Stop taking my word for it that the summer isn’t a bad time to be on TV when you are advertising on cable networks. Check out this article by Bill Carter of the New York Times, “Dismal Ratings for TV Networks in a Coveted Age Group”.
The gist of the story is that the broadcasters are having their worst summer of ratings ever! ABC’s is as bad as last year when they were trying to compete against the Summer Olympics only this year, they don’t have the competition just bad programming that fewer people want to watch. Network news is dying a slow death. The only thing hanging on right now is Conan O’Brien in his new time slot with The Tonight Show on NBC.
It’s not that the viewers are just busy vacationing, they are staying inside to beat the heat and are watching cable TV which just happens to air some of their best programs in the summer. Mentioned in the article are popular original dramas such as “Royal Pains” and “Burn Notice” on USA as well as “The Closer” on TNT. And as much as I can’t stand reality TV I should probably mention that this past Monday was a record breaking evening for TLC with the announcement of the divorce on “Jon & Kate +8″.
In the traditional sense of old school media buying, it’s true that TV has always been more of an afterthought in the summer or a time when you place a cheap buy to take advantage of the excess of inventory. That paradigm is shifting to great programming on cable just like the viewers are migrating away from the broadcast networks.
What are your favorite shows to watch in the summer?
The New York Times has reported that ad revenue declined 16.6% last year and will be announcing their quarterly performance this week. People close to many newspapers are saying that the first quarter could be down 20-30%. One silver lining is that March may not have been as bad as is showing up because last year, Easter fell in the first quarter and that drives many spring promotions for the retail sector. While Internet advertising was once thought to be an answer to declining traditional revenue, sales are declining there as well leading many to begin considering charging a subscription fee for web content. (CableSpots 4/16/09)
Time Warner Cable has pooled it’s production talent from across the country to launch a new interactive web page with commercial templates available for local customization. This is ideal for small businesses who don’t have the resources for an expensive production shoot. These commercials are high quality ads that can be tweaked for many different types of campaigns at a fraction of the cost. The site can be found at www.cablemediasales.com/easycom and currently has the following categories available.
- Restaurant
- Automotive Aftermarket
- Medical/Dental
- Pharmacy
- Attorneys
- Home Maintenance
- Spas and Salons
- Plastic Surgery
- Insurance
- Builders/Developers
- Financial
- Retail
- Education
Using stock footage and television commercial templates has been a long time best kept secret in advertising agencies and production houses when making good quality local commercials, but this is the first example of Time Warner pulling from the creativity of many producers from around the country to offer low cost commercials for local companies to use.
Take a look at the site and give me some feedback!
The House & Senate approved the postponement of the Digital TV transition date from February 17th to June 12th. Nielsen will continue to measure the winter sweeps in March of this year instead of February as that was the initial game plan with the tentative February date. Since May is typically the spring sweeps metering, they are not expecting any alterations to that schedule.
Craig Allison, the general manager for KSHB-TV and KMCI-TV was quoted on their local website saying originally they would go ahead and cut their analog signal on Feb. 17, but they and most of the other broadcast stations in Kansas City have decided to go ahead and wait even though the cost of running the analog signals is extreme and was not part of their business plan for the year.
Will there be enough digital boxes by June? We don’t know. Retailers are said to be running out and production has been increased to meet the demand. The government coupon program had run out of funding for the $40 discount, but more funds are being added. You can go to https://www.dtv2009.gov/ to apply for coupons. I went to the site and found this disclaimer, “IMPORTANT: The TV Converter Box Coupon Program has reached its funding ceiling. However, coupon requests from eligible households will be filled as funds from expiring coupons become available. If you would like to apply for a coupon today and are eligible, you will be placed on a waiting list and will receive coupons on a first-come-first-served basis as funds from expiring coupons become available. Coupons will expire within 90 days of the date they are mailed.”
