Earlier this week, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes and News Corp. COO Chase Carey urged their media company peers to roll out TV Everywhere services as urgently as they can. TV Everywhere refers to any service that grants pay-TV subscribers access to TV content on Internet-connected devices. Broadcast and cable networks and pay-TV operators are the purveyors of TV Everywhere services. “We’ve just got to do it faster,” Bewkes said. He and Carey were speaking on a panel at The Cable Show in Boston on Wednesday. Carey agreed that “it should go faster,” adding: “we get too hung up on protecting the rules of the past.” According to Deadline, which initially reported the media executives’ comments, Carey was making a “subtle swipe” at pay-TV operators, who would lose control of their lucrative TV packages if subscribers could directly access shows from programmers like Time Warner or News Corp. using Web-connected devices. Bewkes also took a swipe at pay-TV operators, suggesting that Silicon Valley companies are better equipped to give consumers the interfaces they want. “We can’t develop the best, world-class interfaces at the scale that a distribution company has. Silicon Valley, the Internet industry, is a global industry and that’s what they do. We should harness that….Don’t try to hold that back. Consumers won’t allow it.” Representing pay-TV operators was Pat Esser, president of Cox Communications, who noted that “along the way you’ve got to negotiate agreements…and we’ve got to figure out how the economics work. We all have a relationship with the customer. What we have to understand is that this business is becoming more complex.”
Over-the-top mobile video services -- and TV Everywhere services from content owners -- are generally better performers when it comes to iPad downloads than TV Everywhere apps from multichannel video retailers. SNL Kagan says free video iPad apps on mobile devices from major content owners, including Walt Disney, Viacom and Time Warner, scored higher in iPad downloads than multichannel video distributors. For example, in the second quarter of 2011, Walt Disney held the top spot in more weekly appearances in the top 100 iPad downloadable apps: 36. Turner/CNN Interactive, Hulu, Netflix, imdb.com, Flixster, NPR, Pandora Media and Weather Channel were next with 12. Comcast’s Xfinity free app and HBO free app were next with 10 appearances. Time Warner Cable had nine. In addition, those pay over-the-top (OTT) apps (Hulu Plus and Netflix) are more consistent and perform better with consumers than TV Everywhere apps from traditional multichannel video operators -- those coming from cable, telco and satellite companies. Although multichannel video distributors' TV Everywhere apps do launch strong initially -- in the top 100 downloaded apps -- they “quickly disappear,” says the SNL Kagan report. These TV Everywhere apps include Time Warner Cable, Comcast’s Xfinity TV, Cox, Bright House, DirecTV and Cablevision’s Optimum service. By contrast, Over-The-Top services like Netflix and Hulu Plus have remained in the top 50 or so iPad apps. The report says this is also because Hulu and Netflix have been around longer, and their on-demand film and TV titles are greater.
The "American Idol" TV live season finale generated more than 1 million social comments, contributing to the 5.9 million for the season. A Flock to Unlock campaign on Twitter in real-time pushed the numbers higher compared with prior shows. While Facebook changed the definition of community for TV viewers, Twitter provides the ability for live shows to interact with a television audience in real-time through tweets on mobile devices, according to Don Wilcox, Fox's vice president and general manager of branded entertainment. "American Idol" created the Flock to Unlock campaign on the Fan Hub site, where TV viewers tweeted to unlock sponsored content from brands, such as Coca-Cola. Ryan Seacrest, the show's host, mentioned the content live on air, which sent fans flocking to Twitter. Mass Relevance's technology powered and counted the stream of Twitter data that unlocked the behind-the-scenes footage on the Idol Nation Fan Hub site. Each tweet brought the community one step closer to unlocking the content for all. During the finale of season 11, "American Idol" Twitter buzz hit a peak of 23,876 tweets per minute at 10:03, just as the show wrapped up. A total volume of 599,174 went through the Mass Relevance platform from 8:00 to 10:07 EST. The tweets did not end with the season 11 show. During the 10 minutes after the show concluded, the platform counted about 9,500 tweets per minute. That number declined to roughly 4,000 tweets per minute during the hour after the show ended. Once on the site, the shows' loyal fans hung out on the site's Fan Wall and Fan Hub pages, spending seven times the amount on-site as the average visitor. Although social campaigns are difficult to measure, "American Idol" relies on support from Bluefin Labs. While it depends on the platform, monitoring tweets compared with the competition, trending topics and words that relay emotion remain key performance indicators (KPI) on Twitter for "Idol," Wilcox said. "There were a few points in the season where we had nice organic integration that resonated with fans and got them sharing opinions, which created trending topics," he said. "The more trending topics you get, you can argue, the more successful it becomes." Wilcox pointed to a mention on air by Seacrest during a live show for fans to tweet the name of their favorite music idol using a specific hashtag. The request triggered a Twitter trending topic. Fox's "American Idol" dominated the Optimedia Content Power ratings rankings, coming in at No. 1 for the fifth year. The TV rating system from the ZenithOptimedia Worldwide division measures cross-platform audience size, delivery and social engagement.
