LIN TV’s chief said Wednesday that M&A in the local station business is likely to increase with “non-traditional” owners as potential sellers. Recently, Sinclair announced a deal to acquire seven stations from private-equity firm Cerberus, while Newport Television, which is owned partly by Providence Equity, has an impressive portfolio, though it may not be for sale. “The potential for industry consolidation is greater than ever,” CEO Vincent Sadusky told investors. He added it “makes a lot of sense,” since larger groups would have more leverage in negotiations with operators, networks and programmers. He did not specify any plans LIN, which operates 32 stations, may have. Separately, Sadusky said broadcasters have a significant asset with their spectrum, which is coveted by wireless carriers and should continue to be in high demand. “The spectrum that we’ve got is really the filet mignon of video delivery,” he said. Sadusky said the National Association of Broadcasters has done a solid job in lobbying efforts to ensure broadcasters are protected -- since the FCC and Congress could move further toward a voluntary auction of spectrum. That would give some station groups the option to collect cash and cease operations. Maintaining spectrum, however, offers opportunities with multicast channels and mobile distribution. “There’s some more work to be done, but ultimately, I believe for the folks who want to stay in the business -- such as ourselves -- we will continue to be able to do so,” Sadusky said. “Then we’ve got the opportunity to continue to work very hard as an industry to innovate and find incremental compression technologies to be able to utilize less spectrum for our primary channel -- and create new opportunities for the bits outside of our primary service.” The Open Mobile Video Coalition, where Sadusky is the president, has worked to usher in live streaming of broadcast channels to mobile devices. Ticking off a list of potential industry drivers, he cited auto and political advertising and retransmission consent dollars. He said he doesn’t mind sharing retrans money that LIN collects with networks, as long as that leads the networks to invest in developing better programming and acquiring sports rights. Sadusky said digital operations should be a growth driver for LIN going forward, partly as a way to reach people at work, which station groups couldn't do in years past. Also, LIN is moving to launch sites not affiliated with stations, such as a partnership resulting in a site in Austin, Texas, focusing on local culture. “We think that there’s a terrific opportunity to continue to capture local ad dollars from radio, the yellow pages and print,” he said.
Ziplist has become a popular tool for grocery shopping and organizing recipes online and on mobile phones. Now the system is set to gain additional exposure from celebrity chef Ming Tsai, who has added Ziplist as a high-tech ingredient for the 10th season of his PBS cooking show “Simply Ming.” A message that pops up on the TV screen during airing allows viewers to text to “Recipe” (732473) to save featured recipes to their own recipe box. Users can also choose to add a recipe’s ingredients to a Ming-branded grocery list they can bring to the store via mobile instead of needing to print it out. The Ziplist system automatically categorizes the items by product type to make shopping easier via mobile in stores. The goal is to save viewers the trouble of having to write down recipes while they watch the show or even having to go to the “Simply Ming” site afterward. “People want everything instantly now…so with this technology they know they can not only get the recipe, they can get the shopping list immediately,” said Tsai. The show’s host said he was sold on the concept after Ziplist founder and CEO Geoff Allen walked him through a demonstration earlier this year. Allen said Ziplist plans to add the text-to-recipe feature to a show hosted by another celebrity chef on another network, with more similar deals in the works. Given that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is already an online partner and minority investor in Ziplist, a mobile tie-in with her TV show would not be surprising, either. The difference with shows on networks other than PBS will be the ability to integrate advertising into the feature. Brands will have the opportunity to place ads in the text-message response, the text landing page, and a click-through ad on the recipe detail page. In addition to TV chefs, the company is also testing the technology next month in a national ad campaign for a CPG brand in connection with holiday cooking. Ziplist essentially allows users to register online to create shopping lists from its database of 275,000 items and store personal recipes, collect them from around the Web, or search a catalog of recipes from its partner sites. People can also share recipes via social tools like Facebook and Twitter as well as email. They can add and remove items via the Web, text message, email or instant message, and sync up lists to most regular phones and smartphones via Ziplist’s smartphone apps for the iPhone and Android devices for in-shore shopping. The app also includes a barcode scanner to scan items at home to add to a grocery shopping list. To date, the service has attracted some 500,000 users as it gears up to monetize its growing user base with advertising, coupons and offers targeted to people’s shopping habits. “There’s absolutely no better indicator of purchase intent than knowing exactly what you put on your shopping list,” said Allen. “You never put anything on your shopping list that you don’t intend to buy.” Right now, Allen said he is focused on expanding Ziplist’s network of 40 partner sites and counting, which includes publishers like Martha Stewart, Woman’s Day and The Daily Meal along with 1,800 food-related blogs. Ziplist technology powers recipe boxes and shopping lists on these sites and provides a single login for that information across the network. Ziplist has ad revenue sharing agreements with outside sites, promising that its recipe and shopping services will help drive up page views and interaction, creating more ad inventory. That user data is also shared with partner sites. “We have no doubt of the ability to monetize this with highly personalized promotional coupons and advertising,” said Allen.
