BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER ONE – DTV TRANSITION
BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER TWO – NET NEUTRALITY
I DON’T WANT MY MTV
FACTOID OF THE WEEK -- CLICKERS
COCKTAIL CHATTER – GOOGLE LOGO
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BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER ONE – DTV TRANSITION: With one year left before the nationwide transition to DTV (February 17, 2009), a report by market research firm Centris claiming that “Millions” of people may be “left in the dark” with the digital transition has caused a furor. In brief their analysis goes like this: there are 40 Million households currently receiving over-the-air analog signals. That represents 117 Million sets that are – in the curious wording of the news release – “unconnected from cable or satellite video networks.” Using the website Antennaweb.org which helps consumers map out the best antenna to use, the folks at Centris found several “gaps” in coverage outside of a 35 mile range. (Antennaweb, by the way, is a joint venture of the Consumer Electronics Association and the National Association of Broadcasters). To make it worse, say the folks at Centris, the antennaweb.org survey is based on outside antenna, but three quarters (75%) of those 40 Million over-the-air households rely on less sensitive set-top antennas instead of outdoor antennas.
The problem with the analysis, according to the Association for Maximum Service Television is that Centris relied on a “paper analysis” of the antennaweb.org data. The MSTV group which was formed in 1956 but which bills itself as “the leading advocate for advanced over-the-air digital television in the United States” for the past decade says the Centris study “mischaracterized” information and says consumers are already receiving good signals 30 miles and beyond. A commentary by Doug Lung on the website TVTechnology.com also says the Centris data is a “misinterpretation” of the FCC data on signal propagation and that the issue of multipath interference is “misleading.” But even he says antennas have been overlooked in the DTV discussions and that outside the strong signal areas (that 35 mile range), antenna selection will be important. One last point: the Centris study makes the point that considering nearly half (45%) of the audience doesn’t even know DTV transition was taking place, any gaps in coverage will only add to the confusion.
BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER TWO – NET NEUTRALITY: Two years after first talking about it, a bill (named in Washington jargon – the Internet Freedom Preservation Act) has been re-introduced into Congress to give the Federal Communications Commission more control over the Internet. And tomorrow, the FCC holds hearings in Boston on Net Neutrality and network management. On one side are the giant telephone and cable companies (AT&T, Time Warner, and Verizon) who argue that the increasing online video usage makes some kind of ‘capacity-based’ pricing system necessary to keep the lines open. On the other side are consumer groups (with names like savetheinternet.com and openinternetcoalition.com) who argue that such a pricing system would set up an equivalent to the cable television pricing in which “choices are limited and the platform is closed.” And before you start thinking the consumer groups are out-gunned, also on their side are such behemoths as eBay, Amazon and Google whose representatives argue they wouldn’t have been able to start-up if the pricing system existed. The new bill was spurred, in part, by cable company Comcast’s admission that it had slowed traffic on its lines. Meanwhile, sitting on the side lines are peer-to-peer file sharing operations such as BitTorrent whose software has been downloaded 160 Million times. The original vote to give the FCC more control was defeated by a 269-152 vote.
I DON’T WANT MY MTV: No, instead, I want I Love Lucy, Battlestar Galactica, The Twilight Zone, MacGyver and F Troop. At least that’s what two of the broadcast networks are betting. In separate announcements, NBC and CBS announced they will begin streaming “classic” TV series on the Internet. CBS is offering the shows through its ‘audience network’ which includes video providers Joost and Veoh while NBC will be offering the shows through its ‘entertainment sites’ including Hulu and sites such as SciFi.com, ChillerTV.com and Sleuthchannel.com. And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention AOL’s In2TV website which has been operational for some time now. As a side note, a whole new network specializing in classic television series has sprung up and is being carried on many affiliates’ secondary digital channels. The network, a subsidiary of Little Rock, Arkansas, based Equity Media Holdings focuses on shows from the 50’s to the 80’s. And as a foot note to the side note, there is a website TVHistory.TV which recounts the history of television and television sets starting from 1935.
FACTOID OF THE WEEK: Another new feature for MfM. Maybe. Anyway… A study by comScore found that less than one-fifth of the Online population accounts for four-fifths of all the Internet ad clicks. The study commissioned by Starcom and AOL’s Tacoda found that six percent of the online population were clicking on ads four and five times a month, accounting for half (50%) of ALL clicks. Another ten percent of the Online population click two or three times and thus account for 30% of ALL clicks. For those non-math majors among you, that’s 16% of the online population accounting for 80% of the clicks; or looking at it from the other side, three quarters (74%) of the online population account for only 20% of the online clicks.
All right, one more. BrandWeek reports that if you think the number of coupons stuffed into your Sunday newspaper has grown… you’re right. Spending on FSI’s (Free Standing Inserts) has more than doubled from $413 Million in 2006 to $904 Million in 2007, according to Nielsen Monitor Plus.
COCKTAIL CHATTER: Would-be fashion photographers can practice their skills through a website, directdaniella.com, co-created by Taco Bell and Sports Illustrated which allows them to take snapshots and even direct poses of Brazilian beauty and SI Swimsuit model Daniella Sarahyba using their web browser. Aside from Fidel Castro stepping down, the other big news coming out of Cuba is that the Chinese state television network has launched three channels in the island nation, as a reciprocal to the Cuban television shows airing in China. The typeface in the Google logo is Adobe Garamond. Definitely a factoid you can drop at that next cocktail party. Actually, the whole issue of the logo design was the subject of a Wired article profiling the graphic artist Ruth Kedar who met the two founders at Stanford University. Kedar who admits she never imagined the logo would be as ubiquitous as it is, said she brought some ‘playfulness’ to the design by “bringing primary colors and two dimensionality to the O’s… to visually imply that something goes on ad infinitum.”
And lastly for those of you who stayed up and watched the Academy Awards, well, I don’t have anything to say, except that I missed most of the movies. But you have until March 28th to submit for the new category of broadband television in the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences 60th Primetime Emmy awards. In its announcement, the academy says, “the future of television is awaiting you.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at my website MediaConsultant.tv.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Message From Michael -- February 18, 2008
I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE
THE SMART TV SHOWS OF ALL TIME
SOMETHING HAPPENS SOME PLACE TO SOMEONE
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE
COCKTAIL CHATTER
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE: Billions and Billions of videos. Two separate reports attest to the growing popularity of online video usage. Although the now resolved writers’ strike might have contributed to it, comScore Video Metrix reports that the number of online videos viewed passed the 10 Billion mark in December. A separate study by the Solutions Research Group found that the number of Americans who have watched one of their favorite TV shows on the Internet has nearly doubled in the past year. That’s 43% of the online population, or 80 Million Americans, compared to 25% a year ago. When you consider all videos online, comScore says three-quarters (76.7%) of all U.S. Internet users have viewed videos online. Of course, Google’s YouTube site accounted for most of those viewings – a third (32.6%), more than 3.3 Billion videos. Nobody else even comes close. Fox Interactive came in second with 358 Thousand videos and 3.5% of the market, followed by Yahoo (340 Thousand and 3.4%), Viacom (237 Thousand and 2.3%) and Microsoft (180 Thousand and 1.8%).
Even more astounding (at least to me, but I’m easily astounded), one in five Online Americans say they watch TV on the Web on a weekly basis – which the Solutions Research Group notes is well ahead of the 14% watching cable’s video-on-demand offerings. The hot shows on the Internet included Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars, Ugly Betty, Chuck, CSI, House, Kitchen Nightmares, Smallville and Gossip Girl. And as long as I’m being astounded, comScore says online viewers watched an average of 3.4 hours of online video during the month – a 34% increase since the beginning of 2007. The average online video duration was 2.8 minutes but then again the ‘average’ online video viewer ‘consumed’ 72 videos.
As a footnote, I should point out an article by Mike Shields in MediaWeek that major broadcasters, NBC Universal and Viacom, continue to resist placing their content on YouTube. Of course, NBC does have hulu.com as well as its own site. YouTube points out in the article that it has deals with 18 groups, including Hearst Corp., Tribune Broadcasting, Oprah’s Harpo, Reuters and even PBS. And, no, I don’t understand why Viacom resists making a deal with YouTube while CBS doesn’t.
THE SMARTEST TV SHOWS OF ALL TIME: As long as I’m on a TV kick, website fancast.com, which allows people to develop their own TV viewing guide of favorite shows both on line and on air, has created a ‘smart’ TV list, based on an interview with the chairman of Mensa International, the organization for people whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population. Chairman Jim Werdell’s obviously personal list includes M-A-S-H, Cosmos (with Carl Sagan), CSI, House, West Wing, Boston Legal, All in the Family, Frasier, Mad About You and Jeopardy which he says tests intelligence as well as knowledge. Werdell cites most of the shows for their smart ‘repartee.’ You can read more at http://thebiz.fancast.com/2008/02/exclusive_mensa_chair_picks_th.html.
SOMETHING HAPPENS SOME PLACE TO SOMEONE: With that heavy duty definition of news, CNN has launched its iReports.com “user powered news” website. The site says there were 89,894 iReports filed worldwide, of which 915 made it on to CNN. The site bills itself as Unedited, Unfiltered, and one is tempted to say un-interesting, but I won’t; after all it is a beta site. Let me just say the lead story, billed as Breaking News, this morning was a video of an argument between a ketchup bottle and a mustard bottle. The second story on the home page, actually made it to CNN, is a video version book report on Lord of the Flies done a la Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room. Just out of curiosity, I checked out the morning line-up on Current TV which relies heavily but not solely on user generated reports. The lead was an edited version of John McCain talking about Iraq and set to a sort of rap beat and which actually was from YouTube. Of course, the second story was about a man getting a Pug… as in dog. As a side note, MTV has launched a political version of user generated news titled Choose or Lose with a “street team” of ‘reporters’ in all 50 states and D.C.
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE: If you’re like most people, you believe your friends and relatives and your peer group. Two separate surveys came to the same conclusion when looking at online products and services and, by extension, all products and services. Two-thirds of those surveyed say consumer generated reviews and ratings were the most important thing for them in making decisions. A Forrester Research survey of 5,000 online consumers found that not only did two thirds (64%) want to see user ratings and reviews on Websites, nearly the same number (59%)wanted product or price comparison testimonials and half (49%) wanted customer testimonials. A similar survey by Jupiter Research and Bazaarvoice found even more (70%) rated online product ratings and reviews the most helpful when researching products which two thirds (65%) of them did online even when they purchased offline. But here is where it gets interesting (well, to me, anyway) “trust in online reviews was found to be at its greatest when readers heard both sides of the story.” More than half (56%) say they wanted to know both the pros and cons of a product’s ‘attributes.’
