 100,000 mail-order titles and 4,000 available titles for streaming.
Social video analytics firm Visible Measures this morning said it closed on a $13 million round of financing led by DAG Ventures, but also including Advance Publications, the owner of consumer magazine publisher Conde Nast, which publishes titles such as Wired, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Vogue, and related websites as well as Epicurious.com and reddit.com. Other backers in the round included existing investors: General Catalyst Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and Northgate Capital. Visible Measures, which has raised more than $45 million in financing to date, said the new round would be used to "accelerate the growth" of its platform for analyzing social video and advertising on it. "Advance Publications, with their incredible breadth of media properties, will be an excellent partner to help us increase the scope of our offerings," stated Visible Measures CEO Brian Shin. "We believe that the application of data and analytics will be the catalyst to shift billions of TV ad dollars online over time," added Andrew Siegel, senior vice president-strategy & corporate development at Advance Publications. "Visible Measures is uniquely positioned to deliver Google-style ROI measurement across the increasingly sought-after segment known as Earned Media." In addition to expanding its platform, Visible Measures said it is increasing its sales force and support infrastructure to service, including its offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, and London, in addition to its headquarters in Boston. Among the new hires it has made, are Google's previous head of sales and enterprise for Google Analytics, Paul Botto, who has been named general manager of analytics & senior vice president-business development at Visible Measures.
Audi, which launched its campaign for the A6 this month with creative that shows the roads as they really are, is now focusing on fantasy with the show, "Untitled Jersey City Project." Stayed tuned for eight 2-minute episodes airing during FX's Sunday prime-time movies and at www.untitledjerseycityproject.com. The program will comprise 16-minute drama shorts where the 2012 A6 is a central prop and character, driven by the protagonist. Audi says the first two episodes premiere Sept. 25, with the rest airing over four consecutive weeks. Audi says the films, produced by Audi's Studio Progress Films, will appear as fragments of a television series or film, with each film adding a new critical piece of information about the plot focused on an architectural firm with a nefarious secret. The shows -- directed by Daniel Minahan, who directed "True Blood" and "Game of Thrones," involves the real estate business operation in a Jersey City, where the waterfront prickles with new high-rise projects. The Web site shows the teaser, which opens with one of the characters falling to his death from the top floor of an unfinished building. The protagonist suspects something is amiss, jumps out of bed with his girlfriend, leaps into his Audi A6 and heads to the site. In the process, the car's exterior and interior -- including the navigation system -- gets a lot of attention. The Web site has various clues about the mystery, as well as variations on the story line and various characters. The site also has the screenplay for the show, which is intended as a work in progress, with a consumer participation element where site visitors can suggest titles of the series. The effort launched in cinemas last week and received some spotlight on the Emmy Awards, where Audi teased the series. The traditional ad campaign takes a more left-brain approach, touting the A6 as a solution for navigating America's crumbling infrastructure.
With a growing variety of ways to get local news, where do people turn first to find out what's going on in their community? Local TV news remains the most popular source for local information in the U.S., but adults rely on it mainly for just three subjects: weather, breaking news and traffic. Despite their problems, newspapers (both print and on the Web) are where most Americans look for a wider range of information, according to a new survey. The Internet also plays a key role. Web-only outlets are now the main source of information on key topics, such as education, local business and restaurants. That option is likely to gain ground, since for adults under 40 and the 70% of people going online, the Internet ranks as a top way to get information on most of the local subjects. The study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Internet & American Life Project looked at 16 different topic areas to provide a more nuanced understanding of how the media ecosystem functions. The findings produced some interesting paradoxes. TV, for instance, still reigns as the broadest outlet, with 74% of Americans watching local TV newscasts or local TV Web sites at least weekly. But the focus is narrow. TV is the choice for the topics that almost everyone tends to follow, like the weather and breaking news. When it comes to newspapers, 69% of people said that if their local paper no longer existed, it would not have a major impact on their ability to keep up with information and news about their community. But the research showed newspapers play a bigger part in people's lives than they realize -- ranking first or tied for first as the most-relied-upon source in 11 of the 16 news topics. TV draws a mass audience around a few subjects, while newspapers attract a smaller share (50%) of weekly users but for a wider range of topics, such as government, taxes and zoning. Neither TV or newspaper sites by themselves have gained a strong foothold as a top options for local news, however. The Internet is a main source for information about restaurants and other local businesses, and tied with newspapers as a top source for material about housing, jobs and schools -- all areas that place a special value on consumer input. (The study defines the Internet as Web-only sources, such as search engines, specialty-topic sites and social networking sites.) The spread of smartphones and apps is elevating mobile as an option for local news and information as well. Nearly half (47%) of adults use mobile devices for that purpose, mainly for the types of information people also go to the Web for, like looking up restaurants. And 5% of survey participants said they use an app for checking the weather. The Pew study found that although social media is becoming a factor in how people learn about their local community, it is not as popular as other digital formats. In all, 17% of adults say they get local information on social networking sites like Facebook at least monthly, which may explain why it nixed Places and Deals. The emergence of new types of digital and mobile media has not crowded out time-honored ways of keeping up with events, however. More than half (55%) of us get local news from word of mouth at least once a week. Overall, a majority of Americans (64%) rely on at least three different media sources each week for local news, and 45% say they don't even have a favorite outlet. Because younger users tend to rely more on the Internet as a top source, the Web is expected to play a more influential role in the years ahead. The Internet has already turned 41% of those surveyed into what Pew calls "local news participators." These are people who share links to local stories, and comment or contribute articles and opinion pieces about their community online. The survey was conducted from January 12 to 25 among a nationally representative sample of 2,251 adults 18 and over and landline and cell phones. It has a margin of error of 2%.