Steve Gigliotti, president of ad sales for Scripps Networks, said the company mines trade shows to cement relationships with existing clients and discover new ones. In the lifestyle categories Scripps serves -- food, home and travel -- he said Scripps executives look to boost the roster of “endemic” advertisers by attending events for the construction, kitchen and bath and gourmet food industries, among others. The hitting-the-pavement can take place frequently in Orlando and Las Vegas. “Meeting with our clients, meeting with new clients and planting the seeds and developing new business,” Gigliotti said of the opportunities at the shows. “It is the trademark of our sales organization. Why do we go through all that trouble? We like to create a market of our own, and that helps us insulate ourselves against the ups and downs of the ad business.” Scripps operates Food Network, HGTV and Travel Channel. Ad revenues were up 12% for the first half of the year. Gigliotti spoke at an investor event, where CFO Joe NeCastro said Scripps will take full ownership of the Travel Channel in either 2014 or 2015. Scripps owns 65%, with Cox the balance. It also continues to seek the remaining 31% of the Food Network it doesn’t own, cuurently controlled by the reorganizing Tribune.
When you run a campaign specifically declaring that a new product is “not for women” (however tongue-in-cheek the tone), you’ve got to expect to generate some mixed reaction. Sure enough, the first television spot for Dr Pepper Ten -- Dr Pepper Snapple Group’s (DPS) new 10-calorie line of soda for men who “prefer the full-flavor experience of regular Dr Pepper but want a lower-calorie option without the diet imagery” -- seems, at least initially, to be proving more popular with men than women, judging from Ace Metrix scores from Oct. 12 (one day after the commercial debuted). The TV spot uses a faux action movie scenario to spoof men’s fondness for that genre and macho attitudes in general, with one of the male “action heroes” in the ad directly addressing the “ladies” viewing the commercial. The drift: Like this “movie,” Dr Pepper Ten -- with “only 10 manly calories but all 23 flavors of Dr Pepper” -- is a guy thing. The spot concludes, “So you can keep the romantic comedies and lady drinks, we’re good…Dr Pepper Ten -- It’s not for women.” Overall, the Ace Metrix results show the ad scoring 552 -– 13 points higher than the 539 industry norm for non-alcoholic beverage TV commercials. Among TV spots for eight non-alcoholic beverages airing between Sept. 11 and Oct. 12, the Dr Pepper Ten ad ranked fifth. (The highest-scoring ad was Pepsi’s “Who’s Next?,” featuring clips of its various celebrity spokespeople, at 584; the lowest-scoring was 7Up’s “Cee-Lo Green: Be Yourself,” at 524.) The Ten beverage line, featuring a new blend of sweeteners said to achieve a “like-regular” soda taste, was developed out of research showing that many men --- particularly those between 25 and 34 --- want to make healthier/ lower-calorie beverage choices, but aren’t satisfied with the taste or diet image of most diet sodas. Looking at age demographics, the initial Ace results show the TV ad succeeding with younger males, but drawing the strongest positive reactions from men 36 to 49. The average Ace score for men in that age range was about 10 percentage points higher than the ad’s overall average 552 score. In comparison, the average score among men 21 to 35 was about 5 percentage points higher than 552, while the average score among males 16 to 20 was only barely higher than the ad’s overall average. Meanwhile, the scores among women were indeed lower than the ad’s own 552 average -- but still at or above the category’s norm of 536. The lowest average score, among females age 16 to 20, was about 15 percentage points below 552, the average among women 21 to 35 was about 5 percentage points lower, and the average for women 35 to 49 was just slightly lower. Among the audience as a whole, the ad scored high on “persuasion” elements within the Ace Metrix score (602, versus a category norm of 586), and about average on “watchability” elements (594, versus a category norm of 595). It scored particularly high (672) on the “attention” and “change” (643) components. In short, despite the ample debate on social media (is the ad sexist, or good-humored satire?), the gender-polarization effect might prove less pronounced than some might have predicted. Of course, DPS by no means went into the campaign -- which also incorporates print, online and social media (including a Ten Facebook app supposedly accessible only by men) -- without testing the waters. The “It’s Not for Women” messaging was tested in six markets early this year, across TV, radio, out-of-home and in-store displays. And while DPS hasn’t revealed metrics on reactions from women, it has reported that the campaign’s results “far exceeded expectations,” yielding high consumer awareness and Ten sales that represented nearly 6% of total Dr Pepper sales throughout the test period. The Ten product was tested in packaging similar to its rollout packaging -- a design that reinforces the male-centric theme (gunmetal gray color scheme, faux industrial rivets graphics, and a bold font that plays up “10 BOLD tasting calories” messaging on the bottle).