Okay, the part my television brethren won’t like – online customer reviews are FIVE times more influential (53%) than TV ads (11%) in the case of online users thinking about spending money, according to the Jupiter survey which focused on U.K. consumers. Somewhat oddly, according to the Forrester survey, only one in five (23%) want the ability to upload or view their own content and only slightly more than that (29%) wanted quizzes or questionnaires. Not surprisingly Gen Yers (18 to 27) responded more positively toward entertaining games, quizzes, questionnaires and sharing content, followed by the Gen Xers (28 to 41).
COCKTAIL CHATTER: Organic milk is taking the place of high octane energy drinks and fruit flavored bottled water as the ‘cutting-edge’ beverage with double digit sales growth, in part because of the smaller price difference with regular milk but mainly because of its perceived health benefits, according to the website, Progressive Grocer. Mexico City has started a women-only bus service in the city because of the problem of women being groped and verbally abused on the public transportation. According to trend watching newsletter, Springwise, similar services have been started in Egypt, India, Brazil, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan along with taxis in the U.K., Russia, India, Dubai and Iran. An employment website called TheLadders aimed exclusively at high earners looking for jobs paying $100,000-plus, has been started by a former executive from hotjobs.com.
A FINAL NOTE OF CLARIFICATION: Last week’s MfM reported on the amount of ‘non-programming content’, including ads, aired on cable and broadcast networks as compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. One key point was left out: the analysis was based on the programming on the network affiliates, not just the networks alone. For each network, programming for the ten networks was sampled on local stations in seven different markets across the country, TO allow for regional differences and to create a composite week’s worth of programming. Thanks to sharp-eyed reader Devoe Slisher, of Fox59 and TheCW4 in Indianapolis for catching that.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at my website MediaConsultant.tv.
THE SMART TV SHOWS OF ALL TIME
SOMETHING HAPPENS SOME PLACE TO SOMEONE
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE
COCKTAIL CHATTER
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE: Billions and Billions of videos. Two separate reports attest to the growing popularity of online video usage. Although the now resolved writers’ strike might have contributed to it, comScore Video Metrix reports that the number of online videos viewed passed the 10 Billion mark in December. A separate study by the Solutions Research Group found that the number of Americans who have watched one of their favorite TV shows on the Internet has nearly doubled in the past year. That’s 43% of the online population, or 80 Million Americans, compared to 25% a year ago. When you consider all videos online, comScore says three-quarters (76.7%) of all U.S. Internet users have viewed videos online. Of course, Google’s YouTube site accounted for most of those viewings – a third (32.6%), more than 3.3 Billion videos. Nobody else even comes close. Fox Interactive came in second with 358 Thousand videos and 3.5% of the market, followed by Yahoo (340 Thousand and 3.4%), Viacom (237 Thousand and 2.3%) and Microsoft (180 Thousand and 1.8%).
Even more astounding (at least to me, but I’m easily astounded), one in five Online Americans say they watch TV on the Web on a weekly basis – which the Solutions Research Group notes is well ahead of the 14% watching cable’s video-on-demand offerings. The hot shows on the Internet included Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars, Ugly Betty, Chuck, CSI, House, Kitchen Nightmares, Smallville and Gossip Girl. And as long as I’m being astounded, comScore says online viewers watched an average of 3.4 hours of online video during the month – a 34% increase since the beginning of 2007. The average online video duration was 2.8 minutes but then again the ‘average’ online video viewer ‘consumed’ 72 videos.
As a footnote, I should point out an article by Mike Shields in MediaWeek that major broadcasters, NBC Universal and Viacom, continue to resist placing their content on YouTube. Of course, NBC does have hulu.com as well as its own site. YouTube points out in the article that it has deals with 18 groups, including Hearst Corp., Tribune Broadcasting, Oprah’s Harpo, Reuters and even PBS. And, no, I don’t understand why Viacom resists making a deal with YouTube while CBS doesn’t.
THE SMARTEST TV SHOWS OF ALL TIME: As long as I’m on a TV kick, website fancast.com, which allows people to develop their own TV viewing guide of favorite shows both on line and on air, has created a ‘smart’ TV list, based on an interview with the chairman of Mensa International, the organization for people whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population. Chairman Jim Werdell’s obviously personal list includes M-A-S-H, Cosmos (with Carl Sagan), CSI, House, West Wing, Boston Legal, All in the Family, Frasier, Mad About You and Jeopardy which he says tests intelligence as well as knowledge. Werdell cites most of the shows for their smart ‘repartee.’ You can read more at http://thebiz.fancast.com/2008/02/exclusive_mensa_chair_picks_th.html.
SOMETHING HAPPENS SOME PLACE TO SOMEONE: With that heavy duty definition of news, CNN has launched its iReports.com “user powered news” website. The site says there were 89,894 iReports filed worldwide, of which 915 made it on to CNN. The site bills itself as Unedited, Unfiltered, and one is tempted to say un-interesting, but I won’t; after all it is a beta site. Let me just say the lead story, billed as Breaking News, this morning was a video of an argument between a ketchup bottle and a mustard bottle. The second story on the home page, actually made it to CNN, is a video version book report on Lord of the Flies done a la Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room. Just out of curiosity, I checked out the morning line-up on Current TV which relies heavily but not solely on user generated reports. The lead was an edited version of John McCain talking about Iraq and set to a sort of rap beat and which actually was from YouTube. Of course, the second story was about a man getting a Pug… as in dog. As a side note, MTV has launched a political version of user generated news titled Choose or Lose with a “street team” of ‘reporters’ in all 50 states and D.C.
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE: If you’re like most people, you believe your friends and relatives and your peer group. Two separate surveys came to the same conclusion when looking at online products and services and, by extension, all products and services. Two-thirds of those surveyed say consumer generated reviews and ratings were the most important thing for them in making decisions. A Forrester Research survey of 5,000 online consumers found that not only did two thirds (64%) want to see user ratings and reviews on Websites, nearly the same number (59%)wanted product or price comparison testimonials and half (49%) wanted customer testimonials. A similar survey by Jupiter Research and Bazaarvoice found even more (70%) rated online product ratings and reviews the most helpful when researching products which two thirds (65%) of them did online even when they purchased offline. But here is where it gets interesting (well, to me, anyway) “trust in online reviews was found to be at its greatest when readers heard both sides of the story.” More than half (56%) say they wanted to know both the pros and cons of a product’s ‘attributes.’
Okay, the part my television brethren won’t like – online customer reviews are FIVE times more influential (53%) than TV ads (11%) in the case of online users thinking about spending money, according to the Jupiter survey which focused on U.K. consumers. Somewhat oddly, according to the Forrester survey, only one in five (23%) want the ability to upload or view their own content and only slightly more than that (29%) wanted quizzes or questionnaires. Not surprisingly Gen Yers (18 to 27) responded more positively toward entertaining games, quizzes, questionnaires and sharing content, followed by the Gen Xers (28 to 41).
COCKTAIL CHATTER: Organic milk is taking the place of high octane energy drinks and fruit flavored bottled water as the ‘cutting-edge’ beverage with double digit sales growth, in part because of the smaller price difference with regular milk but mainly because of its perceived health benefits, according to the website, Progressive Grocer. Mexico City has started a women-only bus service in the city because of the problem of women being groped and verbally abused on the public transportation. According to trend watching newsletter, Springwise, similar services have been started in Egypt, India, Brazil, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan along with taxis in the U.K., Russia, India, Dubai and Iran. An employment website called TheLadders aimed exclusively at high earners looking for jobs paying $100,000-plus, has been started by a former executive from hotjobs.com.
A FINAL NOTE OF CLARIFICATION: Last week’s MfM reported on the amount of ‘non-programming content’, including ads, aired on cable and broadcast networks as compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. One key point was left out: the analysis was based on the programming on the network affiliates, not just the networks alone. For each network, programming for the ten networks was sampled on local stations in seven different markets across the country, TO allow for regional differences and to create a composite week’s worth of programming. Thanks to sharp-eyed reader Devoe Slisher, of Fox59 and TheCW4 in Indianapolis for catching that.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at my website MediaConsultant.tv.
Message From Michael -- February 11, 2008
GOOGLE VERSUS MICROSOFT – REVERBERATIONS AND RECRIMINATIONS
BROADCAST NETWORKS VERSUS CABLE NETWORKS
TRANSITION AND CONFUSION IN TELEVISION
THE U.S. VERSUS THE U.S.S.R. AGAIN
THE $500 BILLION BROADBAND PENETRATION
NEWS OF THE WEB WEIRD
COCKTAIL CHATTER
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
GOOGLE VERSUS MICROSOFT – REVERBERATIONS AND RECRIMINATIONS: Not surprisingly, Google officials are warning a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo! would destroy Internet openness and innovation. Even less surprising, Microsoft officials say it would increase competition rather than reduce it. All that said, more figures have been released by Hitwise, comScore and Nielsen showing where the three behemoths stand. According to Hitwise, the market share of U.S. visits for Microsoft and Yahoo combined would be 15.6% of all Internet visits, with Google at 7.7% based on the week ended January 26th. However, Google accounts for 66% of all U.S. search volume while Yahoo and MSN Search combined would total 28%, according to December figures.
But, and here is where I don’t understand why Yahoo would be considered vulnerable, Yahoo has 71.4% of the U.S. market in portal front pages (MSN has 15.43%); Yahoo has 54.63% of Email services in the U.S. while Windows has 25.54% and Gmail has 5.51%; Yahoo News accounts for 7.38% of the market share in the news and media category for its Yahoo News, while MSNBC has 3.84%; Yahoo Finance has 29.15% of the business information category with MSN Money accounting for 10.14% of the U.S. market share; Yahoo Shopping has 8.68% of the rewards and directories categories followed by MSN shopping with 1.16%; Yahoo hotjobs accounts for 11.18% of the employment category; Yahoo Movies accounts for 8.33% of the movies category and so on and so on. Add to that the fact that Yahoo is far and away the leader in share of display ads with 18.8% of the market compared to Microsoft’s 6.7% and Google’s 1%, and I don’t get it.
