After Strong 2H 2020, Q1 Sports Ad Spend Down 28% YoY

• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, Yesterday

Although the U.S. advertising market as a whole saw record expansion in March, ad spend across major sports leagues in this year’s first quarter was below 2020 levels, according to Q1 data from MediaRadar.

After plummeting 84% year-over-year in last year’s second quarter (from $1.4 billion to $221.74 million) due to pandemic-forced shutdowns, ad spending on NFL, NASCAR, NBA, MLB and NHL games and events rebounded strongly during the rest of 2020, as games and limited seasons resumed.

In Q3, year-over-year ad spend significantly exceeded 2019 levels, leaping 59%, from $1.29 billion to 2.05 billion.

The same pattern applied in Q4, the biggest sports quarter of the year, when ad spend rose 9.5% YoY, from $4.02 billion to $4.4 billion.

However, the $1.99 billion spent in this year’s first quarter — while 23% higher than 2019’s $1.62 billion, was down 28% versus largely pre-pandemic Q1 2020’s $2.75 billion.

Looking at by-category trends, despite the overall drop in spending in Q2 2020, the relative shares of total spend for three of sports’ largest categories — tech, finance and entertainment — saw only modest changes between 2019 and 2020.

Automotive saw the largest decline during 2020, from a 15% share to 12%, reflecting a 10% decrease in overall sports spending during the year.

Tech’s share declined from 16% to 15%.

Finance and entertainment each picked up 1 percentage point, for 2020 shares of 15% and 13%, respectively.

Overall, the tech, finance, and entertainment categories spent $3.9 billion in 2020 — up 13% versus 2019.

MediaRadar's data reflect advertising analysis of more than 3.1 million brands across media platforms including TV, digital, mobile, email, social media and print.  

 

IAB: Ad 'Confidence' Has Surged, Less Frequent Reviews Of Budgets

• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, Yesterday

U.S. advertising executives with a "purview" for 2021 ad spending -- both advertisers and media agency planners and buyers -- are significantly more confident about their ad budgets for the duration of this year than they were when surveyed late last year, according to the latest edition of a tracking study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Sixty-one percent of the 275 executives interviewed by the IAB in March and April said they are either "very confident" or "confident" in the "stability" of their ad budgets for the remainder of this year.

While the IAB delineated responses differently to a similar question asked in November 2020, the trade association's analysts implied it's a marked improvement in ad executive confidence. (In the November 2020 interviews, the IAB outputted the responses on a six point scale ranging from "firm 2021 full year budgets" to "no idea," see our coverage here.)

"Ad buyer optimism for 2021 has increased in just the past five months," the new IAB report asserts, adding, "Confidence in 2021 ad budgets has reduced the need for frequent re-examination and reallocation of spend, which was common in 2020 (see data below).

In November 2020, 29% of ad execs said they were reviewing their media budgets monthly vs. only 15% currently.

 

COMMENTARY

NextGen TV May Be Able To Fact-Check News Content

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 8 hours ago

Plenty of websites offer fact-checking of news stories. But those can be a little daunting for the average TV news consumer -- and a bit of work.

New ATSC 3.0 technology on TV stations -- so-called NextGen TV-- promises lots, in the way of advanced advertising, interactive opportunity and streaming programming.

Now some reports suggest ATSC 3.0 might also be a tool to identify fake news and distinguish it from the real stuff. Few details have been disclosed, but this would be an incredible marketing draw for avid TV news consumers -- especially those who also consume news content from social media.

At the outset, all this seems like some instructional tool for consumers to use to make their own decisions.

For example, could there be a high-tech approach to communicating an on-screen video/display tag touting the veracity of a piece of content?

TV Watch has worried that consumers don’t have much time to comb through all the vagaries of newsgathering and distribution. Veteran news/media reporters can spend a lot of time doing this -- and they get paid for it.

Perhaps interactive screens can appear via a special remote with a "verify news content" button. That would be easier than linking to an online digital fact-checking site.

It gets a bit more complicated. Some news could be half-correct, mostly correct, or totally a fabrication. Many fact-checking sites already offer different degrees of real versus fake news content.

Now, if you are a local TV advertiser on a local TV station that runs news programming, does this make a difference to your media buy?

