Canoe Ventures, the partnership of major cable companies formed a few years back to make scaled addressable and interactive TV a reality, is redefining its mission and drastically scaling back its operation. The cable company venture is shutting down its New York office and laying off most of the staffers based there -- approximately 120 employees. The venture will move its base to Denver, where it currently has a technical center with a staff of approximately 30 engineers. A Canoe representative said that the moves come after a reassessment by the cable company partners in the joint venture, including Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House. The company rep said the joint venture remains intact, but the partners essentially decided to redefine Canoe as a much smaller engineering-oriented operation. It will focus on video-on-demand advertising initiatives -- a business that the partners believe has more potential than ITV or addressability at present. The company had previously refocused to concentrate efforts and resources on a national interactive TV platform after deciding that addressability was not a viable endeavor, at least in the near term as well, given marketplace feedback. As a result of the restructuring, the Canoe senior leadership team, including CEO Kathy Timko, will be leaving the company. The one exception is Joel Hassell, who has been Canoe’s chief technology officer. He has been named CEO and will be based in Denver with the remaining team of engineers. Hassell issued a statement Wednesday that said, in part, “To make on-demand ad inventory as valuable as traditional broadcast (linear) or online inventory, the industry needs a standard, ubiquitous way to steward and monetize on-demand advertising. Canoe is committed to making this happen. "Our new focus will be on giving programmers the ability to dynamically insert advertising into on-demand TV in a common way nationwide, by expanding our current technical platform and operations to facilitate advertising between many programmers and distributors.” The company rep said that Canoe would gradually phase out its ITV business over the next several months in a bid to be “respectful” of the plans of current clients, including national programmers and advertisers. It’s expected that the New York office will close in approximately 90 days. Canoe was formed by its cable company partners in 2008 to create platforms for national addressable and interactive television distribution. A major challenge for the venture was to devise technology that would enable the largely incompatible and proprietary systems of its partners to "talk" to each other. But within a short time, the venture targeted just ITV and later, VOD services. David Verklin, former CEO of Aegis Americas, was Canoe’s first CEO. He left in the summer of 2011 and was replaced by Timko, who had been Canoe's COO. Before today, there was little indication that Canoe’s partners were busy behind the scenes coming up with a new model. Just last week, Canoe and the National Association of Advertisers released findings from a year-long study of interactive television effectiveness. News of Canoe’s restructuring comes in the wake of a study by Deloitte that concluded that despite all the testing that’s been done in both the ITV and addressability sectors, both businesses may still be ahead of their time. Deloitte concluded that neither would gain much traction in the marketplace for the foreseeable future.
Google will move into traditional TV waters next year after filing for a couple of cable TV franchises in the Midwest last Friday. Google filed state regulatory papers for cable TV licenses for its Google fiber service in Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. Two Sanford C. Bernstein Internet analysts, Carlos Kirjner and Craig Moffett, say this could mean the “broadband-only business model is not economically viable." Google owns the YouTube video platform. Last year, reports said that Google was considering a cable TV service in Kansas City with possible deals with Walt Disney, Time Warner and Discovery Communications. The incumbent cable provider in Kansas City is Time Warner Cable. What is Google's real intent? According to analysts, Council Bluffs, Iowa is home to a large Google data center -- a city within the cable franchise area. Another theory is that this will provide Google with the favored public policy position of Net-neutrality. It could also provide a laboratory for Google to learn about technology and consumer behavior -- the impact of higher-speed access on Internet usage, as well as the potential of different ad formats and models. Google TV Ads already sells TV advertising for a number of cable systems and some small- to mid-size cable TV networks. "We are still exploring what product offering will be available when we launch Google Fiber in Kansas City," says a Google spokeswoman. The scheduled launch will take place some time in 2012.
