MediaPost

For many TV industry analysts, it seems an easy projection: The new Trump Administration will mean less regulation for the TV businesses -- particularly for TV station groups, which could mean high merger activity. But Barclays Capital says don't be too sure.

One of the main points of contention is lifting the cap on the number of TV stations one company can own -- now at 39% of US TV homes. “Lifting broadcast caps [are] not easy,” writes media analyst Kannan Venkateshwar. “Broadcast ownership rules have been reviewed many times at the Supreme Court, circuit courts and Congress. Even the Republican-led FCC, while raising the limits in early 2000s, recognized the need to maintain a limit on ownership.” Secondly, it may not be the Federal Communications Commission deciding on whether to lift that cap. “Because the 39% cap was put in place by Congress, there is a school of thought that argues that only Congress can modify this cap.”

Many kids are entering the digital age before they are entering double digits in age. According to Nielsen’s Mobile Kids report, about half (45%) of kids get a mobile phone with a service plan between the ages of 10 and 12, with most of them (22%) getting them when they’re 10. Beyond that, 16% of 8-year-olds are also receiving phones. The mobile child, according to the study, skews male (56% vs. 44%) and about 20% of them are Hispanic. The majority (94%) of these kids are on their parents’ service plan, and nearly three-quarters (72%) of them have the entire suite of wireless services including voice, messaging and data. While Nielsen doesn’t have the data to determine whether kids’ experience with phones is trending younger, the logical assumption is that it is, according to the company. Among the top usage for kids on their phones: texting (81%), downloading apps (59%), playing pre-installed games (54%) and browsing Web sites (53%).

Just about one month into the new presidential administration, TV news networks are posting stronger ad business, as well as high viewership -- contradicting some criticism over fake news claims.

For example, CNN earned some $72.8 million in national advertising, according to iSpot.tv, from January 16 through February 16 -- more than double the advertising dollars levels for the same period a year ago, when it earned $33.5 million. On Feb 16, during a meeting with journalists, Jeff Zucker, chairman of CNN Worldwide, said his network brand had not beenen hurt by President Trump's false claim that much of the media was delivering so-called “fake news.” Likewise, Fox News Channel, the leader in the cable news marketplace, is also pulling in big ad dollars -- $108.8 million during that period. A year ago, Fox News was at $47.3 million for the same period.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says she is readying a push to revoke the Federal Communications Commission's broadband privacy rules. Chairman Blackburn said she believes lawmakers can use the Congressional Review Act to rescind the new privacy rules. Those rules, passed by a 3-2 vote last October, require broadband carriers to obtain consumers' opt-in consent before drawing on their data for ad targeting. "I think using the CRA is fine," Chairman Blackburn said. "We are working with the Senate to make sure we can do that." She added that she could move forward with the initiative as early as the week of Feb 13.

Her comments come several weeks after more than a dozen conservative and libertarian groups asked lawmakers to revoke the rules under the Congressional Review Act -- a rarely used 1996 law that allows federal lawmakers to overturn recent agency decisions. Chairman Blackburn also downplayed concerns that revoking the FCC's rules would leave broadband providers without any oversight when it comes to privacy, due to their status as common carriers. The Federal Trade Commission, which typically enforces privacy standards, isn't authorized to prosecute common carriers. "I would think there would be a way to work through that so that you don't have a gap in oversight," Chairman Blackburn said. She didn't elaborate further.

[Commentary] You wake up, yawn, stretch. Pick up the phone. Check Facebook. “Like.” “Like.” “Like,” again. After 10 “likes,” Michal Kosinski knows you better than your work colleagues. After 70, he knows you better than your partner does, including -- whether these things were explicitly referenced in your clicks or not -- your skin color, your sexual orientation, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whether you smoke or do drugs… The list goes on.