And while much of this would seem to be an attack specifically on social-media platforms -- which, according to analysts, distribute lots of fake news -- what if local TV stations have their own problems with questionable news content?

Errors in judgment, quick content decisions and outright mistakes can happen anywhere.

 

COMMENTARY

Media Buyers Are Upping Digital Video's 2021 Budget Share, But Also Linear's

• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, 18 minutes ago

Media buyers surveyed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau at the end of this year’s first quarter plan to increase U.S. spending for digital video, including CTV/OTT, to 20% of their total media budgets this year — up from an average of 13% in IAB’s last survey, conducted in November 2020.

However, it's not a case of more money coming out of linear TV, which is now expected to command an 18% share of total media spend, on average — up from 15% in November. (Chart above.)

Instead, all other traditional media are set to take a hit, with their share pegged at just 10% -- down from 14% in November.

Search is also being somewhat de-prioritized, with its share downgraded from 16% to 13%, as are podcasts, digital audio and digital out-of-home, which in combination are set for a 9% share, versus 12% as of November.

Also, in a separate question, most buyers confirmed that their 2021 linear TV investments will match or exceed 2020’s, although 37% each expect to allocate less to linear upfronts and the scatter market.

As far as buying methods go, more than half (54%) of CTV buyers say they'll be allocating more of that channel’s investment to programmatic buying than in 2020, while most indicate their allocations for the NewFronts, traditional TV upfronts and the scatter market will be about the same.

Most who buy digital video also said that reserve-based buying will probably (52%) or definitely (27%) become more “scatter-like” as programmatic continues to grow.  

Two-thirds (64%) of those who buy digital video use self-serve bidding platforms for buying, either through a partner (51%) or an in-house platform (13%).

Asked why they invest in digital video, nearly three quarters (72%) cited its wide audience, followed by 60% citing its reach to young consumers.

Looking at other types of investments, ATV followers take note: 56% plan to invest in addressable TV, and that’s up 18% versus November.

Investment in first-party data acquisition and partnerships has seen the largest increase in prioritization since November — up 26%, with 64% now citing this as a priority. Not terribly surprising, given Google’s phasing out of cookies Apple’s looming location tracking opt-in, and privacy regulations, of course.

Still, social platform ad placements, measurement KPIs and search platform ad placements get somewhat higher prioritization than first-party data — and all of those saw double-digit increases in the percentages citing them, versus November’s survey.

 

IAB’s latest survey also shows media buyers expressing significantly more confidence in their advertising budgets now than in November, and being considerably less apt to review their media budgets on a weekly basis.

For the latest research, IAB surveyed 275 brand and agency executives with “purview” over 2021 U.S. advertising spend. Sample size varied by question.

COMMENTARY Millennials, Gen Z: What's Trending, 1 Year Into Pandemic

 

COMMENTARY

Millennials, Gen Z: What's Trending, 1 Year Into Pandemic

• by Kathy Sheehan , Op-Ed Contributor, April 12, 2021

One year into the pandemic, priorities have changed for businesses and young adults alike.  Here are the trends uncovered by recent research among Gen Z and millennials, along with comments from four female entrepreneurs.

Mental health: The pandemic had an economic impact on millennials and a cultural, social impact on Gen Z.

Ninety-two percent of young adults said they are more self-aware, notably when it comes to mental health. Young adults expect to be asked about their mental health status and expect brands to join the discussion. This means exploring mental health in campaigns and engaging with customers on ways to assist. As young people reevaluate their life, how are they navigating the journey -- and how can your brand help?

“Physical, mental, and emotional can’t be looked at independently,” said Elianna Goldstein, co-founder/CEO at GETMr. “When I have a great purse, how does this affect my confidence during the day? Or if I wear nice clothes or not on a Zoom? [Small acts such as these] can drive our long-term health.”

Life experiences: Young adults went from having FOMO (fear of missing out), to NOMO (NO MOments), to magnifying the memories they have, and are now living in a meaningful and intentional way. Actions matter and are carefully considered. The pandemic forced many to miss out on life events like weddings, graduations and prom.

Gen Z under-20-years-old enjoyed being home, spending time with their families and growing closer to their parents. They craved a sense of security, and unlike older Gen Z and millennials, feel no real sense of loss because it’s hard to miss what they never experienced.