Over the past five years, sports programming has climbed sharply among U.S. viewers -- with reality TV programming maintaining its position at the most dominant TV genre. A report from The Nielsen Company says in the 2010-2011 season, sports programming commanded 20% of the 187 million U.S. viewers ages 2 years and older. This is up from 19.4% the year before, and 9.4% and 8.1% in the two preceding years. Reality television still commands the biggest share of U.S. TV viewing -- now at 56.4% for the 2010-2011 season. This is up from 47.9% the year before. The high spot for reality came in the 2007-2008 season, where it had a 77.3% share of all U.S. TV viewing. The year before it had a 68.3% share. Scripted drama TV shows are in second place behind reality, accounting for 23.6% of U.S. TV viewing in 2010-2011 -- down from 32.7% in 2009-2010 and 32.8% in 2008-2009 season. During the last decade, scripted dramas were at their lowest point in the 2007-2008 season (14.6%) and the 2002-2003 season (11.0%). Their highest was in the 2005-2006 season, accounting for 42.8% of the total audience. At the beginning of the decade, in the 2001-2002 season, things were very different. Reality accounted for 22.4% share -- with the highest viewing going to sitcom TV viewing at around 38.9%. Dramas were next at 29.5%. Comedies virtually disappeared in the coming years -- with broadcast TV network cutting back and cable networks virtually offering up even less original comedy shows. Comedies declined to a 9.2% share in the 2003-2004 season, and went down to a 7.4% share in the 2008-2009 year. Nielsen says over the past 10 years there has been a rise in DVR, online streaming, digital cable, video on-demand and other programming options. The audience size for broadcast prime time remains strong at just shy of 200 million viewers.
Time Warner Cable is looking to inject a little luxury into the television subscription space via a new ad campaign touting its nearly year-old SignatureHome packages. In TV spots that begin airing this week, the cable company shows off the company's digital cable, Internet and phone services (as well as its Whole House DVR, Remote DVR manager and 14-device wireless network products), via imagery that's more suited to upscale hotels than a telecommunications company. One commercial shows scenes from a luxury penthouse apartment. Against a piano-heavy, soft-jazz soundtrack, a woman's voiceover soothingly explains the SignatureHome product, as something "with a level of personal attention and professional expertise that is unmatched." The spot begins with a woman dropping her robe to reveal a black silk nightgown and getting into her bed with (presumably) her husband to watch some television, as onscreen text reads "Enhanced TV." Another scene shows the couple's children moving to the kitchen, clutching tablet computers, showing off the product's wireless capabilities. Other services offered include a "Personal Concierge," (described in the breathy voiceover as a "dedicated specialist who will tailor everything to be just right for you."), "Wideband" and an "Advanced DVR." "It's a class of service you might have thought disappeared from the world," the voiceover concludes before showing off the SignatureHome title. According to a release, the new campaign is meant to reflect the discerning tastes and lifestyles of Time Warner Customers. "We are very proud with the look and feel of this campaign as we continually work to evolve the ways we reach our customers," said Jeffrey Hirsch, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, residential services at Time Warner Cable, in the release. "This advertising campaign is fundamentally different from anything we've done in the past." A company representative did not return repeated calls or emails for further comment on the campaign, although the release suggested additional elements, including Spanish-language materials, would be forthcoming in the next month.
Looking like pieces of a regular full-length TV series, carmaker Audi and FX Networks will produce a short-form series to help promote the new 2012 Audi A6. The eight 2-minute episodes, called "Untitled Jersey City Project," will begin Sept. 25 during FX's Sunday prime-time movie and continue for four Sundays. Each piece of the "Project" series is a puzzle involving men working for an architectural firm who are hiding a dark secret. The TV drama story line centers around fame, power, money and death amid the quickly developing Jersey City waterfront. It comes from HBO veteran director Daniel Minahan of "True Blood" and "Game of Thrones." Marketing of this series originally came from new messaging made during the prime-time Emmy Awards telecast and in-cinema advertising. The series will feature the all-new 2012 Audi A6, displaying some of its technological advances. Scott Keogh, chief marketing officer of Audi of America, stated: "Since our inception, Audi has embraced creativity, innovation and new ways of thinking. What better way to engage with our progressive audience than through forward-thinking entertainmenta?" Consumers can get more information about the series here.
