How Does Traditional TV Compete With Ad-Free Services?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

TV show producers have strong points of view on the ads airing between comedy, drama and reality content. And so do advertising executives. Who do you believe?

“Consumers hate advertising,” said Bob Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, at a New York City TV business event on Tuesday. “People are running away from advertising in droves. To me, that is the crux of the problem. How do we stop that from happening?”

And then there is this:
Jonah Goodhart, cofounder/CEO of Moat, a media analytics and measurement company, at the same event: “Consumers hate bad advertising... Branding and content to me are the same thing.”

The only time the latter might be true is for one specific TV occasion: the Super Bowl. Everything else? Maybe when I’m really bored with the story arc on a TV comedy, drama or reality show.
When HBO was the only game in town in the ‘80s, ‘90s and most of the 2000s, the ad-free channel could only command around 25 million or so TV homes, out of some 120 million U.S. TV homes. The relative high cost (around $13 to $15 a month, depending on the promotion and/or pay TV provider) and ease of access (having to buy a basic cable network package) might have had something to do with it.

Many years later, we now have Netflix at around $10 to $12 a month with some 50 million U.S. subscribers. But you don’t need to subscribe to a basic cable network plan in order to get the service.
Consumers are now looking a lot closer at ad-free, easy-to-buy (and leave) digital content platforms, such as Netflix, HBO, Hulu, YouTube TV, among others.

NBC’s Greenblatt, former president of entertainment for Showtime Networks (another ad-free cable TV service), reckons people are on the move -- away from TV advertising.

A positive note to ad executives — the industry needs to get better at incorporating ad messages into TV programming content.

We have heard these warnings from TV execs before — and will continue to hear them again. Now decide — from all data points and trends — who is winning the debate.

Commentary

Remarketed Users Most Valuable Customers

• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 28, 2017

Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is the strategy of directly advertising to users who have shown interest in a product, application, or other conversion, but who have in some way lapsed from completing the conversion or retaining interest. The question becomes: why spend money on driving new users when you could spend the same or much less on those users who have already downloaded but haven’t returned after the first or second day?

The study set out to prove a simple hypothesis: that retargeted users outperform new users when it comes to retention, events and (most importantly) revenue events. The following is a look at what the study found:

Key takeaways 

• In the data, there’s a statistically significant difference between retargeting and acquisition in their average performance aggregated at both per week, and per day.
• While new users have more sessions, engagement of retargeted users is noticeably improved in terms of the number of events they trigger, and they perform slightly better in terms of revenue events and retention rate.
• Older retargeted users have a higher engagement rate because they’ve already had an experience of using an app.

Key data points

• Retargeting campaign users have an overall 152% higher engagement rate (number of events per user) than new user acquisition campaigns over 30 days. On day 1 of install, it’s nearly 200%, before dropping off significantly by week 4.
• Retargeting campaign users also make 37% more revenue events in the first 30 days than new user acquisition campaigns.
• On the first day of a campaign, retargeted users retain by 5% more than new users, and typically remains at a 5% difference by day 7

The study used four cohort KPIs to compare between two samples (new users and reattributed users.) All data was collected between January 1st and July 1st, 2017. The cohorts are:

• Number of sessions per user
• Number of events per user
• Number of revenue events per user
• Retention rates 

Of the sample, 140 apps track with Adjust. Between them, there were over 500 retargeting campaigns, versus nearly 9000 acquisition campaigns. Reattributions and retargeting campaigns on either side tracked in the millions, though the sample of installs (as with campaigns) for initial acquisition campaigns was 10x that of reattributions

Events are the actions performed by users in-app. Users from a retargeting campaign have a noticeably higher engagement (number of events per user) than new user acquisition campaigns. This is the start of a trend, but with events in particular retargeted users consistently outperform their newbie counterparts.

On the day of install, it’s nearly double, with 86 aggregated events per user in a single week vs. 44 for new ones. This might suggest that users who are more comfortable with the experience may be more likely to continue with a deeper experience on the first day, avoiding onboarding fatigue. By week 4, there has been a significant drop off, though retargeted users still complete 10 more events in a single week than new users do.

The report says that there’s one main takeaway from the study: it’s clear that retargeting works in keeping users around, keeping them engaged, and (most importantly) driving increased revenue while lowering the cost of acquisition, especially within the first few weeks of an install. More specifically, retargeting campaign users also made 37% more revenue events in the first 30 days than new user acquisition campaigns.

