U.S. TV Touching More People Than Ever As Middle Class Grows by David Goetzl

While it's hard to refer to the U.S. TV business as a newcomer to globalization, clearly it is beginning to appreciate the opportunities more than ever. It will be a while before an NBCUniversal refers to itself in the vein of Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent, who calls his company a global business headquartered in Atlanta, but selling increasingly coveted programming overseas seems an awful nice hedge should the TV ad market notably lose force domestically. Consumer behavior is working in NBCU's favor and its peers as a growing middle class from Bangalore to Beijing has more time to watch TV. ...Read the whole story

  • Social Media Chatter Ups Live TV Stats by Gavin O'Malley

    Rather than cannibalize "old media," some online activities can actually boost viewership. In particular, new research shows that social media can significantly increase consumers' TV time. A majority (58%) of heavy engagers -- i.e., consumers who share related thoughts via social networks at least 10 times a week -- report watching more live TV. ...Read the whole story

  • Game Show Network Expands Programming With Reality TV by David Goetzl

    GSN's official description no longer uses "Game Show Network" -- and for good reason. The network is moving aggressively to offer its twists on reality TV genres that have helped networks from truTV to Spike to Food Network. ...Read the whole story

Return-Path Data Lexicon: 'Average' Reach Metrics by Jane Clarke

As with last week's column on Average Frequency, we examine the definitions of Frequency's companion metric, Average Reach. Interestingly, while Average Frequency definitions include interactivity components, so far the various definitions of Reach tend to remain television-centric. This might be because it is much harder to measure unique, unduplicated usage across platforms. ...More