ABC has gained some nice lift on the first Sunday night of the new season with "Pan Am." Other Sunday TV show regulars are performing pretty much as expected. At 10 p.m., "Pan Am" took in a healthy Nielsen preliminary 3.1 rating/ 7 share among 18-49 viewers, which was up versus a year ago when ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" premiered. But the troubling news for ABC came an hour earlier, for its venerable "Desperate Housewives," starting its last season. It hit the same 3.1 /7 as "Pan Am", but this was down around 30% versus last season's premiere of "Housewives." Earlier in the evening, two hours' worth of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" was down 10% to a 1.8 rating from a 2.0 a year ago. NBC's "Sunday Night Football" was the big winner for the night -- posting a healthy Nielsen preliminary 7.2/17 rating. But it didn't go away unscathed -- down over 20% versus last year's week three season game. A major change for the night was moving CBS' award-winning "The Good Wife" to Sunday from Tuesday. Putting "Wife" in the competitive 9 p.m. time slot was a tough go -- a 2.2 rating/5 share, coming in last place in the time period. The good news was that "Wife" wasn't down much, just around 10% versus its start-up last season on Tuesday. Other CBS shows had a rougher time: "60 Minutes" was off 16% to a 2.6/8; "The Amazing Race" was down 21% to 3.0/8; and "CSI: Miami" at 10 p.m. slipped over 30% to a 2.2/5. It should be noted that CBS did not have a late-afternoon Sunday game this time around, which usually gives it a nice kick for its prime-time lineup. Fox, however, did get some benefit for its late-afternoon Sunday game, helping to keep its Sunday comedy lineup relatively healthy. The season premiere of "The Simpsons" was up a few ticks to a 3.8/10 among 18-49 viewers; "The Cleveland Show" was even with a 3.1/7; the network's top Sunday show "Family Guy" was down almost 10% to a 4.1/9; and "American Dad" clocked in even with a year ago at a 3.0/7. At the end of the night, NBC on average posted the best 18-49 results with a 5.9/15. Fox earned a 4.4/11, followed by CBS with a 2.5/6, ABC at a 2.4/6, and Univision with a 1.3/3.
DirecTV CEO Michael White said last week that a promotion giving new customers the "NFL Sunday Ticket" for free this year was designed with 2012 in mind for a product that had "kind of matured." "Sunday Ticket" has traditionally had about 2 million subscribers, with a retail cost of $334.95 this season. With DirecTV beginning a new NFL contract this year, costing it an estimated $1 billion a year, White said the aim was to give new customers a taste and hope they sign up again next year. "The strategy behind what we did with 'NFL Sunday Ticket' had really nothing to do with the current year's business ... [It] was saying how do we get that franchise growing aggressively, so we can manage the new contract costs," he notes. The promotion offers the package free this year and does not force an automatic renewal next year, so the aim was to expand the potential customer base. "That gives you a much bigger pool next year when we try and renew, so we'll see next year whether the strategy paid (off)," White said at a Goldman Sachs event. If there's a 20% renewal rate at full price, that would be "a huge boost" for the NFL product, he said. One benefit is the NFL deal does not cost DirecTV more next year, so with a "fixed cost ... it was kind of a free throw in that sense to say well let's try and make it available to a broader swath of our new consumers ... and see if we can kind of get folks more hooked on the product." Still, he said DirecTV has not reduced its standards for the customers it signs and their ability to pay. "We haven't kind of lowered the bar on who we bring in," he said.
Perhaps the most highly touted show of the fall season, Fox's "X Factor" hit its starting note a bit flat in its season premiere -- coming in lower than media agencies' expectations. The singing competition show -- which was heavily marketed by Fox -- scored a Nielsen preliminary 4.4 rating/12 share among 18-49 viewers and some 12.2 million viewers overall. This was a bit off media agencies' expectations of around a 5.0 to 5.2 rating for the show in the demo. In fairness, it was a decent broadcast prime-time performance in comparison to other shows. While some were expecting "American Idol"-type viewership numbers, advertisers were more conservative in their estimates for the Simon Cowell-produced show. It is similar to "Idol," where he had a long-time association. Still, many believe Fox will have a better time of it at the beginning of the season -- as compared to most of their slow-moving fall TV starts. Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director for media agency Horizon Media, says: "Most people thought Fox would have a stronger fourth quarter this year, based in part on 'X Factor' and the popularity of 'Glee.'" Fox's "X-Factor" faced heavy competition, specifically ABC's mega-Wednesday night show "Modern Family"-- coming off some big marketing spin after another Emmy win. It grabbed a night-leading 6.0/15 among 18-49 viewers. The show muscled a strong 18% rise in this viewer group versus last season's premiere. Still, Fox won the night -- as least according to preliminary Nielsen results, with a 4.2/12 among 18-49 viewers. ABC scored a 4.1/11, followed by CBS at a 3.5/9, NBC at a 1.8/5, Univision with a 1.7/4, and the CW at a 0.6/2. ABC kept the pressure on later in the evening with its new "Revenge" drama -- posting a very decent 3.4 rating/9 share at 10 p.m. This beat CBS' new "CSI" -- in a new time period and with new cast member Ted Danson, which earned a 3.1/8. Another season premiere, NBC's "Law & Order: SVU," came in third place at a 2.3/6. Earlier in the night, at 8 p.m., another edition of CBS' longtime franchise "Survivor: South Pacific" took in a 3.1/9 -- holding up well against strong competition from "X-Factor," which won the 8 p.m. hour, and from ABC's "The Middle," which like "Modern Family," showed gains versus its season premiere of a year ago. A special hour-long "Middle" took in a 3.0/9. CBS' best effort came at 9 p.m. with "Criminal Minds" getting to a strong 4.1/11 -- despite heavy competition from "X-Factor" and "Modern Family." Behind all this was NBC, struggling to maintain some visibility with its new comedies -- "Up All Night" and "Free Agents". Both shows each fell 40%. "Night" landed at a 2.3/7 and "Agents" went to a 1.3/4. With the heavy schedule of new TV content, CW had trouble keeping pace. Reality effort "H8R" took in a 0.4/1 and "America's Next Top Model" earned a 0.7/2 among 18-49 viewers.