In the end, if the two merge, Nielsen Online VP Ken Cassar says the combined entity would be visited by 86% of all U.S. Internet users, account for 15% of all time spent online and represent 59% of all online display ad impressions sold – the most significant revenue generator for most online publishers.
And for a different perspective altogether, Raycom Media CIO Dave Folsom reminded me of the flash online movie Epic2014 created for the Museum of Media History. An updated version of this prescient or pessimistic (depending on your perspective) look in the future, Epic2015, can be seen at http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk.
BROADCAST NETWORKS VERSUS CABLE NETWORKS: The four major Broadcast networks average a full minute more of advertising per hour than the leading cable networks, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The main purpose of the study was to look at the amount of Public Service Announcements carried by the networks. As has been reported, the study found that less than one half of one percent of all air-time went to PSA’s (about 17 seconds an hour), roughly the same as it was five years before. And most of that (46%) was show in the hours from Midnight to 8:00 a.m. But also buried in the report was an analysis of non-programming content (ads, promos, psa’s, infomercials and ‘filler.) The time spent on ads has gone up an average of 24 seconds on the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) in the five years from 2000 to 2005, but a whopping 50 seconds on the cable networks measured (CNN, ESPN, MTV, Nick and TNT). Still there is a full minute more of advertising per hour on the broadcast networks (13:36) compared to the cable networks (12.30). Both groups have reduced the amount of time spent on promos in that time period, but they are both about the same -- 2:17 an hour on broadcast networks compared to 2:14 seconds on the cable networks.
ABC averages the most time on ads (14:05), just slightly more than NBC (14:01), but significantly more than CBS (13:21) and Fox (12:56). ABC also spent the least amount of time on promos (2:01), followed again by NBC (2:16) which in turn is closely followed by CBS (2:17) but with Fox spending the ‘most’ time (2:37). Fox had the highest amount of ‘non-programming content’, much of that infomercials (5:36) which was more than three times any of the other broadcast networks. The five cable networks measured had no infomercial time, according to the study. Interestingly, the network with the least amount of advertising was Univision with an average of 7:15 per hour, and even more interesting Univision had the highest promo time of any network (5:05).
TRANSITION AND CONFUSION IN TELEVISION: Those are the two words used to describe the state of television in a report summarizing a panel discussion held by the Peabody Awards. The report likens the ‘new’ news environment to a “giant media echo chamber” in which viewers only see and hear what they want to see and hear. Viewers may get more information and ‘varying perspectives’ through fiction and documentary work than in traditional news presentations. Add to that a process the report calls “viralization” in which we don’t have to go get the news, it comes to us, often from other viewers. Gone are the days when television contributed to a shared sense of national community. Despite all that, the report says quality television still exists. But if television is going to contribute to public culture, industry leaders, policy makers and citizen groups must work toward the creation of “media commons” to make sure differing groups can exchange ideas and understand each other, rather than “retreat into gated communities for the like-minded.”
THE U.S. VERSUS THE U.S.S.R: The two former Cold War enemies are again competing on the world stage, but it’s not so much about Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, as it is about Information and Communications Technology. Both scored #1 but in different areas for different reasons. Even more surprising is that countries that you hear so much about in terms of ICT (such as India and Korea) scored poorly. A professor at the London Business School along with global economic consulting firm LECG have created a “Connectivity Scorecard” which looks not just at the infrastructure and technology in each country but “how usefully connected” the consumers, businesses and governments in those countries are and what that means to economic growth. The study makes the point that it is widely accepted that modern economies are information economies but in reality ALL economies are information economies now, and that “optimizing connectivity usage is the best source of future economic growth.”
America scored first out of 16 “innovation driven” economies (what we would call developed countries) while Russia scored first out of 9 “efficiency and resource driven” economies (commonly called emerging or developing countries.) But even in first place, the U.S. only scored 6.97 out of 10, followed by Sweden (6.83), Japan (6.8), Canada (6.5), Finland (6.1), the U.K. (6.1), Australia (5.93), Germany (5.52), France (5.07), and Korea coming in at tenth (4.78) In the other group, Russia scored 6.11 out of 10, followed by Malaysia (5.82), Mexico (4.37), Brazil (4.28), South Africa (4.11), China (3.42), Phillipines (2.38), India (1.68) and Nigeria (1.01). The report says Korea needs to figure out why its businesses spend so little on enterprise telephony and IP applications, that India has to improve performance on basic literacy and access measures, and the U.S. needs to improve general broadband penetration and affordability.
THE $500 BILLION BROADBAND PENETRATION: The “connectivity scorecard” cites previous studies that improving broadband penetration in the U.S. could have an economic impact of upwards of $500 Billion. However, the LECG report’s call for improving broadband penetration in the U.S. runs counter to another report by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration which says broadband penetration has improved dramatically, growing 1,100 percent in the past eight years. The report by the agency, which is part of the U.S. Commerce Department credits the improvements to the the Bush administration’s policy of “taking the government out of decisions more appropriately left to the marketplace… clearing away regulatory obstacles… tax relief… seed-funding… (and its) pro-investment… deregulatory policies.” It should be noted that critics charge that the administrations’ definition of broadband as 220 Kilobytes per Second is only four times dial-up speed and barely fast enough to allow streaming video. It should also be noted that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ranks the U.S. 15th in broadband penetration, but U.S. officials say that does not take into account the large rural areas in America and the number of WiFi hotspots in the U.S.
NEWS OF THE WEB WEIRD: This may become a new MfM feature – a look at weird and sometimes wonderful websites that tell you something about where the Internet is going. For example, four guys in Scotland have created a site which allows you to bet on news stories. And even though the creators are in Edinburgh, the stories are focused on U.S. news. You sign up at the site, hubdub.com, and you get $1,000 in play money that can only be used on the site. Then you can bet on everything from the mundane (who will be elected President) to money matters (will the Dow Jones average fall below 12,000 today) to minutiae (who will be voted off Episode 2 Survivor 16) to the macabre (will more than 50 people be killed by a single suicide bomber in Pakistan). Meanwhile, website haveyougotthenerve.tv is looking for 3,000 ‘executive producers’ who will plunk down 60 English pounds to become part of an experiment in crowdsourcing, in which they are all part of a TV production company creating programs. And before you dismiss it as some sort of ponzi scheme, the creator, Mark Bowness, is the same person who created Tribewanted, a global tribe developing a sustainable eco community on an island in Fiji. Thinking a little more modestly? Then consider website itsmy.com where you can create your own personal mobile TV show using your content and the site’s sound files, avatars and animations for uploading and downloading.
A FINAL NOTE: From the people who brought you meter madness and ratings rubble comes a new idea. Nielsen Media has announced a ‘strategic investment’ in NeuroFocus, a firm specializing in applying brainwave research to advertising, programming and messaging. Susan Whiting, Executive Vice President of Nielsen, is quoted as saying the ‘alliance’ will allow Nielsen to gather unique insights about consumer attitudes and behavior, “but which they themselves may not even be fully aware.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at my website MediaConsultant.tv.
BROADCAST NETWORKS VERSUS CABLE NETWORKS
TRANSITION AND CONFUSION IN TELEVISION
THE U.S. VERSUS THE U.S.S.R. AGAIN
THE $500 BILLION BROADBAND PENETRATION
NEWS OF THE WEB WEIRD
COCKTAIL CHATTER
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
GOOGLE VERSUS MICROSOFT – REVERBERATIONS AND RECRIMINATIONS: Not surprisingly, Google officials are warning a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo! would destroy Internet openness and innovation. Even less surprising, Microsoft officials say it would increase competition rather than reduce it. All that said, more figures have been released by Hitwise, comScore and Nielsen showing where the three behemoths stand. According to Hitwise, the market share of U.S. visits for Microsoft and Yahoo combined would be 15.6% of all Internet visits, with Google at 7.7% based on the week ended January 26th. However, Google accounts for 66% of all U.S. search volume while Yahoo and MSN Search combined would total 28%, according to December figures.
But, and here is where I don’t understand why Yahoo would be considered vulnerable, Yahoo has 71.4% of the U.S. market in portal front pages (MSN has 15.43%); Yahoo has 54.63% of Email services in the U.S. while Windows has 25.54% and Gmail has 5.51%; Yahoo News accounts for 7.38% of the market share in the news and media category for its Yahoo News, while MSNBC has 3.84%; Yahoo Finance has 29.15% of the business information category with MSN Money accounting for 10.14% of the U.S. market share; Yahoo Shopping has 8.68% of the rewards and directories categories followed by MSN shopping with 1.16%; Yahoo hotjobs accounts for 11.18% of the employment category; Yahoo Movies accounts for 8.33% of the movies category and so on and so on. Add to that the fact that Yahoo is far and away the leader in share of display ads with 18.8% of the market compared to Microsoft’s 6.7% and Google’s 1%, and I don’t get it.
In the end, if the two merge, Nielsen Online VP Ken Cassar says the combined entity would be visited by 86% of all U.S. Internet users, account for 15% of all time spent online and represent 59% of all online display ad impressions sold – the most significant revenue generator for most online publishers.
And for a different perspective altogether, Raycom Media CIO Dave Folsom reminded me of the flash online movie Epic2014 created for the Museum of Media History. An updated version of this prescient or pessimistic (depending on your perspective) look in the future, Epic2015, can be seen at http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk.
BROADCAST NETWORKS VERSUS CABLE NETWORKS: The four major Broadcast networks average a full minute more of advertising per hour than the leading cable networks, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The main purpose of the study was to look at the amount of Public Service Announcements carried by the networks. As has been reported, the study found that less than one half of one percent of all air-time went to PSA’s (about 17 seconds an hour), roughly the same as it was five years before. And most of that (46%) was show in the hours from Midnight to 8:00 a.m. But also buried in the report was an analysis of non-programming content (ads, promos, psa’s, infomercials and ‘filler.) The time spent on ads has gone up an average of 24 seconds on the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) in the five years from 2000 to 2005, but a whopping 50 seconds on the cable networks measured (CNN, ESPN, MTV, Nick and TNT). Still there is a full minute more of advertising per hour on the broadcast networks (13:36) compared to the cable networks (12.30). Both groups have reduced the amount of time spent on promos in that time period, but they are both about the same -- 2:17 an hour on broadcast networks compared to 2:14 seconds on the cable networks.
