Raycom Media, the station group with a college sports syndication operation, is going into business with Michael Yudin, a producer who launched Carat’s branded entertainment group in 2005. The arrangement comes as Raycom takes a 50% interest in My Tupelo Entertainment, as part of its acquisition of Tupelo-Honey Productions. Two years ago, Yudin and Cary Glotzer formed My Tupelo, which produces Spike’s “Pros vs. Joes” and Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures.” In his producing and Carat roles, Yudin has sought to integrate brands into content. The broader Tupelo-Honey, which is led by Glotzer, has multiplatform sports experience and recently produced an online series about NBA rookie Jimmer Fredette. It also has produced the Arena Football League for the NFL Network and had a hand in “David Beckham’s Soccer USA,” about his first year in the MLS. Raycom said it will now produce about 300 shows in 2012, including ones for ESPN, NBC Sports Network and Yes. It has a longstanding relationship with syndicating ACC sports. Raycom is looking to “develop more original programming” for its stations, stated Pat LaPlatney, vice president of business development for the company. It operates 48 stations in 36 markets, including the CBS station in Cleveland.
Fox's "American Idol" starts up its 11th season as TV's still-biggest show -- although down substantially from a year ago. The day after its season debut, the network announced that for the first time, the show would now be available on a video-on-demand time-shifted basis. A number of cable, satellite, and telco operators will be offering each of the show's audition, performance and results on their video on demand services three days after each "Idol" airing on Fox. This includes Armstrong Cable, AT&T's U-verse, Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems Corp, Cox Communications, Mediacom, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS and Xfinity TV. For its 11th season debut, "Idol" was down 24% to a 7.4 rating/19 share among 18-49 viewers, and 21.9 million overall viewers, according to Nielsen preliminary results. A year ago, at the start of its 10th season, "Idol" was at a 9.8 rating and 26.3 million viewers. Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment for Fox Broadcasting, said at the recent Television Critics Association meeting he expected a drop in "Idol" numbers this season. A year ago, "Idol" was down 4% for its regular schedule Wednesday performance shows to a 8.0 18-49 rating versus 2009. Thursday result shows were down a bit more, 10% to a 6.9 rating. Still, "Idol" gave Fox an easy win on Wednesday night. ABC was well behind in second place, with a 3.0/5 average 18-49 rating on the night. Its best results came with its still high-flying "Modern Family," which dipped a bit to a 5.0/12 at 9 p.m. down from a 5.1 the week before. In the wake of the expected big "Idol" opening, CBS took a back seat with a repeat of its sturdy high-rated drama "NCIS" at 8 p.m. The network's best offering came from "Criminal Minds," which took in a 3.2/8 down from a 3.4 rating for its last original episode in December. For the night, CBS posted a 2.5/6. NBC was well off the pace of the other networks -- a 1.5/4 for its Wednesday night average. Its two new comedies this year, starting at 8 p.m -- "Whitney" and "Are You There, Chelsea" -- suffered 20% of more declines against "Idol," getting a 1.6/5 and a 1.8/4, respectively. CW also lost ground in the 8 p.m. hour from "Idol." "One Tree Hill" dropped over 20% to a 0.7/2 from its season debut numbers a week ago. A reality show repeat of "Remodeled" took in about half of "Tree" results, at 0.3/1.
Lackluster 3DTV sales may be getting an unexpected lift. That's thanks to expected growth of Internet-connected TV shipments, according to U.K.-based Futuresource Consulting. The company forecasts such TVs will comprise 80% of all worldwide TV shipments in three years. Right now, connected TVs shipments are at 27% of all TVs shipped globally. When it comes to 3DTVs, shipments of 16 million units are estimated for 2011, growing to represent 50% of the market in 2015. But there might be an asterisk here. Futuresource says: "One of the key reasons behind the growth of 3DTVs is that consumers are purchasing the 3D function by default when looking to upgrade to higher-end models." The firm notes the public is "unaware of the in-built 3D capability at the time of purchase." Right now, Net-connected TVs have the biggest share of the market in Japan, where they represent 59% of all TV shipments last year. Looking at other big markets -- USA and China -- both are getting 29% share of Internet-connected television sets. Europe receives a 24% share. Even more technology could be coming for TV viewers. Some TV critics say OLED technology provides even better quality TV than current HDTV sets. At present, that technology is mostly available in smartphones and is gradually moving to traditional TV sets -- but the price tag is much higher than HDTVs.
