Broadcasting&Cable

A new analysis done by Nielsen with CBS found that advertising campaigns combining local television and local radio doubled the campaign’s reach in certain markets.

In five markets, Nielsen found that advertisers could reach 84% to 93% of all adults by putting TV and radio together. One effective tactic involved mixing dayparts. For example buying primetime on TV and morning drive on radio reached 75% of adults 18 to 49 in Boston within four weeks.

“Industry-standard measurement is a first step toward showing large advertisers what local advertisers already know -- there is a lot of value to combining local television and radio in a media buy,” said David Poltrack, chief research officer, CBS Corporation, which owns TV and radio stations in a number of major markets. “We will continue working with Nielsen to bring to the industry the rich analytics, reporting tools and planning software needed to prove these benefits to advertisers. The long-term plan is to include online as well. This proof of concept demonstrates the power of broadcasting to quickly and frequently reach mass audiences.”

Media agency ZenithOptimedia forecasts that global advertising spending will return to the kind of growth rates seen before the financial crisis.

ZenithOptimedia sees spending growing 5.5% to $537 billion in 2014 and 6.1% in 2016. Spending grew just 3.9% in 2013, according to the agency. Television is the dominant media, representing 40% of global ad spending, compared to 21% for the Internet. ZenithOptimedia forecasts that TV spending will grow 5.2% globally in 2014. Ad spending increases in North America will be smaller than the worldwide growth rate. ZenithOptimedia expects 4.8% growth in 2014, a 4.6% gain in 2015 and 4.3% growth in 2016.

ZenithOptimedia says the Internet is the fastest growing media and that its growth will bolstered by the spread of programmatic buying. The agency sees spending on online advertising growing 16% annually from 2014 to 2016, with display advertising growing at 21% a year through 2016. Mobile Internet advertising is growing six times faster than desktop Internet, according to ZenithOptimedia. With the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets, mobile advertising is expected to grow 50% a year from $13.4 billion in 2013 to $45 billion in 2016. Desktop Internet advertising is expected to grow just 8% a year.

The television industry has evolved in recent years and that evolution is just beginning, according to panelists at Transforming Hollywood 5: The Future of Television.

Television is not just a device in the living room with content that is dictated by companies anymore, said Allen DeBevoise, chairman of Machinima. DeBevoise's remarks came during the first panel of the conference at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Today we live in a world where there are all sorts of ways to watch this content on a number of devices all over,” he said. “And it has created programming that would have never been conceived to ever work in the traditional model.”

Machinima, for example, is specifically geared toward males between the ages of 18 and 34, a demographic that is particularly difficult for traditional networks to reach. DeBevoise added that the ability to have programs on demand, to view content on multiple devices, and to interact with the growing fan culture have all contributed to television’s transformation. With content on demand, viewers can binge watch series, which opens up the types of stories that can be told. “When the platform changes, the product changes as well,” said Joe Lewis, head of original comedy programming at Amazon Studios, explaining that creators can tell longer stories and dive deeper into characters with binge viewing.

The Federal Communications Commission has issued the deadlines by which various parts of its Closed Captioning Quality Order become official.

That order included mandates for cable and broadcast caption quality, equipment, and various housekeeping items. April 30: Rule revisions on equipment monitoring, the treatment of multicast streams, filing for exemptions, and getting program distributors' e-mails correct. June 30: Rule revisions regarding use of Electronic Newsroom Technique (ENT) for captioning of live programing.

When the Office of Management and Budget approves them: Rules about maintaining records on monitoring and maintenance of the captioning system, informal complaint procedures regarding use of ENT techniques. Jan 15, 2015 or OMB approval, whichever comes first: Rule revisions relating to captioning quality standards and best practices. The FCC voted unanimously Feb 20 to require program creators and distributors to make their best efforts to improve the quality of closed captioning. While there were no quantitative standards, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said this was not an "act it and forget it" item and the FCC wants to remind stakeholders of the upcoming deadlines for compliance.

Aereo definitely has friends in a trio of law professors who weighed in on its side with the Supreme Court.

Filing the brief were Warren Grimes is a professor of law at Southwestern Law School and co-author of The Law of Antitrust: An Integrated Handbook; Shubha Ghosh, law professor at University of Wisconsin Law School and cofounder of the American Antitrust Institute; and Joshua P. Davis, associate dean for academic affairs, professor and director, Center for Law and Ethics at the University of San Francisco School of Law.

In their amicus brief, the professors called Aereo a "healthy free-market response to a dysfunctional and anticompetitive television distribution system that raises prices, reduces output, and denies consumers meaningful choice." They say broadcasters have a responsibility to support the wide dissemination by Aereo of their free TV signals, a responsibility given their spectrum grants that trumps the pursuit of copyright payments. They point out that broadcasters have two limited government monopolies, access to free spectrum -- free except for the public interest standard--and certain exclusive copyright protections of a "fair return" for their creative investment in local programming.

