Posted by truecreek on December 16, 2009 under More Dam News | 
This article brings up a good point that the increased usage of DVRs creates a huge problem for any advertiser whose television spot is time constrained .
By Brian Steinberg, AdAge
The ability to delay viewing of TV shows by using a digital video recorder is giving rise to noticeably different habits, according to new research from Horizon Media.
Through November 2009, 11 fall season programs were regularly “time-shifted,” or watched as many as seven days after the date of original air, by more than 3 million viewers, said Brad Adgate, the independent media-buying firm’s senior VP-research. Last year at this time, only three programs — ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” Fox’s “House” and CBS’s “CSI” — fit that bill.
The trend is cause for scrutiny among TV outlets and advertisers, because the more people who watch TV programs longer after they air, the more difficult it is to reach them with a timely ad pitch.
While futurists project one day advertisers may well be able to insert more relevant advertising into recorded programming, these days marketers remain concerned that ads for particular events — Friday-night movie openings and weekend sales at retail outlets — amount to naught when consumers watch them five or six days after they were intended to run.
Entire article, “The Most Time-Shifted Shows of the Fall Season” here.
Posted by truecreek on November 30, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Meg James
There’s finally some new life in old media.
After pummeling traditional media companies for nearly two years, the advertising recession is showing signs of a recovery. TV networks — including Fox, CBS and ABC and such leading cable channels as TNT, TBS, USA, Bravo and Fox News Channel — have benefited the most as advertisers have been snapping up available commercial spots and agreeing to pay significantly higher prices than they did just five months ago.
“In challenging times, people go back to what they know, and what they know best is television,” said David Levy, president of sales for Turner Entertainment, which includes TNT and TBS. “It is a little too early to declare victory, but the market is definitely improving.”
The welcome news is the result of stronger-than-expected demand for TV advertising in the “scatter” market, in which advertisers frequently have to pay premiums for scarce available commercial time. It also represents something of a win for the networks, which gambled this summer that demand would pick up later in the year and held back a larger percentage of their inventory than in previous years, hoping to capitalize on the improved economy.
Fourth-quarter commercial sales have been propelled by retail chains hoping to ignite their holiday sales; technology giants Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc., which have new products to promote; cellphone carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, which are battling for customers; and even such financial firms as American Express, according to television executives and advertising buyers surveyed this week.
Such strong demand has made up for the weaker orders from other mainstay advertisers, including automakers, still reeling from weak sales, and Hollywood movie studios, which have fewer new movies to hype.
A fourth quarter described by one top network sales executive as “gangbusters” amazed even veterans who have lived through several economic cycles. Only five months ago, the industry was bracing for another dismal year as TV network sales teams were engaged in protracted negotiations with advertisers that were demanding that the networks roll back prices as much as 20%. Networks eventually agreed to trim rates about 5% to 8% to mollify advertisers and begin unloading their time.
But now, in some cases, advertisers have agreed to pay rates 10% to 35% higher than the prices established in June and July, when the networks sold the bulk of their time for the new TV season. In addition, advertisers that placed their orders in the summer are honoring their commitments. Network executives said that few advertisers have canceled their orders for commercial spots, in contrast with a year ago.
“We have all been surprised that the ad market has come back this soon,” said Gary Carr, executive director of national broadcast for the advertising firm TargetCast. The networks, he said, also face easier comparisons because last fall, with banks failing and the economy on the skids, companies were afraid to spend on advertising.
“A year ago, people thought the world was coming to an end, and the U.S. economy was falling apart,” Carr said. “But the world did not come to an end. Cars still have to be sold, and studios still need people to go see their movies. Advertisers have begun releasing the money that they have been holding onto all year.”
Even local TV stations — among the hardest hit by the slump in advertising spending — have received a lift, primarily fueled by stores that unleashed their holiday sales campaigns earlier in the season, according to television executives.
Not all media outlets have rebounded, however. Many small cable TV channels and Spanish-language television networks are still hurting, according to television executives. Newspapers, magazines and radio stations also continue to struggle.
“In many sectors, the news is still grim,” said Jon Swallen, senior vice president for research at TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks advertising spending. “And there is still a fairly large hole for these companies to dig out of before they get back to the levels they were a few years ago.”
Unexpectedly, online advertising also has taken it on the chin.
Many advertisers are no longer as eager to buy Internet display ads as they were two or three few years ago, when firms were steering millions of ad dollars to online sites.
“There is still a big push toward digital and online video, but the Internet display advertising market is challenged,” said Greg Kahn, senior vice president of strategic insights at advertising firm Optimedia. “There is so much clutter in the space, and advertisers have begun to question the effectiveness of those display ads.”
More here.
Posted by truecreek on November 9, 2009 under More Dam News |
Production insurance is a must. Trust me. Programs now cover travel delays, dangerous weather conditions for TV shoots.