Several years after the launch of Food Network Magazine, Hearst Corp. is trying to replicate its success bringing TV brands to print with a new title targeting fans of Scripps Networks' HGTV (formerly Home and Garden TV), which specializes in all manner of real estate-related programming. The first test issue of HGTV Magazine will hit newsstands on Oct. 4, with a preliminary rate base of 350,000 and a cover price of $3.99. A second test issue, planned for February-March, is scheduled to go on sale Jan. 17, 2012. The magazine, targeting "homeowners, real-estate lovers, renovation aficionados," will focus on decorating, makeovers, and practical household advice -- all in the channel's accessible, conversational style. Sections include "Help Wanted," "Fun Decorating, "Kitchen Chronicles," "Mission Makeover," "Real Estate Spy" and "Weekending." Like its older sibling Food Network Magazine, HGTV Magazine will leverage the popularity of HGTV personalities, by regularly featuring personalities such as David Bromstad, Genevieve Gorder, Vern Yip and Sarah Richardson. HGTV Magazine is edited by Sara Peterson, formerly of Coastal Living, while Hearst Home Group Executive Director Jeanne Noonan Eckholdt is serving as acting publisher for the test issues. The new title is being promoted online, with social media components including Twitter chats, as well as on HGTV, which ran a one-hour special about the making of the magazine Sept. 24. Food Network Magazine is a worthy role model to emulate, enjoying big increases in paid circulation over the last few years. Total paid circulation increased 23% from 1,196,835 in the six-month period ending December 2009 to 1,472,607 in the six-month period ending June 2011, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Dish Network has offered an answer to the new Netflix: Blockbuster Movie Pass. But there's a catch -- you need to be a Dish satellite subscriber. Like Netflix used to have, Blockbuster Movie Pass is a complete media rental service, featuring streaming movies and TV shows along with movies and games-by-mail. The service launches next Saturday, October 1 for $10. You need to be an existing or new Dish Network satellite TV subscriber -- at least initially -- to get it. Blockbuster Movie Pass isn't new. Before before being acquired by Dish Network, it had a similar Netflix-like On Demand product in 2008, in which consumers could stream movies back. Dish Network also has had on-demand video content available. Dish and Blockbuster are looking to capitalize on some recent troubling news at Netflix. Recently, Netflix -- to much consumer consternation -- said it would separate its DVD mail order and streaming video business, as well as raising its overall price for the services. The Blockbuster streaming content adds Starz, Epix, Sony Movie Channel, and Encore to Dish's on demand library that includes Fox, TBS, TNT, Discovery, AMC, CN, DIY, HGTV, FOOD and History. Unlike Netflix's new Qwikster service, Blockbuster Movie Pass has 100,000 available mail-order titles that can be returned to Blockbuster locations. There are also 4,000 available titles for streaming.
