Traditional Media Use Stabilizes as Online Rises January 29, 2009
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentOnline shopping and social networking jumped while TV news was flat.
Traditional media usage by Internet users in the US remained largely steady in 2008 after falling in 2007, judging by respondents to a Ketchum and USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center survey conducted in late 2008. For instance, less than two-thirds of respondents said they watched major network TV news, about the same as in 2007 but down from the 71% who said so in 2006. Traditional media use leveled off while use of shopping and social networking Websites rose sharply, increasing their attraction for marketers. Shopping sites, for example, more than doubled in popularity to be visited by 35% of Internet users in 2008. Ketchum and USC Annenberg also noted 44% of shopping site visitors read consumer reviews and comments, expanding the sites’ influence.
Read The Rest—>Traditional Media Use Stabilizes as Online Rises
Survey: Ad Execs Target Discovery, ESPN January 14, 2009
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentNEW YORK A new Beta Research survey of advertising executives suggests that clients may be spending more of their 2009 marketing dollars on cable networks like Discovery Channel and ESPN.
After polling 225 ad professionals — of which 150 were identified as agency players while the remaining 75 were culled from the client ranks — Beta found that 45 percent of respondents said they would increase their ad spending on Discovery this year, while 44 percent predicted they’d invest in more ESPN.
TBS was the third most-cited cable network in the Beta study, as 40 percent of those quizzed indicated that they would pick up more of the Turner network’s inventory in ’09. Food Network took fourth (39 percent), while top-rated USA Network finished just behind the Scripps flagship (38 percent).
Read The Rest—>Survey: Ad Execs Target Discovery, ESPN
TV Vets Partner for Web Series December 19, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentFifteen scribes including WGA West president Patric Verrone (‘Futurama’) will write short-form episodes
LOS ANGELES A gaggle of seasoned TV comedy writers are signing on to create a Web series for Machinima.com.
Fifteen scribes including WGA West president Patric Verrone (Futurama), Bill Oakley (The Simpsons) and Mike Rowe (Family Guy) will write short-form episodes to be produced, marketed and distributed by the site, which also is a popular channel on YouTube.
Machinima.com chairman and CEO Allen DeBevoise is looking to the TV pros to elevate machinima, a digital art form that appropriates existing or new video game characters as animation.
Read The Rest—>TV Vets Partner for Web Series
NBCU Reorg Could Alter Fate of Network, Insiders Believe December 11, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentNBCU is undergoing a restructuring at its studio and programming divisions. Angela Bromstad, most recently president of NBCU’s London-based international production unit, will head scripted programming for broadcast and the Universal Media Studios unit.
Former Dancing with the Stars producer Paul Telegdy will take over on unscripted and specials programming, writes Mediaweek.
Read The Rest—>NBCU Reorg Could Alter Fate of Network, Insiders Believe
Does New Media Hurt or Help TV? November 19, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentInsiders meet to discuss the future of the medium
Nov 19, 2008
NEW YORK A conference here Tuesday on the future of television turned up differing opinions about whether new-media options were hurting or helping TV ratings.
Several members of TV-heavy traditional media companies, including CBS Corp. and NBC Universal, said full-length Web videos on sites like Hulu and the broadcast networks’ own sites were starting to see some real traction with millions of users.
They said that it was helping, not hurting, TV use. Yet a forthcoming IBM study, which was presented in part on the first day of the Future of Television conference in lower Manhattan, showed that TV use is declining among a small but growing part of viewers who are watching TV shows on computers and mobile devices.
“It’s really now having an effect,” said William Serrao, an executive with IBM Global Business Services.
Read The Rest—>Does New Media Hurt or Help TV?
Supreme Court Hears Fox, FCC Arguments November 5, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentNEW YORK As most of Washington focused on the elections, the Supreme Court on Tuesday began oral arguments in the closely followed case centering on indecency and swearing on TV.
It was unclear where the majority of justices was leaning as the court began reviewing the case, Federal Communications Commission vs. Fox, to decide whether the agency can subject broadcasters to fines when they air so-called “fleeting expletives” on live TV broadcasts or even vulgar language on entertainment programming.
While observers expected to hear an occasional swear word as FCC and Fox attorneys discussed the issue with the justices, the use of such euphemisms as “the f-word” and “s-word” helped everyone avoid that, reports said.
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Google TV Ads Goes Direct, Literally: Integrates With Major Madison Avenue DR System October 16, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentIn a move that will embed its new TV ad buying system far deeper into the way some big agencies process media buys, Google this morning announced a deal that will seamlessly integrate data from its Google TV Ads platform into CoreDirect, a system used by some of Madison Avenue’s biggest shops – including Carat, Mindshare, Omnicom Media Group, and Zenith Media – to handle their direct response television advertising buys. The deal is significant, because it will make it far easier for agencies and direct response marketers to plan, buy and evaluate the performance of TV ads purchased through the Google TV Ads system, creating the kind of seamless flow of so-called “performance” data that to date has only been available via search ads through systems like Google’s AdSense system.
Read The Rest—->Google TV Ads Goes Direct, Literally: Integrates With Major Madison Avenue DR System
NBC Reorgs Local Media Into Single Div. November 26, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentNBC Reorgs Local Media Into Single Div.
Katy Bachman
NOVEMBER 26, 2007 –
NBC Universal joined ABC, CBS and Fox in recognizing the growing importance of multiplatform campaigns on the local level by reorganizing its local media assets into a single division, the NBC Local Media Division.