By Rupal Parekh
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — A few years ago Dianne Richter, an ad agency veteran who’s clocked time in the broadcast departments of shops such as JWT, Y&R and Saatchi & Saatchi, found herself on a nightmare of a commercial shoot. While driving to location, police had blocked the production team’s route for several hours after a suicide jumper perched himself on a bridge.
With daylight fading and under a tight production schedule, the team scrambled to rent boats to ferry their rigs and crew across the river to the set. Quick thinking saved the commercial, but those last-minute changes came at a steep cost to the client.
The good news for advertisers is that broader protections are being offered under recent changes in the U.S. insurance market. New, broader insurance programs are becoming available to fill gaps and cover things such as travel delays, dangerous weather conditions and other unforeseen issues that can crop up unexpectedly and quickly skyrocket production costs.
Traditionally, U.S. insurance policies for TV commercial shoots have covered claims only for physical damage. If a house being used in a commercial shoot burns down, for example, or if camera equipment is stolen. Arranging insurance is a small — not to mention pretty unsexy — step in the lifespan of a TV spot, but in a tough economy that has squeezed marketers’ budgets, it can help prevent extra costs from being tacked on when least expected.
The new protections are the most significant change in TV production insurance in the American ad market in years, said A. LeConte Moore, managing director at Dewitt Stern, a century-old risk insurance brokerage that specializes in insurance for media, entertainment and ad industries.
According to ad industry executives, the average cost of a TV spot these days runs about $250,000. But depending upon the complexity of the job — the location of the shoot, music rights, celebrity actors — the costs can reach a high-end of between $1 million and $2 million.
Insurance premiums tend to cost about 2% of a shoot, and the broader coverages being made available by the likes of Entertainment Brokers International, part of OneBeacon Insurance, today aren’t all that higher. So if a production budget is $200,000, and carries a $3,400 insurance premium, for another $200 a production can manage a variety of surprise contingencies.
“It feels like insurance on steroids,” said Ms. Richter, who now works at New York-based independent Droga 5, handling production estimates and contracts for the agency.
Read more.
Posted by truecreek on November 4, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Robert Seidman
Yankees/Phillies Game 4 Up +45 in Rating & +47% in Audience with the Fall Classic Overall Rating Up +42% & +45% in Audience.
Game 4 of the 2009 World Series soared to a 13.5/22 average household rating/share with an average audience of 22.8 million viewers last night on FOX according to fast national ratings issued by Nielsen Media Research. Game 4 is the highest-rated and most-watched World Series game since Game 4 of the 2004 Series (18.2/28, 28.8 million) when the Red Sox snapped their 86-year championship drought.
It’s also the most-watched, non-decisive Game 4 in eight years, dating back to the 2001 Series (23.7 million., Diamondbacks-Yankees) and the highest-rated non-decisive Game 4 in six years (13.6/23, Yankees-Marlins-12-inning game). Compared to last year’s World Series, Game 4 of Yankees-Phillies is up +45% in rating and +47% in audience compared to Game 4 of Rays-Phillies (9.3/15, 15.5 million), and ranks as the highest-rated and most-watched prime-time show of the Monday-Sunday broadcast week (10/26-11/1).
Game 4 and its pregame program (10.7/17) combined with an NFL overrun and THE OT (fast nationals for both will be released later today) to make last night FOX’s most-watched night since the AMERICAN IDOL finale in May.
PHILADELPHIA topped all markets for Game 4 with a 42.0/58, +8% over its Game 4 rating a year ago (39.0/54). NEW YORK fired a 31.2/45, a Series-high and a better rating than any of the six games of the Yankees last World Series appearance in 2003.
2009 WORLD SERIES TO DATE
This year’s World Series has been a dominant force in prime time. The first four games of the 2009 Fall Classic have averaged an 11.5/19, 19.1 million viewers and a 6.1 among A18-49. The Series is up +42% in household rating and +45% in audience over last year (8.1/14, 13.2 million) and is the highest-rated, most watched World Series since 2004. If we compare the first four games of the World Series to top-rated season-to-date prime-time shows, the World Series would rank No. 2 in households, and No. 4 among Adults 18-49.
Post-season baseball has powered FOX to its best fourth quarter performance in history. Season-to-date, FOX is averaging a 3.7/10 in prime time among Adults 18-49 (preliminary pending final NFL numbers), +16% better than second-place CBS (3.2/9), FOX’s biggest season-to-date lead ever in fourth quarter and the biggest for any network in six years. The week of October 26th, which included four World Series games, averaged a 4.9/13 among Adults 18-49, an +81% win over second-place ABC (2.7/7) and the highest-rated fourth quarter week on any network in five years, dating back to the week of the 2004 World Series on FOX.