Hyundai, which will soon have three luxury nameplates and is very clearly migrating into the premium side of the U.S. auto market in terms of vehicle styling and appointments, (making room for sibling Kia to grab the more mass-market region), has an appointment of another kind coming up. The Fountain Valley, Calif.-based U.S. sales arm of the Korean auto company is, for the fourth year in a row, the exclusive automotive sponsor of the Oscars. The company is taking advantage of that with a slate of ads. Two of them are directed by indie auteur Wes Anderson, who helmed offbeat comedies like "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums." Anderson brings his odd aesthetic to the Hyundai spots. The strategy is par for the course for the automaker, which has adhered to what it calls a “Big Voices in Big Places” approach to TV advertising, in which it makes sizable commitments to big-audience events like the Super Bowl, Oscars and other giant-audience television sports and entertainment properties. The new campaign, via AOR Innocean Worldwide Americas, comprises two pre-Oscar and seven in-show ads with a focus on the Azera sedan. The Azera, which Hyundai introduced at the Los Angeles Auto Show in December and which goes on sale in March, sits in the luxury region between the Genesis sports sedan and coupe and Equus luxury sedan. One of the Azera spots for the ABC broadcast of the awards show on Feb. 26 involves a flustered dad who tries to make dinner for the family in the midst of a chaotic caricature family of kids in costume creating havoc. In addition to the swarm of kids who are drumming, making disastrous volcanoes with baking soda, and generally destroying things, the wife is shouting cooking directions to him on the phone, because she's supposedly stuck in traffic. Actually, she's relaxing in her Azera, which is parked in the driveway. Another of the Anderson pre-Oscar ads is a pastiche of recreated clips from movies featuring cars that responded to voice commands. Chitichiti Bang Bang, an underwater car, and a spy car are among them. That ad touts Hyundai's BlueLink telematics platform, making the connection that you can also talk to the Hyundai for directions and make requests of various kinds. The campaign also includes two red-carpet ads featuring the Sonata Hybrid and Hyundai’s new Lifetime Hybrid Battery Warranty, and the other touting Hyundai’s 2012 North American Car of the Year winner, Elantra. Then, the five in-show spots focus on the Sonata hybrid, Elantra, Equus, and Genesis Coupe and Genesis R-Spec car. The campaign also has online elements like behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the ads plus several animated billboards for the Azera throughout the show, according to the automaker.
Broadcast programming on Tuesday night tightened up a bit -- leader CBS shrank slightly, while third-place NBC and fourth-place ABC picked up some viewers. CBS was at a Nielsen preliminary 2.9 rating/8 share among 18-49 viewers, down from a 3.1/9 the week before. Fox was just one-tenth of rating point behind at a 2.8/7, up from a 2.7/7. NBC rose to a 2.1/5 from a 1.9/5, while ABC inched up to a 1.7/4 from a 1.6/4. NBC's "The Biggest Loser" was the biggest gainer, up three-tenths to a 2.3/6. The highly rated shows of the night were CBS' "NCIS," which dipped a bit to a 3.8/10 for a 3.9 rating. Its companion show "NCIS: Los Angeles" lost three-tenths of a rating point to a 2.9/7. Fox's "Glee" at 8 p.m. rose to a 2.9/8. But "New Girl" at 9 p.m. drifted lower to a 3.0/8 from a 3.2 rating. ABC's "Cougar Town" went one-tenth of a rating point lower to a 1.7/4 after its premiere a week ago. Many of the network's other shows stayed the same. "Last Man Standing" remained at a 2.2/6 from a 2.2/7 (at 8 p.m.) and "The River" held steady at a 1.7/4 (at 9 p.m.). At 10 p.m., all network shows could get past the 2 rating mark. CBS' "Unforgettable" was more forgettable for some -- now at a 1.9/5 from a 2.3/6. But NBC and ABC picked up a bit: NBC's "Parenthood" rose to a 1.7/5 from a 1.6/4 and ABC's "Body of Proof" picked up 1.4/4 from a 1.2/3. Univision was up to a 1.5/4 from a 1.4/4. And the CW grew to 0.5/1 from a 0.3/1 -- thanks to a repeat of "Hart of Dixie" and an original "Ringer."