Fox won another TV season, in the viewing metric that matters most to advertisers: 18-49 viewers. But the race was a lot closer, as CBS -- in second place -- came within two-tenths of a rating point. Fox lost 9% of its 18-49 viewers, looking at Nielsen live-plus-same-day rating data. Most of this came around a 25% drop in ratings of its big “American Idol” franchise. It landed at a 3.2 average rating in prime time. CBS pulled closer, gaining 3% to arrive at a 3.0 number. NBC picked up 9% to score a 2.5 rating, jumping from its fourth-place position into third after many years. “The Voice” was a major reason, averaging a big 5.2 rating for its performance show -- just two-tenths of a rating point behind “Idol." NBC also had big numbers from “Sunday Night Football” and the Super Bowl to count on. But the network says that even without the Super Bowl, for “regular programming" it was up 4% among 18-49 viewers to a 2.5 rating. NBC's “Sunday Night Football” eclipsed “Idol” as the No. 1 show among 18-49 viewers -- an 8.0 rating (10.2 million 18-49 viewers). The "Idol" Wednesday performance show was at a 5.4 rating (6.9 million 18-49 viewers); Thursday's results show delivered a 4.7 rating (6.0 million 18-49 viewers). ABC now sits in fourth place, just one-tenth of a rating point behind NBC at a 2.4 rating. ABC sank 4% versus a year ago. ABC lost ground with its big “Dancing with the Stars” reality competition show. CW was also down a lot more: 22% to a 0.7% among 18-49 viewers. Even among its more core 18-34 audience, CW took a double-digit percentage dip in ratings -- down 20% to a 0.8 rating. NBC was the only network to gain here, up 5% to a 2.0 rating. Fox still leads among these viewers with a 2.7 rating -- although it was down 10% versus a year ago. Total viewers came in as expected. CBS still led with a slight 1% improvement over a year ago, to 11.7 million. Fox was at 8.9 million, down 9%; ABC was down 2% to 8.4 million; NBC was up 5% to 7.4 million; and CW lost 15% to 1.7 million.
Fox network has filed what analysts believe will be the first of many TV network lawsuits against Dish Network for its new commercial-skipping feature called AutoHop. In return, Dish has countersued Fox, as well as NBC, CBS, and ABC. "We were given no choice but to file suit against one of our largest distributors, Dish Network, because of their surprising move to market a product with the clear goal of violating copyrights and destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem," according to a Fox statement. "Their wrongheaded decision requires us to take swift action in order to aggressively defend the future of free, over-the-air television." As opposed to manual fast-forwarding of time-shifted shows, AutoHop allows mass elimination of commercials of TV shows. Dish’s feature allows viewers to skip the four networks' prime-time commercials, allowing viewers to see TV shows commercial-free the next day. In its complaint, Dish is suing "for a declaratory judgment that the AutoHop feature does not infringe any copyright." Dish says the AutoHop technology is not much different than fast-forwarding -- where, according to some research, up to 75% of the time viewers can be found fast-forwarding through TV ads. David Shull, senior vice president of programming for Dish Network, stated: “Viewers have been skipping commercials since the advent of the remote control; we are giving them a feature they want and that gives them more control… We don’t believe AutoHop will substantially change established consumer behavior, but we do believe it makes the viewing experience better."
TV Everywhere has many TV networks and content providers euphoric about new business growth. But how does this translate to consumers? No one has figured out how to market this to consumers industrywide, on a broad scale. Maybe that’s why some launches of iPad TV Everywhere apps have, for the most part, gone nowhere. Instead, those apps branded with names like Disney and Fox seem to work better, at least initially. SNL Kagan recently issued a report to that effect. And what is interesting here is that those content-owner apps don’t even have the wide range of TV and film content as other services. I’m guessing it’s more about the identifiable entertainment brands that people know. Increasingly this also goes for Netflix and Hulu, with which people seemingly now have a better comfort level. Also, multiple efforts – somewhat competing, somewhat confusing – could be the reason for the lag. Individual content players – TV/film studios and networks -- have been doing their own thing, along with the Comcasts, Time Warners, and DirecTVs of the world. At the NCTA cable show in Boston this week, many executives mulled this issue. Virtually ever TV network is pushing TV Everywhere as a savior to whatever traditional video distribution problems will arise – as well as expected consumer migration to many things digital. Traditionally consumers are comfortable in signing up to one-all-encompassing service for all traditional TV entertainment – and that is why what cable, satellite, and telco operators have thrived for years. Right now it’s still the Wild West when it comes to many digital apps: There is plenty to chose from. But the definition is still unclear for consumers in describing TV Everywhere.