But the academics argue broadcasters undermine their public interest obligation to free, over-the-air TV by invoking copyright law. They say Aereo simplifies access to those over-the-air signals, signals that already ensure a fair return to broadcasters through ad revenue. Granting broadcasters the relief from Aereo they seek would "decrease the output of local television broadcasting and leave consumers with very limited, technologically deficient and expensive choices for obtaining local programming," they say.

The broadcast groups involved in the Pearl group have announced that they will be testing interactive content and advertising services delivered to LG Smart TVs in three markets during live newscasts and that they will be demoing the idea at the 2014 National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas. The move is an effort to capitalize on the growing availability of smart TVs that are connected to the Internet and to use that connectivity to bring the interactivity of the online world to the TV set. In their Global Digital Living Forecast Workbook from March 2014, Parks Associates estimates that the number of "smart TV" households in the US will reach 42 million in 2014, representing 36% of all TV households. The tests will occur in Atlanta, Cleveland and Orlando. Stations participating in Atlanta are WSB (Cox), WGCL (Meredith) and WXIA (Gannett). In Cleveland, WOIO (Raycom), WEWS (Scripps), and WKYC (Gannett) will test the idea and in Orlando, participating stations are WKMG (Post-Newsweek), WFTV (Cox), and WESH (Hearst).

Hulu has reached an exclusive multi-year licensing deal with NBCUniversal Television & New Media Distribution to stream prior seasons of multiple NBCU properties on its Hulu Plus service. NBCUniversal is one of Hulu’s parent companies, along with 21st Century Fox and Disney.

The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable told the Federal Communications Commission it should limit how much low-band spectrum a bidder can get in the upcoming broadcast incentive auctions.

That could principally affect Verizon and AT&T's participation -- they already have the majority of low band, which most put at about 70%, but Massachusetts' telecom department says is more like 85% on a 1-MHz-per-person population basis.

In a filing at the commission in the incentive auction docket, the department said it allied itself with the comments of the Department of Justice, which has already said the FCC should come up with some "competition-focused" rules on spectrum acquisitions, particularly auctions, including taking into account the differing propagation qualities of different spectrum bands that make one more valuable than another.

Separate from the auctions, the FCC has asked for input on how and whether it should adjust its local market spectrum concentration screens, which are not hard caps, but trigger further review of whether such concentration is in the public interest.

With the outcome a pretty much a foregone conclusion, reaction was swift to the Federal Communications Commission's vote (3-2 along party lines) to make joint sales agreements (JSAs) above 15% of ad sales attributable under FCC ownership rules, as they have been in radio since the 1990s.

Broadcasters were smarting, but most of the comment came from public advocacy groups celebrating the new regulations and hoping for more.

National Association of Broadcasters president Gordon Smith has already suggested NAB might take the FCC to court over that call, and the statement by spokesman Dennis Wharton after the vote did not take anything from that potential hardball.

"It's disappointing the FCC would take this action without first completing its 2010 statutorily mandated media ownership review. As the record before the Commission clearly shows, the public interest will not be served by this arbitrary and capricious decision."

Both commissioner Republicans were on the same page as NAB, as was House Communications Subcommittee Chair Greg Walden (R-OR), according to a committee source. Commissioner Pai particularly suggested the decision was not based on the record and suggested the court should step in.

The Federal Communications Commission's unanimous vote to ban coordinated retransmission negotiations among the top four TV stations in a market was treated with cheers by their satellite, cable and telecommunications video competitors who must negotiate those agreements.

The American Cable Association, arguably the point-association on the issue along with the American Television Alliance (ATVA) of which it is a main member, was ecstatic, and said as much. “ACA salutes Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler for leading the effort to put teeth into the regulations that require broadcasters to negotiate retransmission consent with cable and satellite TV providers in good faith. Adoption of the order extracts from a broadcaster’s bite one of several practices that most obviously harm consumers and competition. ACA members are ecstatic that the FCC is finally banning coordinated retransmission consent negotiation between two separately owned, top-rated stations in the same market."

DirecTV, also a member of ATVA, added its two hands clapping. “The FCC’s decision today is a win for consumers," it said. "By restricting broadcasters' ability to collude in retransmission consent negotiations, the FCC took an important first step to protect consumers from local channel blackouts and higher prices. DirecTV appreciates the FCC’s efforts and hopes to work together for additional reform in the near future.” DirecTV and other ATVA members would, among other things, like to see the FCC step in to end blackouts and mandate arbitration in impasses.

Even the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance (representing mid-sized telecom carriers) felt compelled to weigh in to celebrate the move. “ITTA applauds the FCC’s efforts to reform the outdated retransmission consent rules," said ITTA president Genny Morelli. "We have long argued that the FCC has the legal authority to adopt reforms that would restore balance to the retransmission consent marketplace and we are pleased to see the Commission move forward on these important issues."