eMarketer Thursday released an updated ad forecast predicting that online would surpass print ad spending this year. "U.S. online advertising spending, which grew 23% to $32.03 billion in 2011, is expected to grow an additional 23.3% to $39.50 billion this year, pushing it ahead of total spending on print newspapers and magazines," the research aggregator and analyst projects in its updated forecast, which projects that ad spending is expected to fall to $33.80 billion in 2012, from $36.00 billion in 2011. "Despite concerns about the troubled economy among agencies and marketers, total ad spending in the U.S. is expected to rebound in 2012 after rising 3.4% to $158.90 billion in 2011," the report also predicts -- noting that total U.S. media ad spending will grow an estimated 6.7% to $169.48 in 2012, boosted by the national elections and summer Olympics in London. While quadrennial-boosted TV ad budgets will rise 6.8% to $64.80 billion this year, eMarketer projects that "digital remains the sole bright spot" for print-based newspaper and magazine publishers. eMarketer estimates U.S. digital newspaper ad revenues grew 8.3% to $3.30 billion in 2011. Print advertising revenues at newspapers fell 9.3% to $20.70 billion in 2011. At magazines, U.S. print ad revenues are expected to rise 0.5% to $15.34 billion in 2012, up from $15.30 billion last year. U.S. digital advertising spending at magazines grew 18.8% to $2.70 billion in 2011.
WealthTV, which offers programming targeting an upscale audience, said it has launched a 3D version. WealthTV said 3D programming will offer a travel theme with a look at the ruins in Machu Picchu and Louvre museum treasures. The network is in about 12 million homes. Its 3D feed is available to some homes that are part of the National Cable Television Cooperative, a group that represents small cable operators. Roku boxes can also deliver the network to 3D- compatible sets. It began offering 3D programming on an on-demand basis in 2010. Network Vice President Cameron Westfall, who heads ad sales, stated that 3D “allows you to go places without having to spend a dime. It's the ultimate staycation channel." The network, which carries the tagline “wealth -- an abundance of good” -- said it was at the early edge of the HD movement, offering all programming in HD in 2004. Late last year, the network deviated from its typical fare to carry several fights organized by boxing promoter Don King and plans to offer matches in the third- dimension format moving ahead. AT&T, Verizon and Knology offer the network. As it looks to gain distribution, the network carries its feed online for 99 cents a month. WealthTV offered opposition as the government reviewed whether to greenlight the Comcast- NBCUniversal deal, suggesting the new entity might squeeze out independent networks.
More new advertisers will offer commercials in the upcoming Super Bowl than in recent memory -- probably the most since the Super Bowl in 2000, when 19 new dot-com advertisers spent lavishly, only to mostly disappear soon afterward. What does this say? Lessons are hard to learn? Traditional TV is far from dead? If anything, it means media buying and planning professionals will gain lots of knowledge -- both good and bad -- and fast. Those new Super Bowl advertisers these days aren't new companies for the most part. They include two luxury car brands, Acura and Lexus; real estate company Century 21; yogurt-maker Dannon; apparel retail chain H&M; and 2nd Story Software, the maker of TaxACT tax-preparation software. They will join the usual recent Super Bowl suspects: Anheuser-Busch, Audi, Bridgestone, CareerBuilder, Cars.com, Chrysler, E*Trade, General Motors, GoDaddy.com, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mars, PepsiCo, Toyota and Volkswagen. There are also at least four major movie studios -- typical Super Bowl marketers -- that will spend commercial time on assorted upcoming movies. A new wrinkle is streaming live video of the game on the Internet. Over the last few years, the game has posted record results or around 100 million U.S. TV viewers. That's about a third of all U.S. citizens. How many will stream? Maybe a million, maybe 5 million. Few analysts have good estimates. The NFL conceded to streaming the game perhaps because of its consistently high ratings; streaming probably won't erode those numbers. To be sure, advertisers paying $3.5 million for a 30-second commercial (or in one case $4 million, according to one report) will surely get their money's worth. What is the extra cost for streaming ads? According to some media- buying sources it comes to a small surcharge, perhaps around "six-figures" or so. In the past, advertisers like Cash 4 Gold, Groupon and Just for Feet tried their hand in the big game with perhaps mixed results. New marketers -- big and small -- are always looking to experiment, to test the waters. Hyundai Motors America showed why it works. The South Korea-based car company had success over the past few years raising its game to that of those other big foreign automakers. Hyundai has run commercials in the big game for the last five years. "The report cards are instantaneous," Steve Shannon, vp of marketing for Hyundai, told The New York Times. "It makes you be sharp.” Hopefully, for most, that sharpness won't draw blood.