ABC averages the most time on ads (14:05), just slightly more than NBC (14:01), but significantly more than CBS (13:21) and Fox (12:56). ABC also spent the least amount of time on promos (2:01), followed again by NBC (2:16) which in turn is closely followed by CBS (2:17) but with Fox spending the ‘most’ time (2:37). Fox had the highest amount of ‘non-programming content’, much of that infomercials (5:36) which was more than three times any of the other broadcast networks. The five cable networks measured had no infomercial time, according to the study. Interestingly, the network with the least amount of advertising was Univision with an average of 7:15 per hour, and even more interesting Univision had the highest promo time of any network (5:05).
TRANSITION AND CONFUSION IN TELEVISION: Those are the two words used to describe the state of television in a report summarizing a panel discussion held by the Peabody Awards. The report likens the ‘new’ news environment to a “giant media echo chamber” in which viewers only see and hear what they want to see and hear. Viewers may get more information and ‘varying perspectives’ through fiction and documentary work than in traditional news presentations. Add to that a process the report calls “viralization” in which we don’t have to go get the news, it comes to us, often from other viewers. Gone are the days when television contributed to a shared sense of national community. Despite all that, the report says quality television still exists. But if television is going to contribute to public culture, industry leaders, policy makers and citizen groups must work toward the creation of “media commons” to make sure differing groups can exchange ideas and understand each other, rather than “retreat into gated communities for the like-minded.”
THE U.S. VERSUS THE U.S.S.R: The two former Cold War enemies are again competing on the world stage, but it’s not so much about Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, as it is about Information and Communications Technology. Both scored #1 but in different areas for different reasons. Even more surprising is that countries that you hear so much about in terms of ICT (such as India and Korea) scored poorly. A professor at the London Business School along with global economic consulting firm LECG have created a “Connectivity Scorecard” which looks not just at the infrastructure and technology in each country but “how usefully connected” the consumers, businesses and governments in those countries are and what that means to economic growth. The study makes the point that it is widely accepted that modern economies are information economies but in reality ALL economies are information economies now, and that “optimizing connectivity usage is the best source of future economic growth.”
America scored first out of 16 “innovation driven” economies (what we would call developed countries) while Russia scored first out of 9 “efficiency and resource driven” economies (commonly called emerging or developing countries.) But even in first place, the U.S. only scored 6.97 out of 10, followed by Sweden (6.83), Japan (6.8), Canada (6.5), Finland (6.1), the U.K. (6.1), Australia (5.93), Germany (5.52), France (5.07), and Korea coming in at tenth (4.78) In the other group, Russia scored 6.11 out of 10, followed by Malaysia (5.82), Mexico (4.37), Brazil (4.28), South Africa (4.11), China (3.42), Phillipines (2.38), India (1.68) and Nigeria (1.01). The report says Korea needs to figure out why its businesses spend so little on enterprise telephony and IP applications, that India has to improve performance on basic literacy and access measures, and the U.S. needs to improve general broadband penetration and affordability.
THE $500 BILLION BROADBAND PENETRATION: The “connectivity scorecard” cites previous studies that improving broadband penetration in the U.S. could have an economic impact of upwards of $500 Billion. However, the LECG report’s call for improving broadband penetration in the U.S. runs counter to another report by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration which says broadband penetration has improved dramatically, growing 1,100 percent in the past eight years. The report by the agency, which is part of the U.S. Commerce Department credits the improvements to the the Bush administration’s policy of “taking the government out of decisions more appropriately left to the marketplace… clearing away regulatory obstacles… tax relief… seed-funding… (and its) pro-investment… deregulatory policies.” It should be noted that critics charge that the administrations’ definition of broadband as 220 Kilobytes per Second is only four times dial-up speed and barely fast enough to allow streaming video. It should also be noted that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ranks the U.S. 15th in broadband penetration, but U.S. officials say that does not take into account the large rural areas in America and the number of WiFi hotspots in the U.S.
NEWS OF THE WEB WEIRD: This may become a new MfM feature – a look at weird and sometimes wonderful websites that tell you something about where the Internet is going. For example, four guys in Scotland have created a site which allows you to bet on news stories. And even though the creators are in Edinburgh, the stories are focused on U.S. news. You sign up at the site, hubdub.com, and you get $1,000 in play money that can only be used on the site. Then you can bet on everything from the mundane (who will be elected President) to money matters (will the Dow Jones average fall below 12,000 today) to minutiae (who will be voted off Episode 2 Survivor 16) to the macabre (will more than 50 people be killed by a single suicide bomber in Pakistan). Meanwhile, website haveyougotthenerve.tv is looking for 3,000 ‘executive producers’ who will plunk down 60 English pounds to become part of an experiment in crowdsourcing, in which they are all part of a TV production company creating programs. And before you dismiss it as some sort of ponzi scheme, the creator, Mark Bowness, is the same person who created Tribewanted, a global tribe developing a sustainable eco community on an island in Fiji. Thinking a little more modestly? Then consider website itsmy.com where you can create your own personal mobile TV show using your content and the site’s sound files, avatars and animations for uploading and downloading.
A FINAL NOTE: From the people who brought you meter madness and ratings rubble comes a new idea. Nielsen Media has announced a ‘strategic investment’ in NeuroFocus, a firm specializing in applying brainwave research to advertising, programming and messaging. Susan Whiting, Executive Vice President of Nielsen, is quoted as saying the ‘alliance’ will allow Nielsen to gather unique insights about consumer attitudes and behavior, “but which they themselves may not even be fully aware.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at my website MediaConsultant.tv.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Message From Michael -- February 4, 2008
MICROSOFT BID FOR YAHOO
SWEEPS
SUPER BOWL XLII
SUPER TUESDAY
DIGITAL SUPER FUTURE
ANOTHER SIDE OF MEDIA CREDIBILITY
ANOTHER SIDE OF MEDIA IMPORTANCE
COCKTAIL CHATTER
MICROSOFT BID FOR YAHOO: This is just too big a story not to mention. So… consider it mentioned. Watch for the reverberations and recriminations to come. The New York Times in its business pages and its Week In Review section is already labeling it a ‘desperation move’, comparing Microsoft to I.B.M. in the 80’s, and calling the move another example of “creative destruction” – the concept that new, innovative companies and concepts destroy and replace older, established companies and concepts. Meanwhile Wired magazine’s Bryan Gardiner did an interesting number comparison which noted that, based on Nielsen numbers, the combined search market share of Yahoo and Microsoft would be 31.5%. The search market share of Google as of December, 2007, was 56.3%. But that the combined ranking of a Microsoft/Yahoo merger in terms of domain level traffic would be 70 Billion. And based on the $44.6 Billion bid, Microsoft is paying $1,200 for each Yahoo visitor.
SWEEPS: In a similar vein, I couldn’t write an MfM in February without at least mentioning the fact that we’re in sweeps. So… consider it mentioned.
SUPER BOWL XLII: Ditto. Although I would note that the BIG story today (Monday) for all stations will be the Super Bowl ads as viewers pick their best and worst. Both comScore and Nielsen in separate reports note the jump in Web traffic the day after the game. A survey by comScore shows that while half of the people watching say the game itself is their favorite part of the Super Bowl experience, a quarter say it’s the ads. (The rest cite family and friends gathering.) And consumer generated ads are expected to generate a lot of buzz. Meanwhile, Nielsen noted that last year’s 2007 Super Bowl attracted 93 Million viewers with a 41.1 rating among men but a more than respectable 32.2 rating among women viewers.
SUPER TUESDAY: Ditto the ditto. However, again, let me add a few more resources and thoughts for you to consider. First off, a repeat from last week, interest in this election is very high. Non-profit researchers, Resource Shelf, provides a wide list of resources including USA.gov; the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (http://www.eac.gov) created by the Help America Vote Act, and which also has the Voter Information Center; Project Vote Smart (http://www.vote-smart.org) which lists elections, candidates and issues for both journalists and candidates themselves; and the State Department’s foreign press center (http://www.fpc.state.gov) which, as the Resource Shelf people put it, offers a “cornucopia” of information.
DIGITAL SUPER FUTURE: The Internet has officially taken over as the most important source of information – at least among Internet users, according to a study by the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication. But even among Internet users, there is still a question of trust and reliability. With the number of hours spent online rising a full hour per week from 2006 to 2007 to an average of 15.3 hours per week, four out of five Internet users (80%) consider the Internet to be an important source of information for them. That’s up dramatically from 66% the year before and is significantly higher than television (68%), radio or newspapers (both 63%). Yet less than half (46%) say that ‘most or all’ of the information online is generally reliable, although the same people say their particular, favorite Web sites are reliable by a margin of 83% and almost the same number (80%) say the established media websites are reliable.
The study which is in its seventh year found that more than half of the Internet users (55%) who are members of an online community feel as strongly about their online communities as they do about their real-world communities. That’s an increase from 43% just a year ago. And membership in online communities has more than doubled in the past three years. Of course that’s only 15%. More than half of the online community members (56%) reported meeting their online counterparts in person, but they also said they have an average of 5.2 friends online whom they have never met in person. Despite this, Internet users report spending slightly more time per week socializing with friends and family in person. When they are online they are buying things, with 60% saying they have bought something (usually under $100) online, and that they make an average of 36 purchases a year online; and yes, they do say it comes at the expense of retail stores.
And in a sort of good news, bad news cliché, the good news is that three out of five Internet users (60%) report looking for news online. Of course that’s still lower than the percentage (71%) who say they are just surfing with no specific destination. The bad news, at least for my newspaper brethren, is that one in five (21%) report they have stopped a subscription for a newspaper or magazine because they can get it, or related content, online. Some consolation comes from a new question in the poll which showed that half (52%) said they would miss the offline edition of the newspaper if it was no longer available while a quarter (27%) said they would not. Another new question in the poll showed that somewhere between a quarter and a third (29%) of Internet users say they have time shifted their TV viewing, using either a VCR or DVR.