While Fox got no improvement from its highly touted "X-Factor" on its second night, the network could still crow about its first fall season Thursday night win with regularly scheduled programming in years. Fox pulled in an overall Nielsen preliminary 4.1 rating/11 share among key 18-49 viewers -- all this thanks to a two-hour "X-Factor." The show lost just a couple of tenths of a rating point from its Wednesday start, where it earned a 4.4/12. Fox also easily won the race among younger viewers 18-34 with a 3.4 rating/10 share, a key viewer group for the night for getting heavy business from theatrical movie marketers for their weekend film openings. Taking it on the chin a little were CBS and ABC -- two former Thursday night leaders that were around a half-rating point back from Fox: CBS with a 3.6/10 and ABC with a 3.4/9. CBS had the best-rated show of the night -- the second half-hour of the season premiere of "The Big Bang Theory" episode at 8:30 p.m., which earned a 5.0/14. The first half-hour episode of "Theory" also took in a strong 4.8/15. While "X-Factor" doesn't seem to be the next "American Idol" among TV industry analysts in terms of really big ratings, it did seem to factor into some declines for Thursday mainstay shows' season premieres, such as ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and NBC's "The Office." "Anatomy" was down over 20% to a 4.1/11 for a special two-hour version, from a 5.3 season premiere rating a year ago. "Office" dipped over 10% (also perhaps in part because Steve Carell is no longer on the show) to a 3.9/10. Some new shows had some uneven starts. The best performer of these was the heavily marketed "Whitney" from NBC, which opened up with a solid 3.2/8 at 9:30 p.m. CBS' "Person of Interest" at 9 p.m. also had a good opening -- a 3.1/8 at 9 p.m., against some heavy competition. Less interest was generated by ABC's "Charlie's Angels" earlier in the night at 8 p.m. -- just a modest 2.1/6. Later, another new drama, NBC's "Prime Suspect," pulled with a decent 1.8/5 among the 18-49 crowd. NBC's other Thursday comedies struggled a bit. "Community" dropped over 20% to a 1.7/5, and "Parks & Recreation" was 20% under what "30 Rock" earned a year ago, at a 2.0/6. CW -- against strong competition from new shows this Thursday -- went south with "The Vampire Diaries" to a 1.2/3, down around 20% versus the week before in the broader viewer 18-49 group. A bit more troubling was that its new "Secret Circle" lost ground of some 30% to a 0.9/2. After Fox, CBS, and ABC, NBC tallied in fourth place for Thursday among the 18-49 viewer group, with a 2.4/6. Univision was at a 1.6/4 and CW earned a 1.0/3.
While much has been made of the growth in the Hispanic population, the number of Asian-American homes is projected to be up nearly 10% for the 2011-12 TV season, marking a considerably higher growth rate. Asian-American homes are forecast to be up 9.6% to 5.3 million. This is the first TV season to take place after the 2010 Census results came in, and the number of Hispanic or Latino homes is expected to be up 4.6% to about 14 million. African-American homes are projected to be 14.3 million, a 1.5% increase, per Nielsen. "The rapid growth of the Hispanic market has generated a number of headlines since the Census numbers were revealed, but the increase of Asian households should not be overlooked," stated Pat McDonough, a Nielsen senior vice president. The estimates are for Jan. 1. Los Angeles continues as the largest market for both Hispanic and Asian TV homes, while New York leads among African-Americans. McDonough stated: "We're also seeing increased geographic diversity of Hispanic and Latino consumers. While Los Angeles, Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Houston remain in the top five for Hispanic TV homes, we're seeing growth in markets that defy conventional wisdom. Hartford and New Haven, Conn., Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Raleigh and Minneapolis are all in the top 50 and saw a bump up in their rankings in the past year."
Another week, another market downturn. Economic news continues to bring the doom and gloom, and so does the outlook for the ad industry overall. But even as consumers and marketers keep tightening their belts, TV ad spending remains surprisingly buoyant. You might've read the excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal last week about the TV advertising paradox. (If you didn't, do.) Fewer people are watching television, the authors pointed out, and yet brands are spending more than ever to advertise on television. As Jon Lafayette put it in Broadcasting & Cable back in July, "While some businesses adjust their marketing plans, TV appears to be something they can't live without." This sentiment was echoed by CBS's Les Moonves at an industry conference last week, where he highlighted the strength of his network's ad-revenue outlook. "We don't see a slowdown," he said, and "people who bought (ads) in the upfront are increasing their orders." So what's up? Why all the love for TV? Three reasons: 1. It's got reach. Chris Anderson's long tail might work for some folks (especially online), but there aren't too many media outlets that can deliver viewership in the millions these days. When you are looking for scale, you've got to go for the telly. 2. It's cheap. Relatively speaking, TV spots are a great value: A mere $14.50 per thousand households for network TV last season, and only $6 for cable, as reported in the WSJ. (The average cost per thousand times a display ad was served on a finance-related site during the first half of the year was $19 -- $17.50 for automotive sites, according to SQAD, Inc.) 3. It works. Leveraging data enables television ads to be delivered specifically to audiences already committed to a given brand or product category; they're primed to purchase. Paired with the enhanced brand recall that television delivers, it makes for an advertising homerun. That might explain why, despite flagging growth in ad spending overall, six of the 10 fastest-growing advertising categories - mostly in financial services - hit five-year spending highs in the first half of 2011 (in terms of percentage-gain increases on their total ad spend). But the economy's still on the brink of double-dipping into recession, and the ad pie is forecast to keep shrinking. Just look at the stock prices of the big ad conglomerates -- WPP, IPG, Omnicom. My back-of-the-napkin number-crunching shows a sector that's down 25% since August's credit crisis. Even if TV budgets stay on a relatively even keel, it's obvious we're in for rocky times ahead. Shades of 2008? I don't think so. After all, now we've got tools at our disposal that we didn't have three years ago. At the time of the last market swoon, the power of set-top box and consumer purchase data was just being unleashed. Three years later, companies like Invidi, Black Arrow, Rentrak and Simulmedia and TRA are helping advertisers and networks put that data to good use to make media budgets work harder than ever. Thanks to advanced advertising solutions that didn't exist in 2008, there's a level of accountability and confidence in television advertising that buyers and sellers didn't always have. Combine that with unduplicated reach, value, effectiveness, and programming, and you can see why there really is no business like our (TV) show business.