Is Andy Cohen the smartest man working in television? You may not think so, but it’s hard to argue otherwise. How many other television executives can you name who host their own nightly talk show on the network that employs them -- a show on which they unapologetically promote their work, their product, and, by extension, their own careers? Cohen, the chatty and cheeky executive vice president of development and talent for Bravo, has hosted the live late-night talk show “Watch What Happens: Live” since 2009, but it had never been considered an official competitor in the late-night talk arena because it had only been telecast once or twice a twice a week, generally on Sundays and Mondays (at 11 p.m. ET). But last week Cohen further formalized the franchise, expanding “WWHL” to five nights a week (Sunday-Thursday). “WWHL” now officially enjoys the distinction of being the only live late-night talk show on television. There is always something special about live television, regardless of its daypart. (Just think about how the life goes right out of “The View” and “Live with Kelly” when they pre-tape shows.) Certainly, being live is crucial to the success of home-shopping channels, whose perky and polished hosts gamely move merchandise while providing companionship for viewers, especially late at night. The possibility of live interaction, primarily in the form of phone calls to hosts, is an added attraction. Live television doesn’t always work as well as it should -- consider OWN’s “The Rosie Show,” which feels oddly subdued much of the time. But when it’s done right, it rocks, G4’s nightly “Attack of the Show” being the best example. I can’t remember a time, dating all the way back to the glory days of radio, when people did not enjoy listening to other people talk in a live format, especially if that format invites audience interaction. This is particularly true at night. So it has always surprised me that basic cable has largely stayed away from live programming, except for news channels (which aren’t always as live as they would have people believe) and home-shopping networks. I have always wondered why MTV wasn’t live in late prime time or late night when live programming would seem to be a magnet for its target audience. (Are you listening, Ryan Seacrest and Mark Cuban? I can think of no better way to instantly separate AXS TV from the pack.) Similarly, I have always said that Syfy should be a live network on Saturday nights, encouraging the kind of audience interaction for its cheese-tastic monster movies that Cohen generates for the desperate housewives and harried chefs on his network. Cohen is proving that it can be done in a modest but effective way within a reasonable budget. (I assume the budget for “WWHL” is reasonable, as I don’t think Bravo would go with it if it weren’t cost-effective.) It would seem that the promotional value for other shows on the network alone would be worth the expense. Of course, “WWHL” isn’t just a live television show. It’s a one-man multi- and social-media bonanza. Cohen gamely encourages his viewers to email, post to the show’s Facebook wall, tweet and call him during each telecast. (“We have one operator standing by,” he likes to joke.) He welcomes texts and sometimes reads them on air, especially when they come from celebrities. Further, he serves up polls that often relate in some way to one of his guests and asks viewers to participate via text. Guests on “WWHL” are still primarily Bravolebrities, or they are famous people who love Bravo shows, like Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos, Jimmy Fallon and Anderson Cooper (all of whom happen to excel at live television). Expect more celebrities of all stripes to appear with even greater frequency now that “WWHL” is an official daily buzz-building talk program. It’s certainly a friendly outlet for those who have something to promote and want to have fun doing it; cocktails are served to guests as well as the show’s small studio audience during each show. In another smart touch, Cohen interviews his guests on a very small set that is known as the Clubhouse. More of a nest than a typical talk show set, the Clubhouse looks like a cluttered den or office. (It is supposedly inspired by a room in Cohen’s home.) It’s filled with all sorts of neat things, some of them Cohen’s own personal treasures (like the very visible set of Childcraft Encyclopedias, which Cohen has said were kept in his basement when he was a kid). The atmosphere this creates for the viewer is one of genial, real- time intimacy, the likes of which can be particularly welcoming for anyone who is watching television at 11 p.m., particularly if they are doing so alone.