Advertising: A new sense of brand discovery.  

When Gen Z and millennials purchase something they saw online, they are increasingly reporting that it is something they “found” --  nothing about how a targeted ad appeared in their timeline. Advertising is so organic that people don’t realize they are being advertised to. Millennials have more of a spending budget than Gen Z, but the younger demographic plays a vital role in driving sales to brands, even when they aren’t the ones buying. Gen Z introduces brands to their followers, friends, and family.

“Our company was very much founded on Instagram,” said Vanessa Holfert, senior vice president of marketing at Slumberkins. “The primary purchaser of our product has always been the millennial audience. Millennials are so important, but we’re also seeing a really interesting trend that young audiences are actually increasing their conversion rates with us year over year.”

Is your brand ready to celebrate? When the pandemic hit and everyone started hoarding toilet paper and hand sanitizer, consumers went online for some comfort buying. Now that millions of people are vaccinated and group restrictions are lifting, friends and family will gather together, and last year’s comfort buy will be this year’s celebration purchase. Can your brand handle the influx?

“As more people get vaccinated we’ll see an energy where people are going out, celebrating, partying, enjoying life and not taking it for granted,” said Wilglory Tanjong, founder of Anima Iris. “We’re going to see a continual ecommerce boom that smaller businesses should prepare for. [The pandemic] will forever change how people view themselves and how they view the world.”

COMMENTARY Why Losing Targeting Is A Good Thing For Advertisers

 

COMMENTARY

Why Losing Targeting Is A Good Thing For Advertisers

•  Lauren Beerling , Yesterday

Major players in advertising continue to make announcements about the loss of data. There’s the death of the keyword, removal of tried-and-true match types, increased privacy restrictions, loss of audience targeting, the removal of cookies — the list goes on. This is bad, right?

It’s complicated. Personas have long been the holy grail of targeting. Take Jeff. Jeff is a 30– to-45-year-old father who loves the outdoors. We want to target him, but how? The answer has always been to build keyword lists and audience targeting matching the Jeff persona. But immediately, this limits our audience.

But, don’t we want to limit our audience? Here’s the reality: There are a finite number of Jeffs, and he might be expensive to capture. Your audience of 100,000 Jeffs is limited to 20,000 because, for most of them, you need to pay more than $100 to convert.

Brands should stop focusing on personas and instead turn to profitability. Is it really important for Jeff to convert if Megan, a single 56-year-old who loves the spa, is ready to?

This exemplifies why the changes Google is making to targeting actually do advertisers a favor. It puts targeting in the hands of the machines, which can find users faster and more accurately than marketers. That doesn’t mean marketers are out of a job. Actually, the opposite is the case. The key is leaning into what machines versus humans should be in charge of.

The machines know more about users than marketers do. The algorithms are watching what users are doing and categorizing them. This process will always take place, whether or not Google and other platforms share this information with advertisers.

Not only do machines have access to more information than marketers, but they act on information in real time. The fastest marketers can make decisions is a few hours after the searches and activity happened.

There’s still a lot that machines can’t do:

-- Machines don’t have the business information marketers have. They don’t know at which point a CPA sees diminished returns against profitability. Organizing and standing up offline data is an important role that a platform can’t achieve on its own. Platforms need the input from marketers on profitability and points of diminished returns to remain successful. 

-- A machine can’t make optimizations to your website. Leveraging automation doesn’t mean there is no optimization to be done, it simply changes what we’re optimizing. Rather than negative keywords and placements, marketers can focus on conversion rate optimization, site structure, and content.

-- Machines are self-attributing and don’t play nice together. Facebook and Google will never share information with each other. Google will always show analyses and data that prove why brands should spend more money with Google. Humans are needed for our expertise in multi-touch attribution.

 Ultimately, the loss of targeting information is a benefit. Instead of starting with narrow audiences and continuing to narrow said audience through cost per acquisition (CPA) and return on advertising spend (ROAS) goals, we can flip it.

By focusing first on CPA and ROAS goals, we can effectively scale to whichever user is meeting those goals. By letting go of targeting and focusing on results-based campaigns, brands can have the best of both worlds and drive both volume and efficiency.