ANOTHER SIDE OF MEDIA CREDIBILITY: Despite the Digital Future survey which showed a greater trust in traditional media Websites, another survey, this one by Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, finds increasing skepticism towards the media. While a little more than half (55.3%) say they believe “some” media news reporting, nearly a quarter (23.9%) say they believe little or none of the reporting. And only one in five (19.6%) of those surveyed said they could believe “all or most” of the reporting – a significant drop from the 27.4% reported five years ago in 2003. On top of that, most Americans (87.6%) believe the news media tries to influence public opinion. Less than half (40.7%) gave the media a positive rating for quality of reporting, and a little more than a third (36.9%) for accuracy and right at a third (33.3%) for ‘keeping any personal bias out of stories.’ The director of the polling institute scolded the media saying that, “Americans know bias and imbalance when they see it and they don’t like it. Americans know it’s just not that hard to present both sides and keep personal bias at home.” He compared the 40% rating to the consumer satisfaction ratings that businesses strive for – of 80% to 90%. One of the contributing factors, according to another professor at the university, is that the availability of alternative viewpoints and news sources through the Internet contributes to the skepticism.
Fox News has replaced CNN as “most trusted” for accurate reporting with a 27% for Fox compared to a 14.6% for CNN. This is almost an exact reversal of the figures from five years ago when CNN had a 23.8% compared to Fox’s 14.6%. In third place in terms of trust was NBC News (10.9%), followed by ABC (7%). Local news (6.9%) actually beat CBS News (6.8%) MSNBC (4%), and PBS News (3%).
ANOTHER SIDE OF MEDIA IMPORTANCE: The average viewer/reader/listener/consumer is either eating (68.8%), doing housework (58.3%), doing the laundry (58%), cooking (57.7%), or talking on the phone (48.6%) while that all important newscast, or radio program or Internet video is playing. Kind of puts what you do in perspective, doesn’t it? Just kidding. The Simultaneous Media Usage report from BigResearch reinforces the point made in other research as well as previous MfM reports that people are multi-tasking to an incredible degree while using media. Most people are watching TV, listening to the radio or going online while reading a newspaper, for example. The report also showed that nearly half the audience (41.2%) channel surf during commercials while a third (33.5%) talk with other people either in the room or on the phone. Another nearly third (30.2%) say they just “mentally tune out” commercials while only 5.5% say they “fully attend” to commercials.
COCKTAIL CHATTER: Nearly one in five (17.9%) of all U.S. adults are now retired, according to a report from The Media Audit. And four-fifths (83%) of those own their own homes. Proof that the Baby Boomer version of retirement is different: They travel a lot; 16% of all adults who stay in hotels are retired. They drink a lot; 13% of ‘frequent beer consumers’ are retirees. They go out a lot; 20% of all adults who frequently dine out are retirees.
Now this is one I didn’t see coming. When it comes to golf, only one place in Florida makes it to the top ten – Fort Myers-Naples where one-fifth of the population (19.7%) play golf three or more times a year. The top ranked place for golfers, according to The Media Audit… Minneapolis where 20.6% are frequent golfers, followed by Omaha (20.5%), Grand Rapids (19.4%), Albany, New York (18.6%), Detroit (18%), Akron (17.9%), Spokane (17.7%), and Ann Arbor (17.1%). The report notes that Minnesota and Nebraska are among the top five states for the number of golf courses per capita.
A FINAL NOTE: This is somewhere between a plug and a note of congratulations. Friends and consulting colleagues Cliff Abromats and Graeme Newell along with researcher extraordinaire Earle Jones have joined forces to create a new firm that focuses on emotional branding as a way to recruit new viewers to a station. The group argues that most television consulting and research focuses on “an unimaginative list (of) cookie cutter research that have homogenized our industry.” Instead, they say, the key is to make a “personal connection across all news platforms… to build the brand from the audience up, not the product down.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS: We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.
SWEEPS
SUPER BOWL XLII
SUPER TUESDAY
DIGITAL SUPER FUTURE
ANOTHER SIDE OF MEDIA CREDIBILITY
ANOTHER SIDE OF MEDIA IMPORTANCE
COCKTAIL CHATTER
MICROSOFT BID FOR YAHOO: This is just too big a story not to mention. So… consider it mentioned. Watch for the reverberations and recriminations to come. The New York Times in its business pages and its Week In Review section is already labeling it a ‘desperation move’, comparing Microsoft to I.B.M. in the 80’s, and calling the move another example of “creative destruction” – the concept that new, innovative companies and concepts destroy and replace older, established companies and concepts. Meanwhile Wired magazine’s Bryan Gardiner did an interesting number comparison which noted that, based on Nielsen numbers, the combined search market share of Yahoo and Microsoft would be 31.5%. The search market share of Google as of December, 2007, was 56.3%. But that the combined ranking of a Microsoft/Yahoo merger in terms of domain level traffic would be 70 Billion. And based on the $44.6 Billion bid, Microsoft is paying $1,200 for each Yahoo visitor.
SWEEPS: In a similar vein, I couldn’t write an MfM in February without at least mentioning the fact that we’re in sweeps. So… consider it mentioned.
SUPER BOWL XLII: Ditto. Although I would note that the BIG story today (Monday) for all stations will be the Super Bowl ads as viewers pick their best and worst. Both comScore and Nielsen in separate reports note the jump in Web traffic the day after the game. A survey by comScore shows that while half of the people watching say the game itself is their favorite part of the Super Bowl experience, a quarter say it’s the ads. (The rest cite family and friends gathering.) And consumer generated ads are expected to generate a lot of buzz. Meanwhile, Nielsen noted that last year’s 2007 Super Bowl attracted 93 Million viewers with a 41.1 rating among men but a more than respectable 32.2 rating among women viewers.
SUPER TUESDAY: Ditto the ditto. However, again, let me add a few more resources and thoughts for you to consider. First off, a repeat from last week, interest in this election is very high. Non-profit researchers, Resource Shelf, provides a wide list of resources including USA.gov; the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (http://www.eac.gov) created by the Help America Vote Act, and which also has the Voter Information Center; Project Vote Smart (http://www.vote-smart.org) which lists elections, candidates and issues for both journalists and candidates themselves; and the State Department’s foreign press center (http://www.fpc.state.gov) which, as the Resource Shelf people put it, offers a “cornucopia” of information.
DIGITAL SUPER FUTURE: The Internet has officially taken over as the most important source of information – at least among Internet users, according to a study by the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication. But even among Internet users, there is still a question of trust and reliability. With the number of hours spent online rising a full hour per week from 2006 to 2007 to an average of 15.3 hours per week, four out of five Internet users (80%) consider the Internet to be an important source of information for them. That’s up dramatically from 66% the year before and is significantly higher than television (68%), radio or newspapers (both 63%). Yet less than half (46%) say that ‘most or all’ of the information online is generally reliable, although the same people say their particular, favorite Web sites are reliable by a margin of 83% and almost the same number (80%) say the established media websites are reliable.
The study which is in its seventh year found that more than half of the Internet users (55%) who are members of an online community feel as strongly about their online communities as they do about their real-world communities. That’s an increase from 43% just a year ago. And membership in online communities has more than doubled in the past three years. Of course that’s only 15%. More than half of the online community members (56%) reported meeting their online counterparts in person, but they also said they have an average of 5.2 friends online whom they have never met in person. Despite this, Internet users report spending slightly more time per week socializing with friends and family in person. When they are online they are buying things, with 60% saying they have bought something (usually under $100) online, and that they make an average of 36 purchases a year online; and yes, they do say it comes at the expense of retail stores.
And in a sort of good news, bad news cliché, the good news is that three out of five Internet users (60%) report looking for news online. Of course that’s still lower than the percentage (71%) who say they are just surfing with no specific destination. The bad news, at least for my newspaper brethren, is that one in five (21%) report they have stopped a subscription for a newspaper or magazine because they can get it, or related content, online. Some consolation comes from a new question in the poll which showed that half (52%) said they would miss the offline edition of the newspaper if it was no longer available while a quarter (27%) said they would not. Another new question in the poll showed that somewhere between a quarter and a third (29%) of Internet users say they have time shifted their TV viewing, using either a VCR or DVR.
ANOTHER SIDE OF MEDIA CREDIBILITY: Despite the Digital Future survey which showed a greater trust in traditional media Websites, another survey, this one by Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, finds increasing skepticism towards the media. While a little more than half (55.3%) say they believe “some” media news reporting, nearly a quarter (23.9%) say they believe little or none of the reporting. And only one in five (19.6%) of those surveyed said they could believe “all or most” of the reporting – a significant drop from the 27.4% reported five years ago in 2003. On top of that, most Americans (87.6%) believe the news media tries to influence public opinion. Less than half (40.7%) gave the media a positive rating for quality of reporting, and a little more than a third (36.9%) for accuracy and right at a third (33.3%) for ‘keeping any personal bias out of stories.’ The director of the polling institute scolded the media saying that, “Americans know bias and imbalance when they see it and they don’t like it. Americans know it’s just not that hard to present both sides and keep personal bias at home.” He compared the 40% rating to the consumer satisfaction ratings that businesses strive for – of 80% to 90%. One of the contributing factors, according to another professor at the university, is that the availability of alternative viewpoints and news sources through the Internet contributes to the skepticism.
Fox News has replaced CNN as “most trusted” for accurate reporting with a 27% for Fox compared to a 14.6% for CNN. This is almost an exact reversal of the figures from five years ago when CNN had a 23.8% compared to Fox’s 14.6%. In third place in terms of trust was NBC News (10.9%), followed by ABC (7%). Local news (6.9%) actually beat CBS News (6.8%) MSNBC (4%), and PBS News (3%).
ANOTHER SIDE OF MEDIA IMPORTANCE: The average viewer/reader/listener/consumer is either eating (68.8%), doing housework (58.3%), doing the laundry (58%), cooking (57.7%), or talking on the phone (48.6%) while that all important newscast, or radio program or Internet video is playing. Kind of puts what you do in perspective, doesn’t it? Just kidding. The Simultaneous Media Usage report from BigResearch reinforces the point made in other research as well as previous MfM reports that people are multi-tasking to an incredible degree while using media. Most people are watching TV, listening to the radio or going online while reading a newspaper, for example. The report also showed that nearly half the audience (41.2%) channel surf during commercials while a third (33.5%) talk with other people either in the room or on the phone. Another nearly third (30.2%) say they just “mentally tune out” commercials while only 5.5% say they “fully attend” to commercials.
COCKTAIL CHATTER: Nearly one in five (17.9%) of all U.S. adults are now retired, according to a report from The Media Audit. And four-fifths (83%) of those own their own homes. Proof that the Baby Boomer version of retirement is different: They travel a lot; 16% of all adults who stay in hotels are retired. They drink a lot; 13% of ‘frequent beer consumers’ are retirees. They go out a lot; 20% of all adults who frequently dine out are retirees.