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 this column, which offers a common language for Set-Top-Box nomenclature that can expedite the rollout of the data for its many industry applications. While viewer exposure to a commercial is vital to an advertiser, the recognition, remembrance and resonance of the message is arguably even more important. Here are terms associated with viewer retention and ad retention measurement. Commercial RetentionSee also: Retention CIMM DEFINITION : The ability of a commercial to hold on to its tuned audience through the length of the commercial. 2 : The ability to recall the commercial after it is viewed for some amount of time after the fact. NOTE – Kantar Media Audiences devised a seconds-based metric, Tuneaway, to capture the percent of seconds lost due to channel changing from the audience present the second prior to the commercial start time. RetentionSee also: Commercial Viewing Index CIMM DEFINITION : The ability to capture and hold on to the attention and / or retain a message in the memory of a viewer or consumer. 2 : Ratio of ad rating in program to total program rating Ad Retention IndexSee Also: Commercial Viewership Index CIMM DEFINITION : The ratio of commercial viewing average audience to total program viewing average audience. (Source: Rentrak NOTE - This is not recommended as a general industry term because this ratio is reflective of not just pure ad retention but also the program audience trend from beginning to end may be increasing or decreasing as at the beginning or end of prime time. TRA for that reason calls this the Commercial Rating index (CRI) – the index to the average program rating – which is what is clearly is. Ad retention should be measured against the base of homes that start the commercial. (Source: TRA) Please refer to the CIMM Lexicon online at http://www.cimm-us.org/lexicon.htm for additional information on these and other terms.
There was a lot of time to multitask during last Sunday’s Golden Globes. Ricky Gervais was tepid at best, and generally unfunny at worst. The winners often seemed unaffected by the award themselves. More than a few acceptance speeches felt almost condescending. Spielberg looked as if he was going to toss the thing to an assistant as if to say, here, you can have this one. Meryl Streep’s tiresome mock and fluttery surprise at winning (as if she is going to succumb to the “vapors”) reminds us that even the “best actress of her generation” can be the worst, too. And there was no apparent drunkenness. Unless a celebrity is embarrassing him or herself, or Gervais is doing it for them, I hardly see the point of this show. It was a good time to warm up the iPad and see what was on that screen. Among the many third-party second-screen apps vying for iPad attention, Yahoo’s recently acquired IntoNow seems to be thinking hardest about what a tandem screen experience might be. In the case of the Golden Globes, I was surprised to see that one of the on-air advertisers, Kraft’s Velveeta brand, was echoed on the app in both a display ad and a series of sponsored polls. This kind of synchronous advertising across mobile and TV is precisely where second- screen models want to move, so I checked in with IntoNow CEO and founder Adam Cahan to discover that the campaign was as much about cross-platform integration with his new parent company Yahoo as was with TV. The deal with Kraft was direct to Yahoo and not tied in with the TV buy, although obviously someone at Kraft knew what they were doing. The IntoNow execution was part of a broader Kraft campaign that reached across many of the entertainment properties like OMG! The online space promoted the brand and also heightened awareness of the IntoNow second screen experience. “This was the first time we did synchronized polling,” says Cahan. There were a dozen “Velveeta Cheesy Skillet” polls throughout the show, most pertaining to celebrities and nominated films, responses to red carpet fashion, etc. The big surprise was the level of engagement. Cahan tells me “27% of the audience in the app participated in the poll.” It was a part of a general engagement strategy that also paid off in peer-to-peer banter that saw over 180 different discussion threads going on in the app during the show. This is the second milestone moment for IntoNow and its experiments in cross-platform programming. In a recent ABCNews Republican Party Primary debate, questions from IntoNow actually were integrated into the exchanges between moderator George Stephanopoulos and the candidates. Candidates were responding to polls that IntoNow was conducting in the app, Cahan says. The introduction of the iPad version of IntoNow in November has given the group much more real estate with which to play. Its recent upgrades now have genres and show-specific enhancements. For news programming, the app scans the closed captioning in the on-air news and then surveys the social networks to surface articles that people are buzzing about