ADverse: Atkinson on Advertising
Commentary and analysis on the business of television advertising—from the upfront and scatter markets to TV events like the Super Bowl, the Oscars and the Olympics—courtesy of Broadcasting & Cable Business Editor Claire Atkinson.
A Home For 'Help Me, Martha?'
When producer Mark Burnett rolled out the concept for a new syndicated strip, featuring Martha Stewart, he showed the press and agencies a sizzle reel which included Ms. Stewart showing up on the doorstep of unsuspecting viewers and helping them to tackle house projects they were clearly useless at. That was after the requisite gasps of surprise followed by numerous exclamations of OMG. That conce ...... Read More
Comments (0)Ratings count switch could help station coffers
Local TV stations could be looking at a bigger payday as Nielsen gets set to change the way it counts TV viewership.On March 31, Nielsen will stop providing local clients and media agencies with live-only TV ratings and replace them with live plus same day numbers which include DVR play-back of shows, according to an item by Media Post, March 23. Stations could see up to a 7% bump in ratings, alon ...... Read More
Comments (0)Broadcast Net Unit Costs Fall in Q4
Even while the scatter market was buoyant in fourth quarter, a new survey suggests that broadcast networks on average were cheaper during the final quarter of 2009 than at the same point a year ago. The average cost of a thirty second ad, or unit, in primetime across the big four broadcast networks was $105,821, an 11% drop on the previous period in 2008. According to agency TargetCast, New York, ...... Read More
Comments (0)OK, Networks, No More Excuses
Once a sector in so-called “secular and cyclical decline,” broadcast networks are suddenly as welcome on Wall Street as the first crocuses of spring. The mainstream TV business is no longer subject to endless downbeat stories about ratings declines and ad revenue shifting to cable. There are new revenue streams to talk about: from a network’s own affiliates, from cable distrib ...... Read More
Comments (0)Upfronts 2010: Events Calendar
Stay on schedule this upfront season with B&C’s UpfrontCentral calendar. Check back for updates. ...... Read More
Comments (0)Barclays downgrades Discovery; Upgrades Scripps
Barclays Capital is downgrading Discovery Communications today, February 23, and upgrading Scripps Networks. Why? Discovery stock is up, and Scripps Networks stock is down. That might seem like crazy logic, but in the world of stock buying, it’s all about identifying the upside and here the Scripps’ chefs beat the Discovery sharks. Media analyst Anthony DiClemente outline ...... Read More
Comments (0)Cablevision Asks What Would You Pay for Fox/ABC?
Cablevision isn’t taking the retransmission wars lying down. According to our sources, the cable systems operator has been conducting customer phone polls to see precisely what channels they want to keep and how much they’re worth.Among the most surprising set of questions to consumers: “Do you watch broadcast TV?” If customers responded yes, then they were asked how mu ...... Read More
Comments (0)CBS Moonves: Upfront Prices Up 5% or More
My Madison Avenue sources, both buyers and sellers, have indicated this year’s upfront marketplace will likely rise to the extent it dropped last year. So if CPMs were down at CBS a percentage point or two, the market might reasonably expect CPM inflation in the May market to be of the same order. And now a word from Les Moonves: Fuggetaboutit. After CBS’s fourth quarter earnings cal ...... Read More
Comments (0)HBO Launches Buy One (TV); Get One (Online)
Time Warner unit HBO is expected to give more detail about its online TV service, known as HBOGo, at a press event at its New York headquarters, Wednesday, February 17.Time Warner’s chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes first unveiled HBOGo at a cable show in April 2009, saying, “We’re all being too slow,” Bewkes said. “We should put up all our networks on the Internet, o ...... Read More
Comments (0)Super Bowl Ads: Everyone's a Critic
Monday after Super Bowl is a tough day to get any work done, unless you’re writing about Super Bowl ads and the whole office provides an unscientific focus group of what connected and was just plain stupid or insulting. And these days everybody’s got an opinion, a poll and a megaphone in the shape of Twitter and Facebook feeds. Mars’ Snickers commercial starring Golden Girl B ...... Read More
Comments (1)Marketers Generating Super Bowl Buzz With And Without a Buy
Advertising in the Super Bowl represents one of the best deals in TV, according to Initiative. The Interpublic agency went on the road to pitch the big game to clients and to explain why its never been a better time to drop almost $3 million on a single thirty second ad spot. The agency bought ten spots for clients such Hyundai/Kia, Dr. Pepper, Visio (the only brand to gain attention as a trending ...... Read More
Comments (0)Letterman Helps Rehab Leno
Rehabbing Leno has to be one of the trickiest job in marketing and PR right now. And one of the biggest guessing games, in our news room anyway, is how the heck NBC will sell audiences the message that, “Leno’s no longer on at ten, back to 11.35pm.”We almost choked on a Dr. Pepper when we saw him show up in a promo for Letterman in the midst of CBS’ Super Bowl. The CBS ...... Read More
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