Have a hankering for some really high-value entertainment? Beggars can't be choosy. Then Fox Home Entertainment came out with "Star Wars: The Complete Saga" in its Blu-Ray discs -- and grabbed some $84 million dollars in a week. All good for a mid-September sale period -- right after a bunch of summer theatrical action movies, and right smack in the middle of the start of the TV season. While that was nice haul, and a record "as a catalog" title, with 1 million Blu-Ray discs sold, "Avatar" -- the biggest movie of all time -- did much better near its initial theatrical release, with 2.7 million Blu-Rays and 4 million DVDs sold for a total of $130 million. Overall, however, things aren't that good for all home entertainment -- especially when future digital entertainment consumers are still mulling the new Netflix , and perhaps the new streaming/DVD mail order service from Blockbuster by way of Dish Network. Not great, not bad -- something in between. All to say entertainment consumers can be pretty selective when it comes to all price levels of entertainment -- $10 a month streaming services and $80 special Blu-ray movie sets. (Mind you, theatrical marketing executives are still proclaiming another fantastically strong summer movie business.) Then again, Netflix did lose a few hundred thousand customers in the third quarter. No longer a steal at $10/month, it is now a whopping $16/month. Six more bucks? That's two less ice venti americanos! Cord-cutters here? Maybe. Surely those cable/satellite/telco subscribers paying $70 to $100 and more should do some better math. Adding in more Netflix actually means a total entertainment monthly rise of perhaps 6% to 9%. Not bad. You should see my annual increases for my monthly medical premiums. It comes down to priorities. I can't live without HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" or my financial services/information iPad apps. Movies from a generation ago? Hmm... maybe I'll wait for the cheaper 50th anniversary deal.
The most interesting television news of Premiere Week 2011 is the comparative underperformance of "The X Factor," which Fox and series creator Simon Cowell figured was going to be the ratings behemoth of the fall season. While 12-plus million viewers for its Wednesday opener are nothing to sneeze at, being beaten by a double dose of a three-year-old sitcom and a seven-year-old procedural crime drama during the second half of a two-hour series premiere of what was supposed to be the mother of all big-budget competition series has got to hurt. (ABC's "Modern Family" and CBS' "Criminal Minds" each attracted more than 14 million viewers.) Fox can certainly take some comfort in its other big (and much better) news of the week: An audience of 10-plus million for the sweet and spunky new sitcom "New Girl." Apparently even executives at the network didn't think it would do that well. This is puzzling. Like many other critics, I have said since last June that "New Girl" is the best new series of the fall. There is nothing not to love about this well-written, perfectly cast gem. Its impressive arrival as Fox's highest-rated fall sitcom debut in ten years should surprise no one. "The X Factor"'s relatively modest premiere should come as no surprise, either. It seems to me that the broadcast networks are under the impression that the audience appetite for singing competition series is insatiable. The half-dead season premiere for NBC's inexplicably extended "The Sing-Off" and the apparent vulnerability of "The X Factor" to its time period competitors may indicate that viewers are willing to devote only so much time each year to watching amateurs sing (or otherwise perform) like their lives depended on it. I did, however, think that the cheerfully odd chemistry between Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul and the age range of the contestants (anyone age 12 and up can perform solo, in duets or in groups) might make "X Factor" a force to contend with right from the start. That said, I never expected the premiere to play as flat as it did. There was very little about it that felt fresh or new, except for the excitement of watching a handful of truly talented singers perform in front of thousands of people during their auditions. In those moments, "X Factor" was thrilling to watch. (Stacey Francis' tremulous yet titanic rendition of "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" will be remembered as one of the great television moments of 2011. So might trash collector and newly recovering drug addict Chris Rene's moving performance of his own original song, "Young Homie.".) My biggest problem with "X Factor" was that after watching a few of those genuinely gifted unknowns perform so fantastically well, I had no patience with the auditions by the terrible singers, a component of audition shows that Cowell must still consider titillating. They work just fine during the "American Idol" audition shows because they take place in small rooms with only the judges watching, and the sometimes-outrageous give-and-take is a guilty pleasure of sorts. But the freaks, failures and just plain deluded folks that are happy to humiliate themselves in front of a national audience were a dreadful spectacle on "X Factor." The show is too big and expensive-looking for such stuff. Call them "Factor" Filler; every time one of them took to the stage I thought they were wasting my time and everyone else's. Further, I was right there with the profoundly offended Paula Abdul when a particularly noxious fool named Gio got on stage, croaked out a wretched original song and then dropped his pants and began waving his wiener for all to see. Why would Fox include such a thing on a show that is intended for family viewing, and why would Cowell and his fellow producers allow someone to do that during a talent show that included minors? Were any 12- or 13-year-olds nearby at the time? "That was offensive, disgusting, distasteful and upsetting," Abdul cried. "Get him out of the building!" As she dashed off to a nearby men's room to vomit, I tried to figure out how Gio got into the building in the first place, and why Fox chose to glorify his behavior, and why the network also saw fit to feature the sound of Abdul barfing behind a closed door. (Maybe they were hoping for extra coverage on E!'s "The Soup"!) The Gio incident made clear that "The X Factor" isn't necessarily the big shiny class act that we have been led to believe. I wonder how the show's mega-sponsor, Pepsi, feels about all this. It won't surprise me if people this week think of Gio's awful penis and Paula's terrible tummy trouble whenever they see the Pepsi logo. I'm glad I'm a Coke drinker. So much about this show is so good -- especially the formidable contributions of music mogul L.A. Reid, the most intriguing new television personality of the fall -- that I think it unwise of Cowell and Co. to soil it with so much garbage. Shouldn't Simon be past that by now?