Consider prioritizing your lapsed user segment alongside other remarketing campaigns. Ultimately, these are your most valuable users and they’ll likely be the most engaged with your mobile app in the long run, concludes the report.

How to Create a High-Performance Team, According to Over 1,000 Top Executives

Inc.

Effective leaders establish and regulate the sense of urgency in their companies.

By Chris McGoff

Chris McGoff is the founder of The Clearing, a Washington, D.C. consulting firm specializing in strategy, culture transformation, and organizational change management. 

Founder, The Clearing@ChrisMcGoff

Peak-performance cultures maintain a sense of urgency. Urgency is a feeling people experience. Urgency is when your people believe not only that something specific needs to be accomplished, but also that that specific something must be accomplished within a specific time frame or significant negative consequences will result.

All other things being equal, the leaders of these companies know that faster is better. They have mastered the art of establishing and maintaining this sense of urgency. The most effective leaders establish and regulate the sense of urgency in their companies.
People in organizations where there is a palpable and appropriate sense of urgency tend to:

• assume a "whatever it takes" attitude;
• do what is needed versus what is wanted;
• ignore distractions;
• be intolerant of wasting time and non-value-added activity;
• get to the point;
• resist gossip; and
• work quickly.

When you as a leader establish and maintain an appropriate sense of urgency, people stop fretting over the trivial -- they don't make small issues big issues. They tend to use what they have in innovative ways. They have a bias toward action, are intolerant of planning loops, and tend to keep the main thing the main thing -- whatever that is. Most of all, they shift from a reactionary response to proactive planning and morale goes up.

Leaders of these peak performance companies are constantly sensing the degree of urgency in themselves and their key personnel.

They manage the level of urgency by making sure key personnel are aligned on 1) a deep and truthful assessment of the current operating environment of the company and/or project, 2) the specific intended outcomes, and 3) the fewest, most important things that must be accomplished to close the gap between "a" and "b."

Key personnel have a deep and clear shared understanding of the consequences and implications of failing to achieve the desired state in the time frame that has been identified. The more real and personal these consequences feel to the people, at both an emotional and financial level, the deeper the feeling of urgency will be.

Take these ideas for a test drive. Write down the names of the seven most important people in your group or company. Don't just rely on your organization chart. Write down the seven highest future value people. Include that hotshot young person that everybody admires and listens to.
OK, now imagine I came to your office and interviewed each one of these seven people individually and confidentially. Here are the questions I would ask:

1. How would you describe the current operating environment of this company? What are its specific constraints to growth and its primary levers of growth? What parts of the company are in most need of enhanced performance? What is happening in your operating environment that requires careful monitoring?
2. What specifically are you and your teammates trying to do in the marketplace? What is your current intention regarding customers? What are you trying to build or accomplish and by when? What is your vision for the company?
3. What are the fewest, most critical initiatives that are being implemented, and do you have any concerns about how they are going? Are they the right ones? Are the right people working them? What is making it hard to accomplish them on time? Are roles clear?
4. What is really at stake, for the company and for you personally, should you and your team fail to achieve these initiatives?         

Imagine that I gathered the responses to these questions from the seven top people you identified. Imagine I analyzed all their responses and reported my findings to you.
To what degree would each person have well thought out answers to these critical questions? To what degree would the answers be aligned with their peers? Where are the areas of deepest shared alignment?

Where do their answers vary the most? Answers that vary considerably are NOT good.
A mist in this group creates a fog in the organization.

Ask yourself, "What would I have to do to get myself and these seven people into deep alignment around truthful and well thought our answers to these questions?" Do that.

Their deep alignment around these focusing questions is your source of both creative tension and urgency. And ensuring appropriate relative tension and urgency is a fundamental responsibility of leadership. 

3 Things You'll Be Talking About In 2018

Commentary

• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, Yesterday

The turkey is sadly all gone from the refrigerator and holiday sales are in full bloom, which means it’s time for pundits to release their annual media predictions upon the world!  
I like to be early so I won’t be swayed by what other people are saying. Here are my predictions for what you can look forward to in 2018:

More AI, More Automation
AI is hot — even hotter than “big data” was a couple of years ago.  I’ve bought into the underlying concept of AI as defined by Andrew Ng (AI, as it stands today, exists to automate what the human brain can achieve in 2-5 seconds).