Let go of your keyword and audience data. Let the machines show you who your “Jeff” is while they work their magic. But don’t forget where to maximize success.

 

COMMENTARY

Why Your Post-Pandemic Digital Strategy Should Include Live Video

• by Caitlin Fairchild , over 1 hour ago

Livestreaming, often an afterthought of social media strategy, became the key to engagement and massive audience growth during the pandemic. In March 2020, hip-hop artists Timbaland and Swizz Beatz pitted their musical talents against one another on Instagram Live for the Web series Verzuz.

Subsequent episodes featured other artists going head to head, drawing in huge viewership numbers. By August, the brand had partnered with Apple’s streaming service, driving numbers even higher. A battle between Gucci Mane and Jeezy pulled in 9.1 million live viewers across streaming platforms. 

Verzuz battles weren't the only thing viewers tuned in for. Google reported in June 2020that watch time for live content was up 250% over the previous year. On Facebook, live viewings spiked by 50% during lockdown periods. TikTok use skyrocketed in 2020, with more than 100 million monthly active users in the U.S. by August.

Like many COVID adaptations, livestreaming boomed during the pandemic—but it's not going away. While CMOs are rushing to develop marketing campaigns to embrace the “return to normal,” livestreaming should not be tossed aside.

In a Mashable post, Columbia professor Eli Noam explained the format was on the rise before the pandemic. "This is not temporary. The temporary situation is the accelerant," Noam noted.

Live video gives brands an algorithmic advantage on competitive platforms and builds a library of social videos that can be reshared when relevant. Brands can track how many people are watching—and more importantly—how they’re reacting to what they watch, generating meaningful data to shape messaging.

People are still clamoring for more live video.  According to Sprout’s 2020 Social Index, 40% of consumers report wanting to see more live video from brands. A survey conducted by Vimeo Livestream and New York magazine found 82% of people prefer live video to social media posts. Twitch, a platform dedicated to livestreaming, logged over 1.6 billion hours of viewed content in October 2020, increasing its year-over-year monthly viewership totals by 99%.

Livestreaming resonates for two reasons: authenticity and accessibility. Livestreamed content is more human-driven and organic, and less likely to feel like a marketing ploy. People can participate in the conversation, comment on what they are watching, and engage with the streamer or with other viewers. This participation was crucial for our well-being during the pandemic, but will remain key afterwards.

Attending in-person events often isn’t easy or feasible for people with young children, those who live in rural areas, or are simply on a budget. It can be nearly impossible for many people with disabilities. These groups got a taste of access during the pandemic, and they will continue to expect this same level of access.

While many of us can’t wait for the return to in-person events and experiences, livestreaming should not become an afterthought. Brands now have the ability to truly connect with their audiences—anywhere and any time—without formality or pretense. It’s time to unlock the potential of one of the most powerful communication tools available.

 

Could The Pandemic Or A Boycott Trip Up Another Olympics?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 9, 2021

The 2020 Summer Tokyo Olympics were postponed until this year, due to the pandemic. But what about current pandemic issues? Now consider the 2022 Beijing Winter Games coming in February. That’s a more complicated question.

Let’s first start with a potential resurgence of the pandemic virus in this summer's Tokyo games. The numbers are a big issue for thousands of athletes, spectators and participants. Government officials have yet to talk about restricting attendance. Reports say many of Japan’s citizens aren't vaccinated.

Now, look several months out to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. It’s still possible the virus may make havoc there, too. And that’s not the end of that story.

The issue of alleged human-rights violations by China is something nations are considering n terms of a response. The word “boycott” has been floated.

For its part, after some conflicting reports, the U.S. State Department says this is not the case. While they are not talking boycott, they have specific concerns over human rights.

The Olympics is a massive moneymaking machine for NBCUniversal, which airs the two-week event every other year.

It regularly pulls in $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion in national TV advertising per event, with the Summer Games earning a bit more than the Winter Games. It is also a major marketing platform for U.S. companies.

Let’s talk boycotts: In 1980, the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Summer Games in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. In turn, the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Summer Olympics Games in 1984, claiming its athletes would not be safe from protests and possible physical attacks.