Checking In? Immediately, I think of making a phone call to one's family. But the newer definition addresses a bigger media world -- letting your friends (and family), perhaps some strangers, a TV network or so, and some marketers know what you are doing. Formerly, checking in might have revolved around responsibility. Now you do checking-in for incentives -- points, discounts, coupons, or perhaps the availability of someone around the corner at the neighborhood bar. Too bad TV viewing used to seem all about checking out. But I guess checking in to, say, an NBA game or a Food Network program is a good idea if, respectively, I'm buying a car from Hyundai and there's a great deal connected to it or a real cool mac & cheese recipe from Kraft tied to a show. When you check in at a hotel, lodging assistants still can call you up a few hours later to ask, "Is everything with the room okay, Mr. Friedman?" That's a positive result from "checking in." In return, the hotel is just "checking in" with its customers. So, by the same token, would it be nice for a TV network to "check-in" the same way -- to see whether I had approved of the deep red-colored royal chairs on "The Voice," for example? Right now, TV check-ins are voluntary. But someday checking in may be required to win contests, be included in water cooler conversations, or maybe even watch the TV show itself! Checking in for shows will then officially be like what any social media poises to be: a big party. Right now it's a party where seemingly anyone can attend -- as long as you have something cool to say. But what joining the party -- and standing around with a drink in your hand trying to look cool -- becomes much more crucial? What if it becomes more like old school "checking-in" and missing the cut-off time, you're out in the cold, looking for other accommodations? What does that mean? I'll banish myself to channel 954, watching "Fur Life Daily." No check- in required.
Tablets help networks push viewers to watch TV live. Speaking at the OMMA Tablet Revolution, Dennis Adamovich, senior vp of brand digital activation/GM Festivals, Turner Entertainment Networks, says for the late night show, "Conan", TBS has develop "sync" contents for the live airing of the "Conan" show. "It is such a social experience," says Adamovich. Dominique Nguyen, director of Bravo Emerging Media for NBC Universal agrees that is the direction it wants to go for ira viewers. "We want them to be watching live; we want them to stay away from DVRs."
Drawing viewers away from live TV experiences via tablet experiences. Not a good idea. Dominique Nguyen, director of Bravo Emerging Media for NBC Universal, in speaking at OMMA's Tablet Revolution, says when you ask viewers to watch a video while they are involved in another social media experience doesn't work. "You don't want to create competing experiences," she says. "You want them to watch a video after a TV show has ended.
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. Recent columns have examined commercials from several aspects: avoidance, retention, engagement and measurement. Rounding out this discussion is this week’s column on various commercial indices. In fact, the three metrics described below are from four different measurement companies and they highlight the challenge we have in standardizing terms and definitions for use in STB data measurement. Which should be the preferred metric for industry use – the Commercial Rating Index (from TRA), the Commercial Tuning Index (from Nielsen) or the Commercial Viewership index (from Kantar and TiVo)? CRIabbrCommercial Rating Index CIMM DEFINITION : Index of the Household Average Second Rating of the Ad to the Average Second Rating of the Program. (Source: TRA) CTIabbrCommercial Tuning IndexSee also: Commercial Viewership Index CIMM DEFINITION : Referenced by Nielsen as ratio of commercial rating to program rating available at spot level. CVI abbr Commercial Viewership Index CIMM DEFINITION : Represents spot retention relative to underlying program. Average spot rating % divided by average program rating% (including commercial seconds) expressed as an index. (Source: Kantar Media Audiences) 2: Ratio of commercial rating to program rating (indicating audience retention) available at spot level. Indicating how often they fast forward through or tuned away from advertising. (Source: TiVo) Please refer to the CIMM Lexicon online at http://www.cimm-us.org/lexicon.htm for additional information on these and other terms.