AI is here to make things easier and remove some of the mundane tasks in your day like optimizing a campaign, delivering basic analytics, scheduling a call or taking notes in a meeting.  These are simple tasks and can enable workers to be smarter and more strategic.

To that end, AI is delivering on its promise.  AI augments and/or automates simple tasks.  It’s a natural evolution that can only come because we went through the stage of “big data.”  We harvested information and now we are trying to do something with that information.

2018 will see the next step in the continued revolution toward more AI, a trail blazed and established by big companies like IBM, Apple and Amazon.  These folks are spending a ton of budget to establish AI as a comfortable technology for everyday use and I hope they are successful.

More Voice,  More Talking
Remember middleware?  Middleware was any technology that existed to connect old technology platforms to new ones.  It was — and still is – a huge category, simply because enterprise companies invested billions in their old platforms and they didn’t want to drop them just because the new kid on the block is cool.

These days people are starting to worry about how all these new technologies are going to interact with one another.  How will VR, AR, AI and other data platforms engage with one another?  How will your web of virtual assistants work together?  The answer lies in voice, which becomes the “UI” that connects all these technologies together.

Alexa is training the world to talk to machines and request basic tasks.  That trend will apply to the business world as well. Media planners will tell their dashboard to deliver a specific report or optimize to a specific creative.  Account people will engage with a business intelligence tool through voice as the world of virtual assistants expands rapidly.

We are only a few years away from talking to our dashboards rather than spending time learning complicated new tool sets.  This coming year I expect people will finally have the epiphany around voice.  This is what people will be talking about in 2018 — pun intended.

Less Blockchain
Thankfully. The buzz around Blockchain is not warranted in media.  It is certainly valuable in a financial use case, but in media and advertising it is not.  Blockchain is table stakes for consultants and intellectuals, but its value doesn’t scale to real-time exchanges like those required in a media and advertising landscape.  Data can be passed back and forth securely, but slowly.  My hope for the coming months is that people stop worrying about it and move on to more scalable issues that affect their day to day.

These are but three of the things I predict will be happening in 2018.  There’s certainly more — let me get back to you on what those additional things might be.  

Linda Yaccarino's Call To Fix TV Advertising And Its Measurement

Commentary

• by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, 17 minutes ago

“We have a problem. You know it, I know it, we all know it."
That’s how Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising sales and client partnerships at NBCUniversal, greeted participants at a summit she organized earlier this week in New York City to talk about issues in TV ad measurement.

Most of us who work in TV advertising could or would have said exactly the same thing, although I would put a bit of a twist on it.  Current TV ad measurement is indeed problematic, but it not the problem. It is a symptom of a bigger problem: While TV has changed massively over the past decades, how it is bought, sold and measured hasn’t.

If we look back over the past 30 years, TV viewing has changed substantially, as have the needs and media alternatives of most advertisers. So too, have all of the technologies that can drive, control and measure most other forms of advertising. Finally, the choices and behaviors of all consumers have also radically changed.

Unfortunately, how TV ads are planned, bought, sold and and measured has changed very little.  If Rip Van Winkle was in TV advertising and awoke after a three-decade snooze, he wouldn’t skip a beat when he went back to work. He’d recognize virtually everything.

As has been reported from the summit, one of the biggest issues is that we have stretched the industry’s core measurement beyond its limit. Measurement of TV audiences at the campaign level according to gross rating points and broad sex and age demographics just don’t cut it anymore, unless they are complemented by much more granular measures related to outcomes like purchases, return on investment, and person and household level reach and frequency.

This is what advertisers now expect from their digital advertising. It is what TV must provide, too, if it wants to continue to garner significant budgets in the future.

Why aren’t measurements like this used today for the vast majority of TV ad buys? Not because it’s not technically possible. It certainly is. It’s not because Nielsen and other measurement companies don't do it. They certainly can, and are developing digital-like measurement products for TV advertising.

It’s not happening today because the majority of TV advertisers and their contracted media buyers haven’t made it a priority or committed to the process. Buying on purchase metrics is viewed as anathema to most large TV brand advertisers. Most believe they would be selling the soul of they prioritized ROI performance over buying content and day-part placements alone.

Further, using those metrics could mean that marketers -- certainly those that are not digital-first brands -- would need to shift away from the procurement and cost-center management focus that most operate under today.