Concerning TV coverage, NBC aired far fewer images of the Moscow games than the planned 150-hour coverage. Many NBC affiliates even refused to air highlights in their local news coverage.

For NBCUniversal, there’s a bigger picture about sports content going forward -- a least over the next nine months.

The media company does well with the NFL’s “Sunday Night Football.” But beyond that, there is much less high-profile sports stuff that can be monetized in a big way. In fact, at the end of this year, it is abandoning NBCSN, its national sports TV channel.

By way of comparison, the only thing rivaling this is the $450 million or $500 million take from the Super Bowl. NBC is one of a handful of TV networks to get this plum assignment every couple of years, along with ABC, Fox and CBS.

At last count -- March 2020 -- NBC totaled $1.25 billion in national TV ad spend for the Tokyo Games. So, for the TV network group and U.S. based TV marketers, now what?

Has The Pandemic Opened Demand For Premium Streamer Growth?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Traditional TV upfront market of buying advertising time on live, linear TV networks is on the line again. And here’s a bottom-line question: How much money will actually go to premium streaming this year? $500 million? $1 billion?

This year -- more than ever -- we speak of owned platforms by legacy media companies calculating that possible ad-market size, such as NBCUniversal’s Peacock, ViacomCBS’ Paramount+, Disney’s Hulu, Fox’s Tubi, and the forthcoming platform from WarnerMedia’s HBO Max. And there are other interested third parties too.

Digital video has been around for some time.

We can narrow this down a bit when it comes to connected TV advertising spending -- estimated to hit $11 billion this year and $14 billion in 2022, according to eMarketer, looking at ads from Hulu, Roku and YouTube with data excluding “network sold” inventory via traditional linear TV advertising.

This data has some relationship to the $20 billion or so legacy national TV networks pull in each spring and summer -- advertising placed throughout a September-August TV season. Total national TV advertising totals over $46 billion overall annually, according to Standard Media Index.

A pandemic awakening to premium streaming is surely a major element in the possible motivation for marketers to move. In addition, media executives have been complaining about lower ratings, bad TV network viewer estimates and rising prices for decades. And this year, there has been even more disruption.

Still, even with standard TV viewership erosion, major TV brand advertisers have been reluctant to shift away from long-protected legacy TV networks' low-base pricing, which benefits loyal TV marketers.

While many have been moving ad dollars to Facebook, Google and more recently Amazon are keeping a significant portion of TV advertising dollars on TV networks -- due to highly promoted, recognized content -- is still a thing. The Super Bowl, the Olympics, and the NFL are still a major factor for brands on the awareness track.

Yes, that last comment does relate to sports. But it also offers up what marketers believe is important: Getting massive reach and scale of U.S. consumers in easily accessible video content.

All this is rapidly expanding, especially around streaming content of now well-known TV and movie brands. TV marketers will follow these paths of least resistance.

 

Beyond "career fear" for women leaders 

Lori Kaiser

 

 

April 12, 2021 

 

 

Leadership

 

 Careers

Pexels

http://As vaccination deployment continues to expand, it has become apparent that many women in leadership roles will soon give up our side gig of home-schooling children and being short-order cooks all day long.

It is well-documented that women have been negatively impacted professionally during the past year of the pandemic. An analysis by the National Women’s Law Center found that 80% of the 1.1 million workers over the age of 20 who left the workforce in September 2020 were women.

In addition, 34% of men working from home with children said they received a promotion during the pandemic, while 9% of women received a promotion in the same situation, reported an August 2020 study by Qualtrics and theBoardlist. In terms of pay, 26% of men with children at home received a pay raise during remote working, compared to 13% of women with children at home.

The optimism building around the reopening of the economy means women can start to think of career progression again – a critical professional development journey that largely has been on hold for more than a year. A survey conducted years before the pandemic by London Business School discovered 70% of women feel anxious about taking a career break, which is similar to the break pushed on many women during the peak of COVID-19.

It’s time for women to again consider what the future holds. Is it a promotion? A job change? A lateral move within your current business? And yet, many women will not take the leap to be their own champion, to step up on their own behalf and to drive this consideration.

Historically, telling people where we want to go or what we believe we deserve feels outside our comfort zone. Why? Because young girls have been taught to “get along and go along” and “it is not polite to talk about yourself.”