Higher home television revenue is being driven by new TV-related services and equipment, including DVR units, HDTVs, VOD and other services. J.D. Power and Associates says some of this evidence comes from high average monthly bills of triple-play consumers -- phone, television, and Internet -- which has risen to $149.52 in 2011 from $140.90 a month in 2010. The study says growth of HDTV in homes grew 8%, while DVR penetration of U.S. home is now at 45%, up from 38% in 2010. Also, now 35% of TV homes have multiple DVR units in 2011, up from 28% the year before. Adding to this, video-on-demand viewership is up 39% from 35% -- and that helps consumers retain their cable, satellite and telco services. The report says: "Regular VOD viewing improves loyalty. 39% of viewers who watch 10 or more hours of VOD per month consider themselves loyal to their provider, while the average among non-VOD users is 31%." In its annual study of best providers: AT&T U-verse and DirecTV rank the highest in customer satisfaction among all TV service providers. For a fourth consecutive year, AT&T U-verse ranks highest in the West and South regions of the U.S. For a second consecutive year, AT&T U-verse also ranks highest in the North Central region (699). East Coast consumers place DirecTV on top. The study notes penetration of premium channels in with satellite service homes has declined to 29% in 2011 from 34% in 2010, while penetration in cable homes is up slightly to 30% from 29%.
It seems about time we stopped labeling the mobile device a “third screen.” During the time of day when it may matter most to marketers, both the smartphone and the tablet have become a tandem experience during prime time. According to the latest figures from Nielsen, 40% of smartphone owners and 42% of tablet owner are using their respective devices while watching TV on a daily basis. The figures are even more significant when you figure in frequent use, where another 24% of smartphone owners and 28% of tablet owners say they have this second screen on in front of the TV several times a week. This is not to say that these tandem viewers are synchronizing the two displays. In fact, Nielsen’s figures for what people do on the second screen suggest we use mobile more as a way to stay tapped into our interests unrelated to TV. For instance, 60% of those who are working both platforms at once are checking email during the programs, and 59% are checking email during TV commercials. About 45% are using devices to surf for information that is unrelated to the content they are watching. Again, there seems to be little difference in second screening when programs or commercials are on. That raises an interesting point: What does mobile use during prime time tells us about the level of attention audiences give to the first screen? The notion that viewers are rapt with concentration during prime time seems quaint in an age of multiple screens. For most of the most common second-screen activities, gender does not make much of a difference until social networks are addressed. Then, 47% to 48% of women working both screens go to social media on their devices, compared to only 35% to 36% of men. However, 44% of men check sports scores. Perhaps the most interesting metric among people watching TV and device displays is the relatively low incidence of direct overlap between the content of the two screens. Only 29% of this group is looking up content related to a program, and even fewer (19%) are looking up products they see in ads. Clearly, the opportunity/challenge for marketers attached to the TV medium is working to synchronize or create greater continuity across these screens. At the October 25 OMMA Mobile show in San Francisco, a panel specifically on “Getting in Sync With Second Screening: Audiences Create Their Own Interactive TV” will convene at 4:30. Executives from CBS Mobile, BET, Yahoo’s IntoNow, GetGlue and R/GA will be exploring the possibilities for mobile working as “an interactive sidecar” to prime time.
Ted Koppel, who spent years hosting “Nightline” on ABC, will be back on broadcast TV later this month. The well-respected interviewer will join the upcoming NBC prime-time newsmagazine fronted by Brian Williams as a special correspondent. “Rock Center With Brian Williams” will air Mondays at 10 p.m. starting Oct. 31. Steve Capus, president of NBC News, stated that Koppel “has touched every major news event spanning nearly five decades. Not only does he bring a tremendous amount of experience to the broadcast, he is a tireless advocate for quality journalism, and is one of our profession’s premiere storytellers.” There was no word whether Koppel, who spent 42 years at ABC News, would have any further relationship with NBC News. He left ABC in late 2005 and took a post with Discovery Channel; recently, he has been a contributor on NPR. NBC described the hour-long “Rock Center” as “built around the week’s most provocative events, compelling coverage, and newsmaker interviews.”