Much has been said these last few months about the precipitous ratings slide Fox’s “American Idol” suffered this year, and the recent decline of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” If you accept current audience measurement systems as accurate they would indicate that both shows suffered double-digit drops, with “Idol’”s loss coming in as high as 25%. To which I say, “So what?” Even at lesser numbers, both of these shows remain ratings powerhouses because they were so big to begin with. Their still-vital performances this spring were remarkable achievements given that “Idol” just completed its 11th season and “Dancing” its 14th. Further, both shows remain at the top in terms of audience interest and media buzz, and when they reach the end of their seasons, as they did this week, television suddenly feels so… empty. Despite its flaws (too much interference from mentors, too much emphasis on the studio audience), “Idol” this season once again hit the top of its game. I’m giving full credit to the contestants, as a group arguably the most talented in the history of this show. There are likely to be many future stars among this year’s top ten; in fact, I think Phillip Phillips, Jessica Sanchez, Joshua Ledet, Hollie Cavanaugh, Skylar Laine and Colton Dixon each could have beaten the winners of many previous seasons had they been in their competitions. Credit for this impressive selection of talent must go to judges Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson, who together appear to be much better at identifying true potential in amateur performers than any combination of judges in “Idol’”s past, including those that featured Simon Cowell. (The group these three cobbled together last season was pretty spectacular, as well.) “Dancing,” meanwhile, also had one of its most rewarding seasons, in the process bringing to the attention of the American television audience a couple of exciting international stars: Welsh classical singer Katherine Jenkins and Cuban actor William Levy, both largely unknown to people here when “Dancing’”s just-concluded cycle began. Of course, NFL superstar Donald Driver, who won the coveted mirror ball, was already known in millions of homes. What spectacular final competitors the three of them turned out to be! This show hasn’t lost any of its strength, no matter the ratings reports. The very talented and charming Phillip was the winner on “Idol,” though the equally amazing Jessica probably should have been. (It would have been nice to see a young woman win, rather than a young man for the fifth straight season.) Fascinatingly, even though the year to year ratings decline for this “Idol” finale was reportedly in the range of 25%, host Ryan Seacrest boasted on Wednesday’s finale that Tuesday’s final competition episode set “a new world record” with “a staggering 132 million votes.” That means while the number of people watching went way down, the number of votes went way up. If there is indeed a significant decline in interest for this show one need look no further for an explanation. Something is askew, and viewers may be responding in kind. Plainly, the “Idol” voting system doesn’t serve everyone equally, which has probably compromised the exciting interactive component that initially drew millions of people to this show. This issue should be addressed and rectified by next season. At risk of sounding hopelessly retro, what would be wrong with restoring some kind of parity by restricting the voting to phone calls and texts only in a one-vote-per-number system? We might then all be allowed to feel that our individual votes mattered, rather than our skills (and patience and endurance) at firing off as many votes as possible in a variety of ways. All these years later, it is still true that no show creates household names faster or with more impact (fleeting, lasting or otherwise) than “Idol.” We’ve been talking and thinking about Phillip Phillips, Jessica Sanchez, Joshua Ledet, Hollie Cavanaugh, Skylar Laine and Colton Dixon for much of 2012, though most of us hadn’t heard of any of them back in January (except for viewers who remember that Colton auditioned for the show last year). It says a lot about the power of “Idol” that people still become so invested in its contestants in so short a time. Interestingly, other than winner Jermaine Paul (who performed at NBC’s upfront event) I can’t recall the names of the final four on NBC’s “The Voice,” the show that many predicted would bring “Idol” down, and which ended its second season only two weeks ago. I suspect I’m not alone. For all the fuss about “The Voice,” it only plays as something special during the first third of its cycle (that would be the chair-spinning phase). The rest of its season isn’t nearly as impactful as “Idol,” because viewers simply do not have as much time to get to know the contestants. NBC has said that the show’s format next season will be tweaked to help maintain and maximize viewer investment. As much as I enjoy “The Voice,” and as hopeful as I am that NBC will strengthen it, I don’t believe that it will ever be the phenomenon that “American Idol” has been from the start. Just try to imagine the last 11 years without "Idol."
According to a research initiative by the National Restaurant Association and LivingSocial to study consumer perceptions related to restaurant operator marketing practices, among restaurant operators who had used various marketing communication forms to prospective consumers, 94% rated TV ads very or somewhat effective by the largest proportion of respondents, beating out email effectiveness by four points. Additionally, promotion forms that were felt to be effective by the operators ranked as follows. Effectiveness of Restaurant Communications (% Restaurant Operators Saying Very or Somewhat Effective in Increasing Overall Revenue) Communication% of Respondents Ad on TV 94% Email to consumers 90 Ad in local paper 88 Brochure/menu on doorstep 87 Coupon booklet 87 Social media post 84 Ad on radio 83 Brochure/menu sent by mail 82 Email by daily deal provider 78 Ad on Internet 76 Rewards program 76 SEO 70 Source: NRA/Living Social, May 2012 The online survey of consumers was fielded in February 2012, followed by a telephone survey of restaurant operators from February to March 2012. Considering consumers’ recollection of marketing communications from restaurants, 75% of adults said they recalled seeing a television advertisement for a restaurant in the past six months. Recollection of other marketing communications was lower, with 56% indicating they had seen a restaurant coupon in a booklet, 55% remembering a restaurant newspaper advertisement, and 47% reporting they received an email directly from a restaurant. Only 24% reported seeing a restaurant post from social media like Twitter or Facebook.