Harvard Business Review once defined imposter syndrome as “a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. ‘Imposters’ suffer from chronic self-doubt and a sense of intellectual fraudulence that override any feelings of success or external proof of their competence.” According to a survey by KPMG, 75% of executive women experienced imposter syndrome at points in their career, while 85% believe imposter syndrome is commonly experienced by women in the corporate world, particularly women of color.

Women are not good at advocating for themselves. I get it. I felt impostor syndrome for most of my career. I never felt good enough or deserving enough.

That lasted up until the time I finally realized that these ideas and these images of myself were the very things holding me back. Here are lessons I’ve learned:

• Career fear is real. Recognizing it is the first step toward addressing it.
• Fear is good. If you only do things you are not afraid of, then you will never grow.
• Fear is normal. We must normalize the idea that fear is relevant and appropriate when you are learning and growing.
• Fear is a path to leadership. It is the positive actions that result from fear that set leaders apart.
• Fear can be comfortable. Once you become comfortable with fear and with taking steps into that fear, then your tolerance of fear increases, and women leaders can “get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
• Fear, unchecked, is a barrier to success. Women often do not progress as fast as men in their careers because of fear. Even when they have the skills and knowledge, women often hesitate to engage.

The good news is, understanding the specific impacts of fear will help women get beyond it.

• Fear of failing. You will fail. And you will learn. You will be persistent. You will get back up and you will try again. Just like we watched our kids when they were learning to walk. They did not give up and neither should you.
• Fear of making the wrong decisions. Women do well when they trust their gut and intuition. A wrong decision is better than no decision, and no decision is a standstill.
• Fear of being judged. You are the keeper of your own life. You define you: Never cede that position to anyone else.
• Fear of not being liked. Remember that you earn trust and respect (and ultimately, likeability) through being a strong leader. Moving forward, even in fear, builds leadership.
• Fear of sacrificing family. Working women are strong role models for their children, and moms are outstanding multitaskers. You can have a career and a family.

Being fearful is part of the journey for women in careers. Facing fears, embracing them and working through them can be done. It all starts with the courage to overcome your fears.

 

Lori Kaiser is a CEO, corporate leader, visionary and business strategist with a proven track record in assessing risk and creating solutions for Fortune 500 C-level executives and boards. As CEO of Kaiser Consulting, Kaiser provides clients’ value-based services that allow organizations to navigate transitions and successfully execute critical projects. She is considered a trusted adviser to executive management on issues of risk identification and mitigation, mergers, acquisitions, and integrations. Kaiser founded and has led the firm to nearly 30 years of successive revenue growth, achieving multimillion-dollar revenues.

 

U.S. Now Has More Streaming Subscriptions Than People: Report

• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, 8 hours ago

There are now nearly 340 million subscription contracts to OTT streaming services in the U.S., exceeding the country’s 330-million population, according to a new report from Ampere Analysis.

Ampere’s latest wave of consumer research, for Q1 2021, found the average U.S. consumer reporting subscribing to four-plus subscription VOD services, and one-quarter subscribing to five or more. 

More than half (57%) said that SVODs are the main way they watch TV and film. Two-thirds said they regularly binge-watch TV on the services — more than in any other developed market.

“In 2020, pay TV penetration dropped below 60% for the first time — down from more than 80% at the beginning of 2015 — with  consumers increasingly shifting to SVOD services,” commented Ampere Research Manager Toby Holleran. “Alongside growth from the pandemic, 2020 also saw the U.S. launch of both Peacock and HBO Max, which grew the market even further.” 

With other new services entering the market and consumers becoming accustomed to curating their own content/services portfolios, streaming services “stacking” is likely to show continued growth, he said.

 

Nielsen: Long-Term TV Viewing Changes Part Of Larger Trend

• by Wayne Friedman , April 9, 2021

Amid concerns of alleged undercounting of TV usage, Nielsen says while total TV usage has declined, this is part of an overall long-term trend. It is not related specifically to COVID-19 pandemic disruption of servicing its TV household panel.

“A shift has been happening for the last several years,” says Mainak Mazumdar, Chief Data And Research Officer at Nielsen, speaking with Television News Daily. “And what we see is that the shift has been accelerated over the last four months.”