R.E.M. is breaking up the act, according to a press announcement. So I'll wait for the 41st anniversary of the band getting back together. (What -- they mean it? They are never going to play again together? Naw.) I'm sure it will be televised on the new Google TV-music holographic service that will hit my iPad 14 by then. Everything comes back. The Who said they were going to retire. They came back. The Police broke up. They came back -- for a concert tour anyway. Are these just entertainment marketing tricks? I hope so. I hear Elvis is coming back. (You see, in TV land nothing is never really dead. I see "Charlie's Angels" is around. I saw "Knight Rider" a couple of years ago. HBO's "Entourage" is already talking movie.) Entertainment revivals are nothing new. As a younger man, I use to think about artistic integrity. But that's crap. It's about just more work -- good, bad, or indifferent. Why shouldn't good stuff try and come back, even if it is a failure or lame? Remembering things are they were? That's not reality. Entertainment returners really want stuff to work it out. It is not always about the money. This week Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul came back with "X-Factor," posting an un-"American Idol"-like 4.4 rating among 18-49 viewers and some 12.5 million viewers overall. Cowell believed the show should be getting 20 million viewers. So Cowell under-delivered to the public by some 30%. Advertisers? That audience under-delivery wasn't as bad -- maybe 10%. The key isn't always "winning." It's about surviving in the entertainment cracks. Take a look at Netflix. Those Blockbuster executives who are left, now a part of Dish Network, must be smirking over how Netflix has been twisting in the wind over the last few weeks. And Blockbuster is looking for -- yes, a return -- possibly with a competing streaming entertainment service to Netflix. Try, try, again. Succeed, fail, and/or offer up mediocre business performance. We want the drama, and most of all, the volatility. These are the good-and-bad entertainment moments, especially when I might be losing my entertainment religion.
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 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. It's not just the buying and selling of time and eyeballs that makes a marketplace. Metrics must be used to measure the quality and quantity of the audiences. For the last two weeks, we provided some of the terms that were common to both the current ad sales marketplace and to the STB and Addressable Advertising arena. (Set-Top-Box Lexicon: Common Commercial Terms) This column explores some of the common audience measurement terms that can be used by all these platforms focusing on "Averages" and "Proportions": Average Audience RatingSee also: Rating CIMM DEFINITION : The amount of viewing (expressed as a percent) on average, to a program, network, channel, ad, version or time period out of the universe or full population. Can be parsed to the lowest viewing increment whether second, 5 second, minute etc. 2 : One of several different kinds of ratings used by Nielsen media research company. It reflects the average size of the audience on a minute-by-minute basis (average size at minute 1, minute 2, minute 3, and so on) throughout the length of a program. (Source: Answers.com) NOTE - Weighting on averages: averages can be time-weighted or taken as a simple mean. (Source: TiVo) Average Audience (in thousands)See also: Rating CIMM DEFINITION : The amount of viewing (expressed in thousands) on average, to a program, network, channel, ad, version or time period out of the universe or full population. Can be parsed to the lowest viewing increment whether second, 5 second, minute etc. 2 : The average minute or second audience watching a channel, program or spot. (Source: Kantar Media Audiences) NOTE - What is the accepted universe for certain viewer segments when Set-Top Box data is delivered by individual operators with specific regional footprints? Average Program AudienceSee also: Rating CIMM DEFINITION : The average delivery (expressed in thousands) of Set-Top Boxes or households out of the sample, footprint, census or universe that is attributed to a video, program, time period or daypart. 2 : The average number of units or households attributed to a program. (Source: Kantar Media Audiences) VPVH abbr Viewers Per Thousand Viewing HouseholdsSee also: Proportion of Individuals Viewing CIMM DEFINITION : The proportion that a specific audience watches of a channel, network, time period or any video content out of an average thousand homes. 2 : Proportion of individuals viewing within homes where the set is turned on. (Source: Kantar Media Audiences) Please refer to the CIMM Lexicon online at http://www.cimm-us.org/lexicon.htm for additional information on these and other terms.