We need to realize that “performance” in TV advertising is not a four-letter word. I believe we will only get the TV advertising measurements that we need in the future if we can make industry members, especially advertisers, think of their TV advertising with the same mindset of performance and ROI that they apply to their digital and promotion expenditures -- and not just as part of an annual marketing mix modeling exercise, but proactively and tactically as they plan, buy, measure and optimize their TV advertising.

Thank you, Linda Yaccarino, for carrying the torch for TV advertising’s future. Are the rest of you out there ready to help drive the change we all need?

'Speaking' To The Hispanic Millennial

Commentary

• by Craig Witt , Columnist, 2 hours ago

New research suggests Hispanic Millennial shoppers are “a driving force” of the U.S. economy, reports Marketing Land. This means that a wide margin of the market’s $1.5 trillion purchasing power is now controlled by young adults between the ages of 18 to 32.

If you want to boost your online business in 2018, it’s time to start targeting this market.
And what better way to do that than through language? Univision reports that nearly 72% of Hispanic Millennials speak Spanish at home, and some insist it’s important for future generations to speak Spanish, too. It's also one of the best ways to build customer trust and streamline the transactional experience.

Mobile is important for this group as well. Google research identifies Hispanics as “power users” of mobile devices, and with good reason. Nearly half prefer accessing the web via their mobile devices. Hispanic Millennials, in particular, spend 25% more time on their phones than the general population, per Marketing Land. Research suggests that they are buying more online than they were a year ago.

You must also optimize for SEO. This goes beyond localizing keywords. While using on-site keywords will drive organic traffic and improve engagement, smart businesses do even more to drive further activity.

For instance, are you localizing “under the hood” text that resides in website metadata? This content is often neglected by traditional translation services and can greatly improve a site’s search rankings. Localizing this hidden content doesn’t just help search engines locate and display your localized website. It also works within the unique pixel and character limits of regional search engines, so that the localized site “plays by the local rules” to further improve its ranking.

Another way that you can boost localized SEO is by translating structured data. These coded markups highlight or sample snippets of content in search engine results pages. When your Spanish site’s structured data is optimized for SEO, search engines will identify the type of content provided on the website and display it accordingly. This strengthens both brand visibility and click-through rates.
You should also consider other digital assets, like banner ads and email campaigns, that need to be translated to suit the shopper. These must seamlessly speak to the shopper in their preferred language, with the right cultural references throughout.

Consider leveraging social to reach Hispanic Millennials, too. Research by Viant suggests they’re more open to interacting with brands on social media. For instance, nearly 50% of Hispanic shoppers reported they had either discussed a brand online with others or used a brand’s hashtag in social messaging compared to 17% of non-Hispanic shoppers.

Lastly, it’s important that marketers remember that U.S.-based Spanish speakers won’t be the only customers visiting a localized site. Data that we have collected suggests that U.S. Spanish sites following these best practices may receive up to 60% of their “free” organic traffic from underserved international markets such as Mexico and Latin America. These shoppers are most-often searching for products unavailable in their local market.

With the Hispanic Millennial market skyrocketing, and with smartphone adoption rates hitting new highs, companies that engage these consumers on their devices of choice—in their languages of choice—stand to gain a powerful competitive advantage.

What Does Bankruptcy Filing Mean For Cumulus Employees?

Radio Ink

November 30, 2017

Cumulus has over 440 radio stations and thousands of employees all across the country. They will wake up this morning to read that their company has filed for Chapter 11 protection. Many radio executives have said the sooner both Cumulus and iHeart restructure their massive debt load, the better it will be for the industry. So what should employees expect moving forward? Yes, you will still receive your paychecks.

Those running Cumulus want employees to know that the business will continue to run as it has been and they say there’s enough money to keep the company operating, although they do not say how long. The company has set up both a hotline and website for employees who may have questions about the restructuring. The website lists frequently asked questions that, for the most part, say everything will be business as usual. Here’s how Cumulus’ addresses employees: “First and most importantly, we are (and will continue to be) open for business as usual! As we have been saying over the last several weeks, our operations are strong and programming and sales will continue as normal across our family of stations and Westwood One affiliates.”

About Westwood One, the restructuring website says: “Westwood One’s operations, programming and sales, including syndication of content and services to affiliates, will continue as normal. We will work with affiliates as we always do. Our affiliates are a critical part of business, and we will continue providing you with content and services with no interruption of service. We value our partnerships with our affiliates and look forward to expanding our relationships in the future as we introduce new programming and exciting new innovations.”