“The local media markets are a fertile area to go multiplatform,” said John Wallace, president of NBC Local Media Division, which includes NBCU’s TV stations, local Web sites and place-based networks. “We know there will be a transition period, but it will be evolutionary in the days and months ahead.”
Ninety percent of consumer transactions are at the local level, said Rich Lobel, one of three chief marketing activists for CBS’ local division (RIOT), which launched with a campaign for Dodge trucks and has since run campaigns for 1-800-Flowers and Comcast. “It’s a model more clients are going to demand,” he said.
The networks may be ahead of the curve on this, since not all media-buying shops are organized to handle these new units. “More clients want their agencies to come up with a local plan, and that means agencies need to start breaking down those silos between local media,” said Kevin Gallagher, executive vp and local activation director for Starcom. “It’s not about the individual medium. It’s about moving product in the market.”
TV, Online Video Remain Worlds Apart July 2, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment| Tensions Abound Between Traditional TV, Online Video Worlds |
| by Joe Mandese, Friday, Jun 29, 2007 7:00 AM ET |
| TENSIONS BETWEEN THE OLD WORLD (ie. television) and the new world of video were apparent Thursday during a series of keynotes and panel discussions at the OMMA Video conference in New York. The biggest tension appeared to be the conflict between the traditional television provider’s reluctance to give up control and the desire for online video portals to provide users with unfettered access to their video programming. Asked by conference chair and Video Insider columnist Steve Smith to sum up the single biggest issue confronting the convergence of television and online video, Yahoo’s Karin Gilford and AOL’s Scott Levine concurred that it was getting traditional TV networks to “remove the restrictions” associated with playing their shows online. Asked what the biggest problem was for the online portals, Disney-ABC’s Rick Mandler quipped, “Asking us to remove the restrictions.” On a serious note, Fox’s Ron Berryman said the lifting of such restrictions raises serious business questions. For example, “Who controls the advertising in it. “There are a number of questions that come up depending on which player it is played on,” he said, noting that indigenous online video players don’t seem to be making a very good go at it yet. Berryman noted that the free-spirited nature of indigenous online video services has yet to prove economically successful from an advertising point of view, and implied that was a big factor in the reluctance of major networks and studios in giving up control. “It’s very difficult to monetize. I would say that both YouTube and MySpace in their areas are very difficult to monetize,” he said. Disney-ABC’s Mandler said the networks are wrestling with other economic issues related to their burgeoning online video businesses, and that they are challenging traditional economic models. He cited two specifically. The first one concerns bandwidth, he said, noting, “Unlike traditional broadcasting, the more people that watch your programming, the higher the costs. That’s an interesting dilemma. There’s all sorts of solutions for attacking that problem, but it won’t go away.” While Mandler did not elaborate on ABC’s solution, it presumably has something to do with how Disney-ABC prices its online video streams to advertisers. The other technological issue concerns how video on the “public Internet” gets viewed on the large TV screens in the typical living room. “There needs to be a technological solution for that gap for the industry to grow rapidly,” Mandler said. The traditional TV executives implied their online video operations were profitable, but they demurred when asked to characterize exactly how, and how much money they were making from online video. Disney-ABC’s Mandler described “success” in terms of volume, noting that since ABC.com began streaming its TV shows online more than a year ago, it has generated more than 107 million “episode starts.” But he declined to say how much revenue was associated with those showings, stating only that, “Yes, we have a very profitable business in online video going on.” |
Nielsen Restructures Media Operations, Divides Empire Between Thomas, O'Hara April 27, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment| Nielsen Restructures Media Operations, Divides Empire Between Thomas, O’Hara | |
| by Joe Mandese, Friday, Apr 27, 2007 8:15 AM ET | |
| IN A SURPRISE MOVE, NIELSEN Thursday informed clients that it has restructured its management team, dividing its operations among two key executives – Dave Thomas and Jim O’Hara – who will oversee all client-related and product related activities, respectively. Thomas, who had been senior vice president-strategy and business development, and has long been Nielsen media chief Susan Whiting’s right-hand man, was named president of media client services, responsible for all of Nielsen Media Research and Nielsen Entertainment, Nielsen//NetRatings, and BuzzMetrics services, as well as Nielsen’s collaboration with Arbitron on Project Apollo. O’Hara, who has been senior vice president-CFO of Nielsen’s Media Measurement and Information Group, becomes president of media products, responsible for specific products and groups, including the so-called “Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement” (A2/M2) initiative. The moves follow a the restructuring of Nielsen Co. late last year following its buy-out by a group of private equity firms and the installation of former GE manager David Calhoun as CEO. In that restructuring, Nielsen Media Research CEO Whiting emerged as executive vice president of Nielsen Co., and the No. 2 person underneath Calhoun. In some ways, the elevation of Thomas and O’Hara should not be a surprise. The team effectively took over all of Nielsen’s media operations when Whiting took an eight-week leave of absence last summer to adopt two children. It’s unclear what the ascendance of Thomas and O’Hara mean for the rest of Nielsen’s management team, or whether any key executives left as part of the moves, but all of the media researcher’s key managers now report up either through Thomas or O’Hara, with the exception of Chief Research Officer Paul Donato, and Chief Technology Officer Bob Luff, who continue to report directly to Whiting. Among the key executives reporting to Thomas now are of Executive Vice President-Client Services Sara Erichson; President of Nielsen Music and COO East Coast Operations for Nielsen Entertainment Rob Sisco; and President of Film and Home Entertainment Howard Ballon. “While many of our roles within the Nielsen Company are changing, what is unchanged is our commitment to providing you with information of extraordinary value – timely, accurate information you need to succeed,” Whiting said in the memo.
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