Now this is one I didn’t see coming. When it comes to golf, only one place in Florida makes it to the top ten – Fort Myers-Naples where one-fifth of the population (19.7%) play golf three or more times a year. The top ranked place for golfers, according to The Media Audit… Minneapolis where 20.6% are frequent golfers, followed by Omaha (20.5%), Grand Rapids (19.4%), Albany, New York (18.6%), Detroit (18%), Akron (17.9%), Spokane (17.7%), and Ann Arbor (17.1%). The report notes that Minnesota and Nebraska are among the top five states for the number of golf courses per capita.
A FINAL NOTE: This is somewhere between a plug and a note of congratulations. Friends and consulting colleagues Cliff Abromats and Graeme Newell along with researcher extraordinaire Earle Jones have joined forces to create a new firm that focuses on emotional branding as a way to recruit new viewers to a station. The group argues that most television consulting and research focuses on “an unimaginative list (of) cookie cutter research that have homogenized our industry.” Instead, they say, the key is to make a “personal connection across all news platforms… to build the brand from the audience up, not the product down.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS: We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.
Message From Michael -- January 28, 2008
SWEEPS – THE PAIN IN THE PATOOT
NEWS ‘WORKERS’ VERSUS NEWS DIRECTORS ON CONVERGENCE
MAKING DIGITAL NATIVES INTERESTABLE
FACTOID FODDER REPLACES COCKTAIL CHATTER
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
SWEEPS: Here it is… the biggest pain-in-the-patoot sweeps period of the year – February. It starts Thursday. Those who have been reading the weekly MfM for any length of time will already know what I’m going to say next – Start early. You should have special reports airing before the sweeps start. Also, as a service to readers of MfM, a reminder of the big events in February: The Super Bowl on Fox on Sunday, February 3rd, Super Tuesday elections (which is generating more interest than normal) with primaries in two dozen states on Tuesday, February 5th, The Grammy Awards on CBS on Sunday, February 10th, and finally the writers-strike-plagued Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24th.
NEWS ‘WORKERS’ VERSUS NEWS DIRECTORS ON CONVERGENCE: A survey by three professors at the University of South Carolina finds “a fair amount of discontent exists in the newsroom regarding convergence work.” Not too surprisingly, reporters and producers were significantly more likely than news directors and general managers to believe that producing content for other media outlets (mainly the Web) was challenging. Despite this, nearly two thirds (60.8%) saw their stations overall experience with convergence to be ‘positive or very positive,’ according to the study published in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Even more interesting, more than half reported that they personally enjoyed working with other media outlets, but only a quarter of them believed their co-workers enjoyed the work. Curiously, the authors (Laura K. Smith, Andrea H. Tanner and Sonya Forte Duhe) found that reporters in medium-sized markets (DMA’s 51 – 100) had the most negative perceptions about the effects of convergence, in part it seems because they had bigger workloads than other markets. It should be noted that markets 50 and above were not surveyed because the reporters and producers were less likely to perform actual convergence duties, so the authors focused on markets 51 to 100, 101 – 150 and 151 – 200.
Even more interesting, not a single reporter or producer surveyed (out of nearly 300 surveyed) said he or she produced Internet-only stories. Most of the convergence work was either writing summary stories for the station Website (49.3%) or physically posting content (47.9%). Less than a third took part in question and air sessions with viewers (32.5%) while only one in five (21.6%) provided unaired video or soundbites for the Web. Even fewer (15.4%) provided links for viewers to find more information and fewer still (12.3%) provided streaming video of stories. Hardly any (4.5%) provided still pictures while even fewer (2.7%) of the reporters and producers created blogs or provided additional story facts or copy. Lastly, it should be noted, as the authors pointed out that almost invariably the television news managers “defined convergence in terms that mirrored the way their station already practiced it.”
MAKING DIGITAL NATIVES INTERESTABLE: Before anybody scolds me about using a weird word, I should say it comes from the Media Management Center at Northwestern University which has published a study of teen news habits which found, not surprisingly, that teenagers “aren’t much into following serious news online.” The qualitative study which examined the news habits of a diverse but limited (65) group of Chicago teenagers found that ALL of them have been “Digital Natives” going on-line for at least three years while half of them have been online for six years or more. The study authors argue that the news can be made “interestable” to teenagers and that news organizations can help teens develop a ‘news persona” by working with parents and teachers and by working with how they present their product. The report is titled “If It Catches My Eye” because the study authors say that was the constant refrain they heard from teenagers. They would watch the news or read a story if something about it caught their eye. Usually that meant videos, photos and motion, but it also included celebrity, sports, music and fashion news that lead them to other news stories or – the most popular – news of the weird. The teens also put a lot of emphasis on ‘new and current’ and that meant Websites that weren’t just updated daily but hourly.
Even so, the study says the problem is that not only do the teenagers find news “just not that interesting,” the teenagers also find that “news stresses them out.” It makes them feel unsafe. Not surprisingly teenagers didn’t differentiate between sites that aggregate news and sites that actually generate news; but somewhat surprisingly it was important to them that they get “information that I can trust” and that usually translated into major sites and major brands. Trust was one of the four driving factors for teens’ interest in news along with -- a website that is easy to use (they’re used to Websites with multiple elements); that gives them useful information (such as with their homework); and gives them things to talk about (they feel good when they are the knowledgeable one, the first to know.)
Unlike adults who often get their news during the work hours, most teenagers (60%) get their news from 6pm to 10pm. As noted earlier, it usually comes by happenstance while they’re visiting the major aggregator or video sharing sites. Local newspapers beat out local TV by a long shot when it come to the online news experience for teens with nearly half (43%) saying they visited a local newspaper website in the last week while only a quarter (27%) visited a television website in the last week. Even more telling, when asked to pick three websites they go to for news, one in ten (9%) cited the local newspaper website, but less than half of that (4%) cited the local television station website.
FACTOID FODDER: This is normally where Cocktail Chatter goes, but I found that facts and figures dominated so much of the CC this week that I decided to change the headline.
China’s ‘net population’ has soared from 137 Million at the end of 2006 to 210 Million by the end of 2007. English-speaking Asian-Americans are online more often than the rest of the Internet population with 74% online compared to 71.7% for whites, according to eMarketer. According to an analysis of Bureau of Labor statistics by Ad Age, employment in U.S. advertising and marketing sectors has hit a record 1.64 Million people, with online media growing the fastest at 24.2% year to year. Apple’s iTunes store has sold 4 Billion songs, 125 Million TV shows and 7 Million movies, according to data released by the company. Research firm AccuStream iMedia says viewings of user-generated video jumped to 22.4 Billion views in 2007, a 70% increase over 2006’s 13.2 Billion viewings. It also reports that 1.2 Million videos and 26.5 Million comments were published to user generated video sites in 2007. Sports website ESPN.com reported its users viewed a record 1.2 Billion videos on its site last year, a 54% increase over the previous year.
Okay, this one falls into the category of Cocktail Chatter: The top city in the U.S. when it comes to growth in podcast use is Chattanooga with a 644% increase over the previous year. Other cities in Wizzard Media’s podcasting top ten network are Tampa-St. Petersburg with a 380% increase; Kansas City (348%); Green Bay – Appleton (339%); Fresno-Visalia (173%); Toledo (106%); Houston (101%); Nashville (82%); Washington DC (72%) and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (68%).
Finally, this has been reported extensively already, but I find it so fascinating that I think it’s worth repeating. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has beaten out fellow talk show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey as the ‘most beloved’ TV personality, according to a new Harris Poll. Following Oprah is Jay Leno in the #3 spot, followed by Hugh Laurie (House) in #4; Jon Stewart #5; David Letterman and Stephen Colbert tied for #6; Bill O’Reilly #8; and Ray Romano and Homer Simpson tied for #9. Not surprisingly Republicans cite Bill O’Reilly as their favorite, but surprisingly, people who identify themselves as conservatives don’t pick O’Reilly. Instead they pick Jay Leno. Democrats and those identifying themselves as liberal cite Ellen DeGeneres.
A FINAL NOTE: One of LATimes.com’s web mavens has built a tagcloud (that’s those displays in which words are larger or smaller depending on how often they’re used) outlining the technical skills needed for online journalists by picking the words used in a series of online job descriptions. The number one word was ‘interactive’ followed by blogs and flash. You can see the tagcloud yourself by visiting Eric Ulken’s website at http://ulken.com/index.html.
A FINAL, FINAL NOTE: As long as I am pointing out websites, a really neat website is BigThink.com which features interviews with some of today’s leading “thinkers, movers and shakers” including politicians like Ted Kennedy and John McCain, businessmen like Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group and Patrick Byrne, founder and CEO of Overstock.com, academicians like Larry Summers, President of Harvard and Shirley Tilghman, President of Princeton University, journalists like Jon Meacham, Editor of Newsweek, and David Remnick, Editor of The New Yorker. Okay, you get the idea. Anyway, some very cool stuff.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at my website MediaConsultant.tv.
NEWS ‘WORKERS’ VERSUS NEWS DIRECTORS ON CONVERGENCE
MAKING DIGITAL NATIVES INTERESTABLE
FACTOID FODDER REPLACES COCKTAIL CHATTER
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
SWEEPS: Here it is… the biggest pain-in-the-patoot sweeps period of the year – February. It starts Thursday. Those who have been reading the weekly MfM for any length of time will already know what I’m going to say next – Start early. You should have special reports airing before the sweeps start. Also, as a service to readers of MfM, a reminder of the big events in February: The Super Bowl on Fox on Sunday, February 3rd, Super Tuesday elections (which is generating more interest than normal) with primaries in two dozen states on Tuesday, February 5th, The Grammy Awards on CBS on Sunday, February 10th, and finally the writers-strike-plagued Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24th.
NEWS ‘WORKERS’ VERSUS NEWS DIRECTORS ON CONVERGENCE: A survey by three professors at the University of South Carolina finds “a fair amount of discontent exists in the newsroom regarding convergence work.” Not too surprisingly, reporters and producers were significantly more likely than news directors and general managers to believe that producing content for other media outlets (mainly the Web) was challenging. Despite this, nearly two thirds (60.8%) saw their stations overall experience with convergence to be ‘positive or very positive,’ according to the study published in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Even more interesting, more than half reported that they personally enjoyed working with other media outlets, but only a quarter of them believed their co-workers enjoyed the work. Curiously, the authors (Laura K. Smith, Andrea H. Tanner and Sonya Forte Duhe) found that reporters in medium-sized markets (DMA’s 51 – 100) had the most negative perceptions about the effects of convergence, in part it seems because they had bigger workloads than other markets. It should be noted that markets 50 and above were not surveyed because the reporters and producers were less likely to perform actual convergence duties, so the authors focused on markets 51 to 100, 101 – 150 and 151 – 200.