As the company goes into court to work out this plan it has also posted to its restructuring website that it may not issue earnings press releases or hold quarterly conference calls during the court-supervised process.

Sinclair set to OK antitrust deal, looks to move forward with $6.6B Tribune buyout

By Josh Kosman

• 
  November 29, 2017 | 10:48pm

Getty Images

Sinclair Broadcasting is close to accepting a remedy proposed by President Trump’s Department of Justice to allow its $6.6 billion buyout of Tribune Media to gain regulatory approval, The Post has learned.

The feds want Sinclair, whose 193 TV stations spread over 89 markets makes it the largest TV station owner in the country, to sell 13 Tribune stations, sources said.

Sinclair is hoping to get that number down to 10 stations, sources said — but is ready to accept the Justice Dept.’s offer to get the deal done.

Previously, Sinclair had been trying to persuade the antitrust poobahs to expand the definition of market share from just TV broadcast advertising to both cable and broadcast advertising.
Under an expanded view, Sinclair felt it wouldn’t have to sell any of the 42 Tribune stations it was buying. That argument was not successful.

AT&T, by contrast, is fighting Uncle Sam’s reported request to sell some of Time Warner’s networks — like CNN — to get its $85 billion deal done.

AT&T and the feds are now battling it out in court.
Sinclair believes its biggest regulatory hurdle in buying Tribune Media is at the Justice Dept. and not the Federal Communications Commission, sources said.

“Sinclair has sale books out and has bids in for Tribune stations” it might need to sell, a source said, “and is just waiting for government direction.”

Nexstar Media Group, Tegna (formerly Gannett) and Meredith have all made offers, a source said.
Sinclair expects the Tribune Media deal to close in the middle of the first quarter, a source said

Maximizing Local TV Ad Revenues

 

TVN’S FRONT OFFICE BY MARY COLLINS

November, 20, 2017

BIA Kelsey’s Tom Buono and Mark Fratrik discuss several areas that they believe offer near-term opportunities for TV stations, including strong economic conditions, growing online/digital advertising, social media and cross-platform advertising, political advertising, ATSC 3.0 and more.

It almost goes without saying that TV stations are continually challenged in their efforts to increase their share of the total advertising spending pie. A few weeks ago, MFM offered its members a local advertising update courtesy of BIA/Kelsey’s Tom Buono and Mark Fratrik. In addition to going over anticipated ad spend by media category, they identified what they see as areas of opportunity for TV station ad dollars.

Chief among these are the prospects for cross-platform and addressable advertising opportunities enabled by upgrading to the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. BIA/Kelsey predicts this could boost local station ad revenue from a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3% to 5%. The FCC is expected to approve implementation of the new 3.0 standard at its Nov. 16 meeting, immediately after I submit this column to TVNewsCheck.

Buono, founder and CEO of BIA/Kelsey, and Mark Fratrik, SVP and chief economist for the media consultancy firm, also discussed several areas that they believe offer nearer-term opportunities. These include:

Current Economic Conditions

All local media platforms are likely to benefit from the current levels of optimism concerning the U.S. economy. In addition to low unemployment, the record levels being achieved by the stock market have contributed to consumer optimism, which as Fratrik pointed out, encourages household spending. To that point, BusinessWorld recently reported on U.S. Department of Commerce statistics, which show September consumer spending recorded the biggest increase in more than eight years.

In addition, business optimism in the United States surged to a record high of 80% this past spring, according to Grant Thornton’s mid-market business survey. Fox business reports that new orders for key U.S.-made capital goods increased more than expected, with shipments rising for the eighth straight month.   

Unfortunately, not all boats are rising with this tide. As bankruptcy law experts Wanda Borges and Bruce Nathan reminded attendees at the recent BCCA Media Credit Seminar in New York, this year’s bankruptcy filings by Toys R Us and Payless Shoes starkly illustrate the impact of e-commerce on many brick and mortar businesses.

 Online/Digital Advertising

E-commerce, which Forbes expects to soar to new heights in the upcoming holiday shopping season, is clearly a driving force behind digital media spending. BIA/Kelsey’s analysis shows that the combined spending on all forms of digital advertising will amount to $46.3 billion this year. That figure encompasses mobile and online spending at TV, radio, and newspaper sites as well as “pure-play” platforms like Google. In comparison, less than half that amount — $22.3 billion — will be spent on local television.   