If you have cable or satellite service, you don’t need any type of converter box unless you have TV’s in your home that aren’t connected. In that case, you will need a converter box and will continue to require an antenna that plugs into that digital box.
As a testimony to the boxes, my brother purchased two for his apartment several months ago with the coupons he was sent in the mail. He only ended up spending about $10 for each with the discount. Some of the broadcast channels come in great, but not all of them. He does have a few more channels than he had before and he has a pop-up guide which is cool. It’s a better reception on the channels he gets, but he still has trouble with one or two of his favorite broadcast networks which is disappointing. The promotion of the digital conversion tended to over promise that anyone switching to digital would magically have a great picture and that still depends on the location of the set and the antenna that is being used.
I’d love to hear more about your DTV experiences? Have you switched any of your TV’s over? Did you go out and buy a new HD flat screen that had a digital tuner built in? What are you planning to do with your old TV’s?
I have been promoting the benefits of cable television as a way to make an ad campaign more efficient, effective, and affordable for quite some time. I also often suggest that businesses put together short videos for their websites or video on demand platforms that cable service providers offer. I thought that the best way to accomplish both might be to make my own video to serve as a consistent way to show clients an example of how other companies successfully use cable TV and to serve as a sample of what a VOD might look like.
This video is based on a presentation I have given to marketing classes and agencies in the KC area. I was able to pair it down to about 5 minutes which is an average attention span of a VOD viewer. Whether you’ve never considered using cable TV to tell your story, or have been using it for years, I think you’ll learn something by watching this.
Click Here for Highest Resolution (Recommended)
You may also watch a low resolution version in the player below.
Does your company have a consistant sales piece for potential clients or customers to see? Do you have any experience with video on demand? I’d love to hear some of your stories!
Original post January 13, 2009
Original post January 9, 2009
With only a few weeks away, Congress is considering a delay on the transition to DTV that was slated for February 17, 2009. The major broadcasters support postponing the switch which was under funded according to John Podesta of Obama’s transition team. It is in the best interest of the broadcasters and much of the general public to hold off on shutting down the analog signal because the less affluent and elderly will be the most affected by the change. Those people using rabbit ears would lose their signal, but anyone with a cable TV or a digital converter box would continue to be able to watch their favorite programs. Apparently, the government coupon program that discounted the converter boxes ran out in the past month and with the economy the way it is currently, asking people to go out and subscribe to cable or buy a new TV may not be the best move.
This brings me to a question, “Is television merely an entertainment platform, or should it be considered an important form of communication that is a right for Americans to have?” Let me know your thoughts.
MTV Networks have declared an all out war on Time Warner Cable placing print ads in major markets showing Sponge Bob crying that say, “Why is Sponge Bob Crying?” “Time Warner is taking him off the air tonight along with 19 of your favorite channels.” (Ad Age 12/30/08) The real story is that Viacom, the negotiating partner for the MTV Networks, is pulling them off of Time Warner because they have not been able to reach an agreement on the carriage fee for their channels which consist of only 6 that affect basic cable subscribers: MTV, Comedy Central, Spike, TV Land, Nickelodeon, and VH1. At midnight tonight, those networks will go dark on all Time Warner systems across the country until a deal is agreed upon by both parties.
Why is this only affecting Time Warner right now? Other distributors have contracts that expire at different times. Right now, Time Warner is the only provider that is in negotiations. MTV wants Time Warner to pay millions more (triple the previous amount) for their content which in a tumultuous economy is a difficult demand that would result in customers paying more on their monthly cable bills and could potentially cause a loss in subscribers. Time Warner is also frustrated with the fact that much of the content provided by these networks is available online for free and the networks do not share any of that revenue with them. I believe that MTV is also posturing on the future growth of cable customers because of the Digital TV Transition on February 17th, 2009 when all traditional analog broadcast signals will no longer be viewable without a digital TV or digital converter box. Cable providers are expected to benefit from this transition as any analog television will still work with a cable subscription.