Even more interesting, not a single reporter or producer surveyed (out of nearly 300 surveyed) said he or she produced Internet-only stories. Most of the convergence work was either writing summary stories for the station Website (49.3%) or physically posting content (47.9%). Less than a third took part in question and air sessions with viewers (32.5%) while only one in five (21.6%) provided unaired video or soundbites for the Web. Even fewer (15.4%) provided links for viewers to find more information and fewer still (12.3%) provided streaming video of stories. Hardly any (4.5%) provided still pictures while even fewer (2.7%) of the reporters and producers created blogs or provided additional story facts or copy. Lastly, it should be noted, as the authors pointed out that almost invariably the television news managers “defined convergence in terms that mirrored the way their station already practiced it.”
MAKING DIGITAL NATIVES INTERESTABLE: Before anybody scolds me about using a weird word, I should say it comes from the Media Management Center at Northwestern University which has published a study of teen news habits which found, not surprisingly, that teenagers “aren’t much into following serious news online.” The qualitative study which examined the news habits of a diverse but limited (65) group of Chicago teenagers found that ALL of them have been “Digital Natives” going on-line for at least three years while half of them have been online for six years or more. The study authors argue that the news can be made “interestable” to teenagers and that news organizations can help teens develop a ‘news persona” by working with parents and teachers and by working with how they present their product. The report is titled “If It Catches My Eye” because the study authors say that was the constant refrain they heard from teenagers. They would watch the news or read a story if something about it caught their eye. Usually that meant videos, photos and motion, but it also included celebrity, sports, music and fashion news that lead them to other news stories or – the most popular – news of the weird. The teens also put a lot of emphasis on ‘new and current’ and that meant Websites that weren’t just updated daily but hourly.
Even so, the study says the problem is that not only do the teenagers find news “just not that interesting,” the teenagers also find that “news stresses them out.” It makes them feel unsafe. Not surprisingly teenagers didn’t differentiate between sites that aggregate news and sites that actually generate news; but somewhat surprisingly it was important to them that they get “information that I can trust” and that usually translated into major sites and major brands. Trust was one of the four driving factors for teens’ interest in news along with -- a website that is easy to use (they’re used to Websites with multiple elements); that gives them useful information (such as with their homework); and gives them things to talk about (they feel good when they are the knowledgeable one, the first to know.)
Unlike adults who often get their news during the work hours, most teenagers (60%) get their news from 6pm to 10pm. As noted earlier, it usually comes by happenstance while they’re visiting the major aggregator or video sharing sites. Local newspapers beat out local TV by a long shot when it come to the online news experience for teens with nearly half (43%) saying they visited a local newspaper website in the last week while only a quarter (27%) visited a television website in the last week. Even more telling, when asked to pick three websites they go to for news, one in ten (9%) cited the local newspaper website, but less than half of that (4%) cited the local television station website.
FACTOID FODDER: This is normally where Cocktail Chatter goes, but I found that facts and figures dominated so much of the CC this week that I decided to change the headline.
China’s ‘net population’ has soared from 137 Million at the end of 2006 to 210 Million by the end of 2007. English-speaking Asian-Americans are online more often than the rest of the Internet population with 74% online compared to 71.7% for whites, according to eMarketer. According to an analysis of Bureau of Labor statistics by Ad Age, employment in U.S. advertising and marketing sectors has hit a record 1.64 Million people, with online media growing the fastest at 24.2% year to year. Apple’s iTunes store has sold 4 Billion songs, 125 Million TV shows and 7 Million movies, according to data released by the company. Research firm AccuStream iMedia says viewings of user-generated video jumped to 22.4 Billion views in 2007, a 70% increase over 2006’s 13.2 Billion viewings. It also reports that 1.2 Million videos and 26.5 Million comments were published to user generated video sites in 2007. Sports website ESPN.com reported its users viewed a record 1.2 Billion videos on its site last year, a 54% increase over the previous year.
Okay, this one falls into the category of Cocktail Chatter: The top city in the U.S. when it comes to growth in podcast use is Chattanooga with a 644% increase over the previous year. Other cities in Wizzard Media’s podcasting top ten network are Tampa-St. Petersburg with a 380% increase; Kansas City (348%); Green Bay – Appleton (339%); Fresno-Visalia (173%); Toledo (106%); Houston (101%); Nashville (82%); Washington DC (72%) and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (68%).
Finally, this has been reported extensively already, but I find it so fascinating that I think it’s worth repeating. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has beaten out fellow talk show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey as the ‘most beloved’ TV personality, according to a new Harris Poll. Following Oprah is Jay Leno in the #3 spot, followed by Hugh Laurie (House) in #4; Jon Stewart #5; David Letterman and Stephen Colbert tied for #6; Bill O’Reilly #8; and Ray Romano and Homer Simpson tied for #9. Not surprisingly Republicans cite Bill O’Reilly as their favorite, but surprisingly, people who identify themselves as conservatives don’t pick O’Reilly. Instead they pick Jay Leno. Democrats and those identifying themselves as liberal cite Ellen DeGeneres.
A FINAL NOTE: One of LATimes.com’s web mavens has built a tagcloud (that’s those displays in which words are larger or smaller depending on how often they’re used) outlining the technical skills needed for online journalists by picking the words used in a series of online job descriptions. The number one word was ‘interactive’ followed by blogs and flash. You can see the tagcloud yourself by visiting Eric Ulken’s website at http://ulken.com/index.html.
A FINAL, FINAL NOTE: As long as I am pointing out websites, a really neat website is BigThink.com which features interviews with some of today’s leading “thinkers, movers and shakers” including politicians like Ted Kennedy and John McCain, businessmen like Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group and Patrick Byrne, founder and CEO of Overstock.com, academicians like Larry Summers, President of Harvard and Shirley Tilghman, President of Princeton University, journalists like Jon Meacham, Editor of Newsweek, and David Remnick, Editor of The New Yorker. Okay, you get the idea. Anyway, some very cool stuff.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at my website MediaConsultant.tv.
Message From Michael -- January 21, 2008
SHE LOVES ME; SHE LOVES ME NOT
THE ENGAGED CANNIBAL
SUPERBOWL – THE ULTIMATE TORTURE TEST
GIANT KILLER OR KILLER GIANT
COCKTAIL CHATTER – BLACK OWNED TV AND CHINESE ADULTERY
A FINAL SALUTE
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
SHE LOVES ME; SHE LOVES ME NOT: Several recent reports seem to be sending the same mixed signals about the Internet and politics, just like the childhood game of plucking petals from a flower to find out if ‘she loves me’ sent me some mixed signals when I was young. If you pick the flower message from the Pew Research Center, the Internet is becoming a “major source” of campaign news, particularly for young people. The Pew study says a quarter (24%) of Americans say they regularly learn something about the campaigns from the Web, which is double the number (13%) in the 2004 campaign. But if you pick the flower message from Presidentialwtch08.com, the presidential candidates may need to rethink their Internet strategies because their sites have little or no impact on voters, according to an analysis by AdWeek’s Wendy Melillo. The website which provides a map of political conversations shows links between websites and it shows very few links between candidate’s websites and political websites and vice versa. Ah, ha, you say, the difference is the candidates’ website versus other political websites. I thought the same thing except MediaWeek reports that sites like WashingtonPost.com, Slate and Wall Street Journal online report little to no political ad activity so far. Even the candidates themselves say Web ads can only go so far building momentum for political campaigns, according to a report by The ClickZ Network. The explanation for the discrepancy may come in a line in the Pew Study which notes that more than half (52%) of the people getting political news on the Internet got it by accident, so to speak, because they came across it while surfing for something else. The Pew study says TV remains the main source of political news by a wide margin even though local TV and the network news’ share is down significantly while cable is basically flat, but that the Internet has beaten newspapers in the political news category. One analysis comes from a report by Mark Walsh at MediaPost which suggests alliances between old media and new media (such as the ones between CNN and YouTube, MTV and MySpace, and ABC News and Facebook) may be “the first steps toward the increasing convergence of TV and the Internet in shaping political coverage in the digital age.”
Several politically themed websites have been created, including Scripps’ RedBlueAmerica.com, Lin TV which has launched political sites in each of its 17 markets, and AOL’s Truveo. The two best – in my humble opinion – are the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Schools’ FactCheck.org AND Votegopher.com, which was created by a Harvard grad who has done a remarkable job of outlining every issue and every candidate’s stance on the issue along with the latest polls, statements and news stories about the candidates.
THE ENGAGED CANNIBAL: If I were to headline this, ‘online video use is growing,’ you’d say, sarcastically, ‘oh, really, no kidding.’ However, some of the figures are pretty staggering. For example, technology research firm ABI says the number of video downloads will spike from 215 Million this year to more than 2.4 Billion in 2012, with rentals making up half the market. Our friends at the Pew Internet Project say nearly half (48%) of US Internet users (those already on the Internet) visited a video sharing site during 2007 and that 15% were either watching or posting video on a typical day. And that last number is double the figure of a year ago. Consulting firm Deloitte & Touche says more than a third (38%) of consumers watch TV shows online and that a fifth (20%) say they are viewing video content on their cell phones daily or almost daily. Research and consultancy firm Horowitz Associates says the figures are even higher for high-speed Internet users with six out of ten either watching or downloading video content at least once a week and nearly nine out of ten (86%) doing so on a monthly basis. And those figures are up dramatically from the year before.
The Horowitz study says that even though the number of people watching full episodes of TV shows online doubled from last year’s study to 16% of high-speed Internet users, ‘traditional’ TV remains the preferred platform. It also says handheld devices are becoming more popular, and that as broadband content gets better, more consumers are brought to the online platform. Despite this AdWeek quotes company president Howard Horowitz as saying that, “the data suggest that broadband video is not cannibalistic to linear video but rather an enhancement to consumers’ traditional TV experience.” A slightly different view comes from Experian Research Services’ Simmons group which found that consumers who watch TV online are ‘more engaged’ than consumers who watch TV programs on regular TV sets. And the firm says engagement equals ‘ad receptivity.’ In fact they say viewers are 47% more engaged with ADS shown during online TV programs than those shown on regular TV sets but ‘only’ 25% more engaged with the actual CONTENT of online shows compared to content on regular TV sets. The study says a similar higher level of engagement applies to online versions of magazines compared with print versions. However, it should be noted that the report says print, in general, enjoys higher levels of engagement than either TV or the Internet.