Most consumers use video apps via their Internet-connected televisions anywhere from two to five hours a week. According to a new study from the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing and The Nielsen Company, 54% of all users of video apps on Internet-connected TVs are using those sites for longer periods than on other devices. This is in contrast to the 75% of consumers who use video apps on their mobile devices anywhere from a total of 30 minutes to two hours a week. But that video watching on mobile devices isn't necessarily in use on the road, at work, or places away from home. Some of this has to do with users connecting their tablets to TVs. “Regardless of mobile device, roughly 75% of video app users are most commonly accessing video apps while in the home,” said Char Beales, president/chief executive officer of CTAM. Still, it is not surprising that overall, mobile devices such as smartphones and iPod Touches account for higher video app viewing levels during the daytime. During evening hours -- prime time, 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. -- users turn to the larger screens of in-home devices such as gaming consoles, Internet-connected video devices and TVs and tablets for video app viewing.
It’s no secret that Millennials are watching streaming video online, whether via YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Facebook, or any number of other sites (legal and illegal). And some are streaming online video via a box connected to their TV, like Roku, Boxee, and even some video game consoles. This generation is tech-savvy and poised to revolutionize the TV industry, particularly cable, just as it did the music industry. Before I go any further, I should mention that I’m a cord cutter. I got tired of paying a massive cable bill every month and decided to see how I’d handle going without. I still get a few broadcast channels, but I’ve been without cable for more than two years (though I kept my cable Internet service), and I’ve barely even noticed a difference from when I used to have cable TV. Some students and graduates are deciding the same is true for them. They’ve grown up streaming video, for example, watching online when their parents had commandeered the TV or when they couldn’t find anything they wanted to watch. They’re comfortable with the concept, which has the potential to be devastating to the traditional TV industry. As students strike out on their own and no longer have mom and dad paying their bills, they realize how expensive cable is. And they think about cutting the cord, or downgrading to basic service. According to a recent Ypulse report, only 28% of students say they can’t live without TV (referring to traditional viewing), compared to 83% who can’t imagine life without music. Some students even prefer streaming video to traditional TV viewing; after all, it gives them what they want when they want it. What’s a TV company to do? Not what the music industry did. Fighting the digital revolution didn’t go well in that case, and neither would it with TV. A case in point, Fox recently decided to delay the availability of shows on Hulu, making users wait eight days (instead of just a day) to stream shows. The result was a huge spike in people finding the shows via pirate websites. The biggest challenge the traditional TV industry is facing is the number of quality alternatives. YouTube is making deals to get professionally produced content for its streaming service. There are rumors Netflix is bringing back “Arrested Development” and “Reno 911!” Microsoft’s Xbox Live service has upped its offering to nearly 40 channels of streaming content, including HBO, Sony’s Crackle, Disney, Verizon, and more. Yet, the fate of the traditional TV industry is far from decided. Hulu is up for sale. Netflix is still finding its place with different audiences, splitting its streaming and DVD delivery services, and now pulling them back into one. And students are still making up their minds if they can do without TV or not. What is certain is that streaming is not going away and, as online services continue to bolster their offerings, traditional TV is going to have to find a way to compete. Time Warner Cable created an iPad app allowing subscribers to get mobile video on the device. It’s a step in the right direction, but misses the mark in that students still think a cable subscription is too expensive. Similarly, Comcast is partnering with Xbox Live, but again the service is only for cable subscribers. Millennials want an à la carte option to get the shows they want, without paying extra for channels they don’t use. Broadcast TV’s argument against streaming is that it clips their revenue from advertising (they can’t charge as much for online ads), so they are attempting to force audiences to watch on their terms, when the show is aired live. But when that doesn’t fit in Millennials’ busy schedules, it’s just not going to happen. Both the TV and advertising industries need to get on board with streaming, or they both risk losing the Millennial audience.
With the dust only just beginning to settle from Netflix’s recent mad, back-and-forth scramble of changes to its business model, it’s a good time to ask where the entertainment service might end up in the long run. Here are three possible “end games” (if there is such a thing as an end game in the dynamic world of media): 1) Netflix becomes a major producer of premium content and distributor of other producers’ premium content (like HBO/Showtime).