related to the current topic. In football, the app provides a play by play. And in popular shows like "Family Guy," the app pulls in the Twitter feeds of all the cast and crew. Cahan says we are at a fascinating point where the tablet challenges second-screen programmers to think differently about their users' behavior in the living room. “We are talking about ‘ambient information,’” he says. “What I mean by that is, how to take a very limited set of user inputs and surface increasing amounts of information for them without having to require a lot of user input.” We are only beginning to appreciate the different between keyboard and text mode at a PC, and the unique mode of tablet browsing during that prime-time zone when Cahan says 40% of tablet use appears to be taking place. He seems to appreciate the problem I had with many of the early second-screen experiences: too much secondary information. The viewer doesn’t want to feel as if she has to tend the app in sync with the main screen. After all, this is still about watching television. “It is less intent-driven [than] a PC," he says. "You are engaging in and out. It is a more passive consumer, offering limited inputs." We will see more rollouts in the first quarter that put into practice some of this insight, he says. The number of Yahoo home page visits coming from tablets has doubled in the last year, and people are staying longer, reading more and watching more video from this device often than they do from a desktop. “We’re tapping into a new behavior, and we’re trying to define that,” he says. From my obviously limited-one time exposure to a brand reaching across both TV and tablet screens, the effect was unique. I didn’t encounter the IntoNow ad synchronously with the on-air exposure, but the app sponsorship sparked my memory of the spot I had seen earlier. I have seen this effect before in earlier sync efforts with the Web. In most cases, the second screen was used to engage interactivity. In this case, the campaign was more about branding and sponsorship. Clicking through on the display ad did not seem to be the point. I was not being prompted to get that Velveeta recipe. But as Adam suggests, the experience on the tablet and the level of intimate engagement is on a wholly different plane from the laptop. How that dual-screen recognition and reinforcement happens over time is anyone’s guess. But imagine a time when second-screen advertising in sync with the first screen is presumed. Imagine a Super Bowl or Oscars where mobile users knew at the outset that the spots they were seeing on air would be echoed in some way, with some opportunity for replay or interaction, on the device. Or that the spots and their brands would be collected in DVR fashion on that tablet? That would be a second screen worth watching.
What's your first thought when you hear about a new "music, pop culture, entertainment lifestyle" network? You’re about to yawn, perhaps? But wait. Take note of the names attached to this new project, called AXS TV (you can pronounce it "Access TV") -- Ryan Seacrest, media and sports billionaire Mark Cuban, live entertainment impresario AEG, and powerful Hollywood agent Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Cuban’s modestly sized traditional cable/satellite network HDNet would be the base for a new bigger network. AEG would provide programming and access to worldwide live entertainment content. CAA’s roster of music clients isn't too shabby. And Seacrest, for the most part, adds his name and connections (he doesn't appear to be part of the on-air talent roster.) Starting or reinventing a cable network is no easy task. Just ask Oprah Winfrey. And starting one that would seemingly compete with the likes of MTV, E! or VH1 adds more complexity. The hunger for music-entertainment content is the major tease here for TV producers, business partners, advertisers -- and, of course, viewers. (For many, MTV pretty much abandoned its music roots a long time ago). Any new music channel would be steered to all-important young viewers -- and that always brings in big business interests. But supporters should remember that this stuff can be fleeting. While MTV has been riding high from the likes of "Jersey Shore" and "Teen Mom," the channel has seen notable ups and downs. That's just the fickle nature of its young viewers. For many cable network programmers, this is viewed as a limit to growth. As it goes forward, AXS TV will have to consider this, as well as the reasons why MTV left some of this content behind. This isn't 1990. You can get lots of music content everywhere, including pre-recorded "live" music, but not actual live concerts -- which seems to be the new channel's interesting niche. MTV's programming has gone through seismic shifts through the years -- all to keep pace with its quickly changing young viewers. In the digital age, this has accelerated tenfold. The question is: Does Seacrest-Cuban-AEG-CAA have the stomach to ride this fast-moving train, as MTV has?