I also think it’s worth noting the six dimensions of engagement as defined by Simmons. The company says respondents identify with media they consume as either – inspirational, trustworthy, life-enhancing, social interaction, personal time-out, and ‘ad attention/ receptivity.’
I should also note the Horowitz study says the most ‘highly-viewed’ video content is news, followed by user-generated content, followed by movie previews, music videos and segments of television shows.
SUPERBOWL – THE ULTIMATE TORTURE TEST. And I’m not talking about the game. According to Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president of strategic services for Nielsen Online, the Super Bowl is the ultimate torture test in marketing ROI with the ‘buzz factor’ often becoming “the final arbiter of success or failure of the advertising.” Nielsen is going to issue special reports, tracking messages across 70 million blogs and websites, and has its own blog – The Road to the Big Game. Blackshaw’s analysis of a successful Super Bowl ad is good advice for marketers: “Brands that wrap holistic, well-integrated marketing programs around the television advertising typically reap higher dividends.” In keeping with that holistic approach, Fox is leveraging MySpace as part of its advertising plan. Nielsen says that may explain, in part, why Fox has reported the earliest sell-out for in-game ad inventory in several years with movie companies and automakers leading the pack even though other reports note that former advertisers, including tech companies, are sitting on the sideline. Oh, by the way, did I say how much an ad is going for? -- $2.7 Million.
GIANT KILLER OR KILLER GIANT: That’s the question as Google and Wikipedia square off, by stepping into each other’s turf. Wikia co-founder Jimmy Wales has launched a user-based search engine because he says it’s necessary for the public to take control of search. Meanwhile Google has announced that it is launching a sort-of Wiki competitor, Knol, “to make information easier to find and more authoritative.”
COCKTAIL CHATTER: According to the group Free Press, as reported by FinalCall.com, black television station ownership has dropped 60% over the last year from 19 to 8, “making black ownership almost non-existent.” The animated film Ratatouille was the highest rated film of 2007 by the readers of The New York Times. The hot thing in the Chinese blogosphere is a video of the wife of a TV sports anchor commandeering the microphone at an Olympic media event to accuse her husband of adultery. The U.K. publication The People reports that the 81-year-old Queen Elizabeth II has become a Wii addict after getting hold of one of the video game consoles from grandson Prince William. According to the Census Bureau, as reported by FactCheck.org, one out of four (27%) of U.S. adults have a bachelor’s degree.
A FINAL NOTE: Allow me to make a personal salute to Karl Davis, General Manager of WECT-TV, Wilmington, North Carolina who died recently while motorcycling with friends. Karl was that unusual combination of manager and leader who had the even more unusual talent of being respected by the people who worked for him, not just because he was a good boss but because he was a good person. I had the honor of calling WECT a client station for many years; I had the greater honor of being able to call Karl a friend.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at my website MediaConsultant.tv.
THE ENGAGED CANNIBAL
SUPERBOWL – THE ULTIMATE TORTURE TEST
GIANT KILLER OR KILLER GIANT
COCKTAIL CHATTER – BLACK OWNED TV AND CHINESE ADULTERY
A FINAL SALUTE
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
SHE LOVES ME; SHE LOVES ME NOT: Several recent reports seem to be sending the same mixed signals about the Internet and politics, just like the childhood game of plucking petals from a flower to find out if ‘she loves me’ sent me some mixed signals when I was young. If you pick the flower message from the Pew Research Center, the Internet is becoming a “major source” of campaign news, particularly for young people. The Pew study says a quarter (24%) of Americans say they regularly learn something about the campaigns from the Web, which is double the number (13%) in the 2004 campaign. But if you pick the flower message from Presidentialwtch08.com, the presidential candidates may need to rethink their Internet strategies because their sites have little or no impact on voters, according to an analysis by AdWeek’s Wendy Melillo. The website which provides a map of political conversations shows links between websites and it shows very few links between candidate’s websites and political websites and vice versa. Ah, ha, you say, the difference is the candidates’ website versus other political websites. I thought the same thing except MediaWeek reports that sites like WashingtonPost.com, Slate and Wall Street Journal online report little to no political ad activity so far. Even the candidates themselves say Web ads can only go so far building momentum for political campaigns, according to a report by The ClickZ Network. The explanation for the discrepancy may come in a line in the Pew Study which notes that more than half (52%) of the people getting political news on the Internet got it by accident, so to speak, because they came across it while surfing for something else. The Pew study says TV remains the main source of political news by a wide margin even though local TV and the network news’ share is down significantly while cable is basically flat, but that the Internet has beaten newspapers in the political news category. One analysis comes from a report by Mark Walsh at MediaPost which suggests alliances between old media and new media (such as the ones between CNN and YouTube, MTV and MySpace, and ABC News and Facebook) may be “the first steps toward the increasing convergence of TV and the Internet in shaping political coverage in the digital age.”
Several politically themed websites have been created, including Scripps’ RedBlueAmerica.com, Lin TV which has launched political sites in each of its 17 markets, and AOL’s Truveo. The two best – in my humble opinion – are the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Schools’ FactCheck.org AND Votegopher.com, which was created by a Harvard grad who has done a remarkable job of outlining every issue and every candidate’s stance on the issue along with the latest polls, statements and news stories about the candidates.
THE ENGAGED CANNIBAL: If I were to headline this, ‘online video use is growing,’ you’d say, sarcastically, ‘oh, really, no kidding.’ However, some of the figures are pretty staggering. For example, technology research firm ABI says the number of video downloads will spike from 215 Million this year to more than 2.4 Billion in 2012, with rentals making up half the market. Our friends at the Pew Internet Project say nearly half (48%) of US Internet users (those already on the Internet) visited a video sharing site during 2007 and that 15% were either watching or posting video on a typical day. And that last number is double the figure of a year ago. Consulting firm Deloitte & Touche says more than a third (38%) of consumers watch TV shows online and that a fifth (20%) say they are viewing video content on their cell phones daily or almost daily. Research and consultancy firm Horowitz Associates says the figures are even higher for high-speed Internet users with six out of ten either watching or downloading video content at least once a week and nearly nine out of ten (86%) doing so on a monthly basis. And those figures are up dramatically from the year before.
The Horowitz study says that even though the number of people watching full episodes of TV shows online doubled from last year’s study to 16% of high-speed Internet users, ‘traditional’ TV remains the preferred platform. It also says handheld devices are becoming more popular, and that as broadband content gets better, more consumers are brought to the online platform. Despite this AdWeek quotes company president Howard Horowitz as saying that, “the data suggest that broadband video is not cannibalistic to linear video but rather an enhancement to consumers’ traditional TV experience.” A slightly different view comes from Experian Research Services’ Simmons group which found that consumers who watch TV online are ‘more engaged’ than consumers who watch TV programs on regular TV sets. And the firm says engagement equals ‘ad receptivity.’ In fact they say viewers are 47% more engaged with ADS shown during online TV programs than those shown on regular TV sets but ‘only’ 25% more engaged with the actual CONTENT of online shows compared to content on regular TV sets. The study says a similar higher level of engagement applies to online versions of magazines compared with print versions. However, it should be noted that the report says print, in general, enjoys higher levels of engagement than either TV or the Internet.
I also think it’s worth noting the six dimensions of engagement as defined by Simmons. The company says respondents identify with media they consume as either – inspirational, trustworthy, life-enhancing, social interaction, personal time-out, and ‘ad attention/ receptivity.’
I should also note the Horowitz study says the most ‘highly-viewed’ video content is news, followed by user-generated content, followed by movie previews, music videos and segments of television shows.
SUPERBOWL – THE ULTIMATE TORTURE TEST. And I’m not talking about the game. According to Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president of strategic services for Nielsen Online, the Super Bowl is the ultimate torture test in marketing ROI with the ‘buzz factor’ often becoming “the final arbiter of success or failure of the advertising.” Nielsen is going to issue special reports, tracking messages across 70 million blogs and websites, and has its own blog – The Road to the Big Game. Blackshaw’s analysis of a successful Super Bowl ad is good advice for marketers: “Brands that wrap holistic, well-integrated marketing programs around the television advertising typically reap higher dividends.” In keeping with that holistic approach, Fox is leveraging MySpace as part of its advertising plan. Nielsen says that may explain, in part, why Fox has reported the earliest sell-out for in-game ad inventory in several years with movie companies and automakers leading the pack even though other reports note that former advertisers, including tech companies, are sitting on the sideline. Oh, by the way, did I say how much an ad is going for? -- $2.7 Million.
GIANT KILLER OR KILLER GIANT: That’s the question as Google and Wikipedia square off, by stepping into each other’s turf. Wikia co-founder Jimmy Wales has launched a user-based search engine because he says it’s necessary for the public to take control of search. Meanwhile Google has announced that it is launching a sort-of Wiki competitor, Knol, “to make information easier to find and more authoritative.”
COCKTAIL CHATTER: According to the group Free Press, as reported by FinalCall.com, black television station ownership has dropped 60% over the last year from 19 to 8, “making black ownership almost non-existent.” The animated film Ratatouille was the highest rated film of 2007 by the readers of The New York Times. The hot thing in the Chinese blogosphere is a video of the wife of a TV sports anchor commandeering the microphone at an Olympic media event to accuse her husband of adultery. The U.K. publication The People reports that the 81-year-old Queen Elizabeth II has become a Wii addict after getting hold of one of the video game consoles from grandson Prince William. According to the Census Bureau, as reported by FactCheck.org, one out of four (27%) of U.S. adults have a bachelor’s degree.
A FINAL NOTE: Allow me to make a personal salute to Karl Davis, General Manager of WECT-TV, Wilmington, North Carolina who died recently while motorcycling with friends. Karl was that unusual combination of manager and leader who had the even more unusual talent of being respected by the people who worked for him, not just because he was a good boss but because he was a good person. I had the honor of calling WECT a client station for many years; I had the greater honor of being able to call Karl a friend.
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