Like some creepy alt-Santa, he knows how open you are. Whether you’re a perfectionist. Whether you’re considerate. Whether you’re neurotic. Kosinski isn’t a CIA agent or a spy. He isn’t even a marketer. He’s a researcher at Stanford, and he’s worked out how to turn your clicks into psychographic profiles. Kosinski’s technique is similar to the technique used by the company Cambridge Analytica to help the Brexit and Trump campaigns win.

It's "highly likely" that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will grant the ad industry's request to revisit tough broadband privacy rules, the Association of National Advertisers predicted. "Chairman Pai is a very thoughtful leader who understands the critical role advertising plays as a financial foundation for the online and media marketplace," the ANA said in hailing Pai's appointment. "Commissioner Michael O’Rielly and Chairman Pai have stated forcefully that they intend to take, in Pai’s words, a 'weed-whacker' to much of the Commission’s recent regulatory actions. Therefore, as they both voted against the sweeping privacy rule, it is highly likely they will respond positively to the request ... for a full reconsideration of this recent proposal."

More than half (52%) of US adults live in households with cell phones, but no landline phones, according to new research from the GfK MRI Survey of the American Consumer. The figure represents a doubling of the percentage of cell phone-only households in 2010, when it was 26%. The proportion of senior citizens (ages 65+) in cellphone-only households quadrupled over the past six years to 23%, while the figure for Millennials (born from 1977 to 1994) climbed to 71% from 47%. The findings come from GfK MRI's Fall 2016 Survey data release, which is based on interviews with approximately 24,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and above. After Millennials, Generation X (born 1965 to 1976) is the age group most likely to live in cell phone-only households, at 55%. By comparison, the figure for Baby Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964) is only four in 10 (40%).

First and foremost, lower TV spending in 2016 political advertising may simply be a function of better media buying, said Ben Angle, senior media buyer-national media research at Planning & Placement. “In terms of TV being down, I think you really have to attribute it to master negotiators beating the stations down,” said Angle. Another factor was simply leveraging the TV calendar to commit buys during softer rate-card periods -- “booking in June, July -- or even, in some cases, May -- to get the best rate.” Angle said he did not really see a fundamental shift in the political media mix, and attributed most of the dollar-share changes to more effective and efficient TV buying. “There’s more to it than just people not spending money in TV,” he explained. That said, Elizabeth Kalmbach, vice president-group media direct at KSM Media, said TV’s share of political media budgets reflects what’s going on in all categories.

Frontier, which offers both DSL and fiber-optic service, advertised that consumers could stream video and "never worry" about their connections, according to the National Advertising Division (NAD), a self-regulatory unit administered by the Better Business Bureau. But not all of Frontier's DSL service plans offer connections at fast enough speeds to stream video through Netflix (which recommends speeds of at least 3 Mbps for standard-definition streams and 5 Mbps for high-definition), according to the NAD. "Frontier offers a 1.5 Mbps plan which does not deliver the minimum speeds recommended for streaming Netflix," the NAD writes in its decision. "Even Frontier’s 3 Mbps plans would not be able to stream movies in HD. Frontier’s 6 Mbps plans would be unable to stream movies on multiple devices at one time." The decision stems from a challenge to Frontier's ads by rival provider Charter. Frontier said it had discontinued the ad claims, but the NAD said its investigation revealed that some of the ads still contained language flagged by Charter.

[Commentary] In the same way that consumer dislike of advertising online has given rise to once-unthinkable ad blockers, the prospect of “data-blockers” – while currently inconceivable – could ultimately become available to those who want at least some degree of simple control over the extent to which their data is accessed and leveraged in the marketplace.

The promise of the inclusion of consumers themselves as active participants in the data economy is already something that companies are addressing. While it seems largely contrary to how things are currently done, it wouldn’t be the most disruptive thing that digital technology and the internet has brought us. Besides, the law of unintended consequences is always there waiting to surprise us. In this case, rolling back those nasty privacy regulations could unleash a different and unanticipated set of challenges farther down the line even harder to get to grips with than any road blocks the FCC could devise.

[Mike Bloxham is Vice President, National TV & Radio at Frank N. Magid Associates]