Commentary

Are Advertisers Concerned About Scandal-Tainted News Talent?

TV advertisers' reactions to sexual harassment news about big TV news talent -- most recently NBC’s Matt Lauer and CBS’ Charlie Rose -- have been quiet, as far as we can tell.

This is because NBC and CBS have made quick decisions about the allegations. Major TV marketers have not made any comments regarding recent events.

Fox News Channel was much slower to move when it came to Bill O’Reilly. Allegations in late March/early April of sexual harassment by multiple women at Fox News against him pushed more than 30 advertisers to drop media schedules on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

About three weeks later, Fox fired O’Reilly -- and eight months later, Fox News Channel has had few overall advertiser defections. The channel has maintained a high second-place position in November among all cable TV network prime-time viewers.

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Beyond O’Reilly, TV analysts believe departing TV personalities long associated with specific TV networks and/or TV shows have little, if any, long-term ad business consequences that were not already there.

Today’s high-profile departures are coming in a drastically different TV marketplace than a decade or so ago. There has been a fractionalization of Nielsen ratings for all TV.

These days, there are many more TV news personalities on cable TV news and broadcast network morning shows. Few companies rely on just one TV news anchor/personality to be the “face” of a network -- especially with a frantic 24-hour news cycle.

The question is: Will TV networks look to prevent this in the future? Will there be bigger teams of TV news personalities/anchors on particular shows -- all to minimize  “star” value even further?

NBC’s “Today” pulls in around $508 million a year in advertising, while CBS’ “CBS This Morning” earns $177 million, according to Kantar Media. Fox News Channel grabs about $1.2 billion for all its shows, according to iSpot.tv.

What is the real risk to these TV business franchises?

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