For example, in the first quarter of 2021, an average 19.1% of persons 2+ were using TV across total day -- down from 20.8% in the first quarter of 2019. This data includes all TV use -- traditional, live, time-shifted and streaming.

The VAB, the TV advertising trade group, has slammed Nielsen's undercounting of TV usage, due to a 20% decline in the number of TV homes in the Nielsen panel. It blames the lack of field agents regularly servicing Nielsen in-home TV panel of around 40,000 homes.

But Mazumdar says field agents have been working remotely with its TV panel homes, as well as shifting to other new technology. “We love to be at the peak of our sample size, but we are not there yet,” he says. “Despite all our efforts, we see a decline in the sample size.”

Although Nielsen’s standard error level did witness a slight uptick, he adds: “Statistically speaking, there is no material difference in the measurement of our ratings, across demo rates, across geography.”

The VAB says the 20% drop so called “in-tab” TV homes -- usable TV data -- amounted to roughly 7,000 homes, lowering the Nielsen panel to around 29,000 in the first three months of this year.

Nielsen disputes this, claiming the current TV home number is higher. In addition, Mazumdar says, it has kept the sample size stable to that of the U.S. population.

Starting in October 2020 -- the traditional commencement of the TV season for many big prime-time networks -- Nielsen says there has been a dramatic shift, with a drop in traditional TV viewership.

Nielsen points to TV production disruptions -- 13% fewer new episodes on traditional TV in October compared with the same month in 2019. Also, there was aa 75% increase in repeat programming.

Nielsen says there were significant changes in total TV viewing consumption in the third quarter of 2020 versus the second quarter of that year. Total day TV use of persons 2+ declined to 18.5% (versus 18.9% in third-quarter 2019). In the second quarter, consumption was up 21% (versus 19% the year before).

But in both periods, usage on TV connected devices grew -- 5.6% in the second quarter (vs. 3.8% the year before) and 4.9 in third quarter (vs. 4.1% the year before).

Mazumdar also says there was more disruption and fragmentation last year of non-video media, including rising podcast usage. Streaming audio grew 39% between May 2020 and January 2021.

Given all the changes in media, Mazumdar says: “We feel pretty good the panel is measuring what it is supposed to.”

 

April Still Missing In-Person NAB Show, But Virtual NAB Show Premiere Starts Today.

• 13 hrs ago
 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Linkedin
• Email
• Print
• Save

The NAB Show will not be held for another six months, yet with the regular April event pushed back to October the National Association of Broadcasters is not leaving the spring calendar completely. It is hosting NAB Show Premiere, a series of webinars during the next several weeks that will touch on a variety of topics. The first will be held Monday (April 12) with a discussion about how the industry was impacted by the pandemic and other major events of the past year.

NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith will deliver opening remarks, with his just announced successor – NAB Chief Operating Officer Curtis LeGeyt – leading a panel that will include Salem Media Group President of Broadcast Media Dave Santrella, Graham Media Group President and CEO Emily Barr, and Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb. Topics will include broadcasters’ response to the pandemic, growing competition from social media and technology companies, promoting industry diversity and attacks on the First Amendment and journalism.

The virtual event will be streamed on NAB Amplify, the new online platform designed to connect the NAB Show community year-round.

NAB Show Premiere will span from April 12 to 23 with several other virtual events planned, including sessions that will highlight new product launches, award presentations and networking opportunities.

Among the sessions planned for next week are a presentation of the NAB’s TV Chairman’s Award to television personality Mario Lopez and an announcement of the winners of the 2021 NAB Crystal Radio Awards. Both will be streamed live on Tuesday, April 13.

For broadcasters looking for a more in-person event, the NAB Show will be held in Las Vegas from October 9-13. The companion Radio Show will be held October 13 and 14.

The NAB Show was preemptively moved from April to the October dates “due to the uncertainty over what the next six months will bring,” Smith said when announcing the decision in September 2020. Freeman Event Research’s trade show industry project survey found 68% of previous NAB Show attendees expected to attend in-person events by the fall, which times nicely with the October dates. The move will also help the NAB’s bottom line, since the trade group’s largest single source of revenue each year is the NAB Show.