TV/Video Trade Association? Strange Bedfellows, Secret Handshakes Welcome

A media critique by Wayne Friedman, Staff Writer Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016 Google’s YouTube just commissioned a study to suggest that YouTube and traditional TV actually help each other. Among other results, there was an 18% increase in tune-in on traditional TV airwaves of talk shows among those who watched content from those shows on YouTube. To be sure, short-form video -- Jimmy Fallon’s musical skits and James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke” -- seem like perfect promo stuff to feed the bigger video platform. Overall the Nielsen/YouTube study looked at 30 TV shows—including comedy, competition, drama and talk shows— analyzing data from YouTube and TV data from Nielsen. This kind of positioning make sense in the growing more complicated digital media world. It’s not us versus them. People who watch TV also watch videos on YouTube. Now, can we all hope for more studies perhaps commissioned by the TV networks about the effects of  YouTube TV exposure? Traditional linear TV, the dominant form of video distribution, would be leery about giving credence -- if not advertising revenue -- to a growing competitor. From linear TV’s perspective, who wants to see articles about that?   Instead we’ll continue to get research touting TV’s dominance -- and what TV does in terms of value, for the likes of YouTube. Not that long ago, broadcast networks might have been in the same spot, since they were in  in heavy direct competition with cable networks. That seems a lesser focus these days -- not just because all major media companies own cable networks, but because traditional TV companies now gain advertising/viewing strength from their cable networks. This trend manifests itself with the Video Advertising Bureau, which morphed from the Cable Advertising Bureau. The VAB now has broadcast and cable networks as members. In regards to YouTube, perhaps also Facebook and Snapchat, there may be more media mergers to come -- and perhaps, bigger, more diversified marketing/advertising trade associations. Maybe it comes down to this -- the old Groucho Marx observation, loosely quoted by many: “I’d never want to belong to a club that would have someone like me as a member.”