One area of traditional spending that has remained resilient is direct mail, which represents 24% of the total spend ($27.7 billion); however, it is predicted to dip to 21.6% by 2021. Those dollars will likely join the shift away from other traditional media into online/digital platforms, which are expected to grow by a 12% CAGR and total $71.4 billion by 2021.

Social Media And Cross-Platform Advertising

BIA/Kelsey predicts digital media spending at local TV stations will represent 0.8% of all local ad spending in 2018 and rise to 0.9% by 2021. During this same period, broadcast or OTA (over the air) spending will decline from 13.6% to 12.7%.

Although total spending on television accounts for only 14.4% of the total local spend, it represents nearly two-thirds (64.8%) of all video ad spending. With market projections showing that the future of media consumption will be dominated by mobile video viewing, this stronghold on the video ad market underlies the assertions about the importance of ATSC 3.0 as both a platform for content delivery and advanced advertising.  

In the meantime, local stations are using social media platforms to both grow on-air viewership and to deliver content. BIA/Kelsey’s analysis finds that a strong social presence can aid mid-market stations as well as the stations in the top 25 DMAs (designated marketing areas). For example, stations in the Jacksonville, Fla. (DMA 42), Richmond-Petersburg, Va. (55) and Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C./Ashville, N.C. (38), DMAs ranked 6, 7 and 10, respectively, in average engagement-to-audience in the most recent quarter, based on combined analysis by BIA/Kelsey and Share Rocket.

National Brands

Capitalizing on marketing dollars from national brands has been an elusive opportunity for local TV stations. “Brands get a lift in their campaigns (when they buy local TV advertising) but it has been difficult to do it,” BIA/Kelsey’s Buono noted. “We see that changing with programmatic advertising.”

As attendees at last month’s TVNewsCheck TV2020 conference learned, programmatic solutions are almost within local TV’s reach. A report on the conference by MFM’s member magazine editor, Janet Stilson, for this publication explains that these include Publicis Media’s $50 million automated buy involving TV stations in 90 markets.

Another opportunity for TV stations is the $50 billion in local advertising that is subsidized by national brands and manufacturers. MFM’s November Distance Learning webinar presented by LSA Recas Co-op Advertising's Tim Brennan, explored “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” sides of the topic. I will share his insights in my next column.  

Political Advertising

TV station ad revenues will also benefit from next year’s political advertising, which BIA/Kelsey’s Fratrik sees as “a major factor” in the outlook for local TV advertising. How major? The Cook Political Reportsummarizes Kantar Media’s prediction of total spending to include $2.4 billion for local broadcast and $850 million for local cable.

Increased demand for spot advertising will likely result in higher rates as local businesses compete for inventory. Demand for spot will also be influenced by planned increases in TV ad budgets. BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor survey of more than 1,000 small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) found more than half (54.7%) plan to increase their TV ad budgets in 2018 compared to 6.4% that plan to decrease spending.

With respect to vertical ad categories, automakers will dominate OTA TV ad spending at nearly $3.9 billion, followed by hospitals ($703 million), supermarkets ($702 million), wireless carriers ($691 million), and full-service restaurants ($619 million).

ATSC 3.0

As I mentioned above, BIA/Kelsey views broadcast television’s upgrade to ATSC 3.0 as a major vehicle for increasing CAGR by an additional 2 percentage points, from 3% to 5%. Buono’s comment to webinar participants was unequivocal: “ATSC 3.0 is a game changer for local TV, both in terms of competing for viewership and with respect to revenue sources.”

To illustrate the possibilities for new revenue potential, he used the example of geo-targeting involving hospital advertisers in the Washington, D.C., market. He predicted that in the year 2021, this would increase TV’s ad share from 28.2% to 30.2%, representing an additional $1.4 million in ad revenue. The firm’s analysis indicates that these types of opportunities will enable large and medium market stations to recoup their 3.0 investment within three years

Stay Tuned

The industry’s implementation of 3.0 is guaranteed to be a major topic of discussion for many months to come. There will be no shortage issues including multicasting ATSC 1.0, MVPD carriage of 3.0 signals, and the inclusion of 3.0 chips in smartphones and other portable media devices. Despite the number of challenges that must be overcome, market research from BIA/Kelsey concludes that local television will not enjoy the same future success without it.