Look closer at social media numbers and TV ratings. Can you draw any conclusions? Exclusions? Fox spent much on marketing and public relations efforts for such new shows as "The X Factor" and "New Girl." Returning shows typically don't need as much. But perhaps "Glee" should have had a bit more. Looking at social media data from Trendrr.TV, a service that surveys shows' social media activity, "Glee" had more than 338,000 individual bits of social activity the day before its season premiere, the highest for any show -- and more than three times that of second-place "Dancing with the Stars." Trendrr.TV also said "Glee" had 72% "positive sentiment" in its social media results. Seems "Glee" could have used a bit more -- at least according to preliminary Nielsen numbers. The show was down a whopping 30% from its season premiere a year ago --to a 4.0 rating/11 share among 18-49ers. Programming and scheduling executives typically plan for viewership slips of some 8% to 10% year to year. But the "Glee" ratings seemed to open more than a few eyes, especially since it ended up not even being the most viewed show of the night! That honor went to the show following on Fox's schedule, "New Girl," with a stellar 4.8 rating/12 share. Did viewers' fickleness cause "Glee's" ratings drop? Or was it the news of departing cast members and storyline changes? Stuff happens in television, most times out of the blue, that you can't explain. Last year around this time Fox took a big hit when its highly touted drama "Lone Star" just didn't "open" -- at all. "Glee" isn't in this category, with a still very strong 4.0 rating among 18-49 viewers and better results among younger viewers. But its lower premiere ratings show that viewers' tastes can be slippery, even with the new-fangled barometer that everyone wants to ogle: social media. "New Girl" grabbed a lot of social media interest -- in third place among all network shows, according to Trendrr.tv . But it had just 65,000 bits of activity, lower than "Glee"'s (although it had 89% positive sentiment). Another big Tuesday show, CBS' "NCIS," came in fourth place with 37,000 bits of interest, 81% positive. It received a more predictable 4.3 rating/12 share, up 5% from a year ago. Still, not all social media data is the same. Banyan Branch, a social media agency, said shows such as "Glee," "The Playboy Club" and "Charlie's Angels" generated almost "no" recent online excitement. Television shows aren't the only medium that can be fleeting. Social media about the shows might be, as well.
Remember the 1980s meme about how hard it is to program a VCR? I never really understood that. Setting Thundercats to record when I wasn't going to be home always seemed like a fairly straightforward proposition -- start time, end time, channel, done. But so insidious was this apparent difficulty that a system was developed to abstract out the whole "start, end, channel" business: a "Plus Code" was assigned to each show and published in programming guides. One simply entered the corresponding code into his VCR and boom, done. All that work, just so that consumers could watch what they wanted, when they wanted to. More than two decades later, people still grapple with the same core problem -- is the content I want to watch available? Is it free? How long do I have to wait after it airs on broadcast to watch it online? Right now, the best place to watch content, ranging from UGC to super-premium broadcast shows, is on a computer or mobile device, both of which have well-established monetization models. Video on the web continues to scale at an amazing pace and mobile video is growing strong. But what about on-demand television content? The battle for the living room is still in its earliest stages. Advertisers have begun to express interest in IPTV (aka connected TV) content, but such inventory just isn't available at scale yet. It will probably continue to be a niche offering until we see: • A winning device. Best-case scenario here is for a ubiquitous smartphone or tablet to extend itself into a connected TV device. Several Android phones will plug in to a TV today, and many will stream media to a TV using the DLNA standard. Consumers can use a device they're already familiar with, and which already has a thriving ad ecosystem. • Free content, lots of it, and without offline subscription requirements. What's currently missing is a vast library of premium content that is wholly ad-supported and that doesn't require subscription to the corresponding cable TV service. Lots of content is available today on a pay-per-view basis, and even more is available with a paid subscription, but options for super-premium, ad-supported content on connected TVs are limited. • MSOs open their ecosystems to inventory aggregators. Cable and telco operators own the living room today, and they would benefit from outsourcing their unsold ad spots to networks and exchanges that are expert at monetizing content ranging from niche to broadcast. The efficiencies this would likely create could enable operators to tap into a new revenue stream and even freeze rate increases (or shift some of that spend to their faster broadband options). This would reduce the risk of cable customers "cutting the cord" -- while maybe not a large-scale problem yet, consumers' appetite for a la carte content has persisted since the earliest days of the medium. As an industry, we want to help marketers reach consumers across each of the screens in their home through a single, integrated buy. In order to get there, it will take changes to hardware, monetization models and content windowing. These changes will lead to more diversity, accountability and creativity in video advertising.