Here at MFM (and BCCA, the industry’s credit association), we will do our very best to explore and share the data and insights that can help stations capitalize on these opportunities. This includes focusing on 3.0 during our 2018 annual conference, Media Finance Focus 2018, in our Distance Learning webinars, and in upcoming issues of our member magazine, The Financial Manager.

MFM’s mission is to provide the media industry with financial education, information sharing, and opportunities to discuss issues with peers. To be successful we need to know about the topics that are important to you and your organization. Please continue to post your comments and send emails.

Mary M. Collins is president and CEO of the Media Financial Management Association and its BCCA subsidiary, the media industry’s credit association. She can be reached at mary.collins@mediafinance.org and via the association’s LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook sites.

 

David Bianculli: The Evolution of Late Night Television

by David BianculliNovember 19, 2017 10:00 am

NBCU Photo Bank

THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON -- Pictured: Johnny Carson as Carnac the Magnificent

When the very first Tonight! show premiered on September 27, 1954, host Steve Allen issued a warning that the broadcast would last until 1am. “I want to give you the bad news first,” he said. “This program is going to go on forever!”

He was right to prepare the audience. Back then, if you wanted to see what was happening, your sole choice was to settle in. That would remain true for decades: There was no VCR or DVR, no curated assortment of online clips to watch over coffee the next day. You either caught Johnny Carson doing his bit as Carnac the Magnificent—or you missed out.

Cut to 2017, and the landscape has changed drastically. The hours on either side of midnight are no longer where the magic happens—for the viewers or the hosts. The late-night wars are being waged differently. Sure, ratings are still compiled, and being No. 1 has its bragging rights. But these days, the real win isn’t keeping folks pinned to their sofas. Just the opposite: It’s disseminating “greatest hits” moments to them far and wide—to be consumed in offices, on public transportation, via Facebook—long after the credits have rolled.

THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON -- Episode 0634 -- Pictured: (l-r) Actress Jennifer Lopez and host Jimmy Fallon during a Dance Battle on March 1, 2017

The Jimmys—The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live!—were the first to capitalize on the turning tides. In 2010, Fallon did his first “History of Rap” segment with Justin Timberlake, followed by the host’s impersonation of Neil Young, performing a duet with the real Bruce Springsteen. Or Kimmel’s 2009 bit in which then-girlfriend Sarah Silverman sang the hilarious (and catchy) ditty “I’m F---ing Matt Damon.”

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE: GAME NIGHT - “Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night” s

That video has since been played over 18 million times. To put that in context, Kimmel’s nightly show pulls in around 2.5 million viewers. This year alone, his various clips have scored 668 million YouTube hits.

In its usual 12:37am slot, The Late Late Show With James Corden averages 1.3 million viewers. That’s small potatoes, considering that his 2016 “Carpool Karaoke” with Adele—a giddily enjoyable sing-along—is the reigning late-night viral-video champ, with over 170 million views and counting.

Miley Cyrus and James Corden perform in a Carpool Karaoke during "The Late Late Show with James Corden,"

The public’s appetite for bite-size content only appears to be growing, and the subject matter is expanding accordingly. Kimmel has made millions chuckle over his recurring “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets” segments and also gotten plenty of attention for weighty think pieces on topics like gun control and health care.

For fans of late-night, this shift away from appointment viewing represents both a victory and a loss. The accessibility is a win: It’s easy to get dialed in, on our own time and terms. We don’t have to pick favorites. But as we phase out the habit of watching programs in their entirety, we’re also losing the delight of the slow build and the element of surprise. And then there’s the inherent issue of what happens when something is too available. Once the sense of urgency has vanished completely, could not caring that much be far behind?

David Bianculli: 'Meet the Press' Turns 70

The first episode aired in 1947 when Harry S. Truman was President.

Personally, I’m choosing to stave that off by committing to watching one show all the way through. It’s the U.K. import The Graham Norton Show, which airs on Saturday nights (10/9c, BBC America). It doesn’t structure itself around creating viral-video bits, and it’s a joy to behold from start to finish simply because of the clever repartee. Anyone else care to join me in that conversation?

David Bianculli is a TV and film professor at Rowan University, New Jersey, and appears as a critic and guest host on NPR’s Fresh Air With Terry Gross.

Local Broadcast 'Interface' Initiative Is Like Deja Vu All Over Again

 

·       by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, 7 hours ago

There's something ironic about a plan being announced this morning by a consortium of local TV broadcasters to develop a standard interface to accelerate electronic trading with advertisers and agencies. The irony is that electronic media trading began with local broadcasters and it is now coming full circle.

Remember “electronic data interchange”? No? How about “eBiz"? Not that either? Well, those were the ad industry’s earliest attempts to trade media electronically -- beginning with avail requests and then on through invoices, verification and payments and posting.

Of course, some of these processes have already gone digital, especially the back-end parts powered by the likes of Mediaocean.

For those who don't recall, it was in the late '90s, up through the dot-com crash of 2000, when much of the attention in electronic trading was on traditional media, especially broadcast -- not digital.

 

Following the dot-com crash, many of those traditional media trading initiatives floundered or went dormant, but digital marched along, especially Google’s structuring of the paid search marketplace via AdWords, and ultimately the emergence of a biddable digital display advertising marketplace.

A couple of decades later, broadcasters are back at it.  The consortium announced this morning the TIP Initiative. (TIP is an acronym that stands for TV Interface Practices.)

The group, including Nexstar Media, Sinclair Broadcast, TEGNA and Tribune Media,  says the renewed effort recognizes that “local TV industry has struggled with the manual nature of the advertising buying and selling process for many years.”

Given the speed with which the industry has embraced electronic trading its first couple of decades, I’d say the struggle will continue for many more years, except I happen to know about some other concurrent efforts.

Also, there's the fact that if local broadcast media cannot adopt to electronic trading, it will become increasingly irrelevant. More on that another time.

In the meantime, TIP’s organizers say they are building their protocol around the following principles:

·       Local television is the most powerful brand-building medium, connecting marketers with consumers and advertisers. Both brands and broadcasters will benefit from the best automation.

·       While demand is high for local television ad inventory, transactional friction has created challenges for buyers.

·       System-to-system electronic processes can streamline the buying of local spot media; however, creating interoperability takes coordination across multiple broadcast companies.

·       Standards-based interfaces are the best way of encouraging the needed system-to-system interchange of transactional information.

·       Standard API interfaces set the stage for advanced local TV and ATSC 3.0, and will greatly enhance the efficiency of buying local media by U.S. advertising agencies.

 

 

Want Local TV In Future? Get A New Set!

COMMENTARY

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 8 hours ago

HDTV sets? 4KTV TV sets? Maybe it’s time for a change. How about new ATSC 3.0 TV sets?

New technology for local TV stations could mean another TV set purchase for consumers — which is good and bad news.

This comes as local TV stations modernize, looking to compete with new digital media players, which have plenty of valuable targeting and ROI metrics, but not the scale that TV stations have.

The FCC has now approved “Next Gen” technology — the ATSC 3.0 standard. Long-term critics of the move believed TV consumers would eventually be forced to buy new TV sets. In the near term, consumers might need new set-top-box technology to accommodate ATSC 3.0.

For the first five years, under the new rules, TV stations will need to simulcast current TV standard digital signals along with new ATSC 3.0 signals. After that, consumers will need TV sets with ATSC 3.0 tuners or “external tuners” — a stand-alone box or "stick" via HDMI connection — to receive network and local TV programming over-the-air.

Nice. And you thought your Ultra HDTV would last for at least a decade.

With current methods, a TV measurer can only determine the size of the household and some particular consumer purchase behavior. But much of this isn’t in real-time, and they don’t know who in the household is watching.

For advertisers, next-generation local TV station technology is a big deal. Marketers have long asked for better buying, targeting and accounting capabilities for local commercials.

But what if all this is for naught — and viewing conditions don’t stay the same? What if local TV station viewership keeps declining, and there is more fractionalization vs. other digital media, so the positive aspect of its “scale” is diminished?

Separately, what becomes of younger TV viewers with less interest in traditional TV? Where does that leave TV stations’ network partners? Big media company/network groups could just accelerate the pursuit of network-specific digital platforms — live, linear services and/or on-demand TV/video sites.  

Finally, it seems the “screen” is king, rather than the “content.” In that vein, TV networks should get into the TV set manufacturer business —something they did at the dawn of the TV age, about 80 years ago.

After all, TV networks always talk about building “direct-to-consumer” businesses. Now, they can really mean it.