MediaPost

As Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump now starts up a paid TV advertising campaign, he continues to lead in earned media over Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. For the month of August, Trump pulled in $509.3 million in earned media compared to Clinton’s $364.2 million, according to mediaQuant, an earned media measurement company. In July -- the month in which respective party conventions were held -- the race was closer, with Trump getting $573.4 million compared to $539.8 million for Clinton. Earned media is defined as press interviews and appearances on all media including TV, radio, online and print publications. Overall, for the trailing 12-month period, Trump has amassed $4.6 billion worth of earned media versus Clinton’s $2.5 billion. In recent days, Trump has kick-started his first paid TV advertising campaign, which analysts says is traditionally very late for a presidential candidate. Trump said TV advertising has not been necessary, given his wall-to-wall TV appearances .

An ad industry watchdog has referred Sprint to the Federal Communications Commission over ads stating that mobile customers can save 50 percent on their monthly rates by switching to Sprint.

The National Advertising Division, a unit administered by the Better Business Bureau, recommended in May that Sprint revise the ads, which appeared on TV, the radio, the Web, and in print. On Aug 19, the NAD said it had referred Sprint to the FCC because the company "has not agreed to implement all of NAD’s recommendations." A Sprint spokeswoman says the company believes its ads are "truthful, accurate and in the spirit of competition." The ads, which were challenged by T-Mobile, promised to slash people's bills by 50% when they switched to Sprint. T-Mobile argued that the boasts were problematic because its customers are on "hundreds" of plans, and only some customers would see their bills reduced by 50 percent by switching to Sprint.

Comcast is asking the Federal Communications Commission to reject proposed rules that would prohibit broadband providers from charging higher fees to subscribers who decline behaviorally targeted ads.

"A bargained-for exchange of information for service is a perfectly acceptable and widely used model throughout the U.S. economy, including the Internet ecosystem, and is consistent with decades of legal precedent and policy goals related to consumer protection and privacy," Comcast writes in a new FCC filing. The broadband provider adds that a prohibition on a pay-for-privacy pricing system "would harm consumers by, among other things, depriving them of lower-priced offerings." Comcast also contends the FCC "has no authority to prohibit or limit these types of programs."

Big media companies are moving to lessen their reliance on advertising revenue in favor of other sources of revenue including subscriptions, syndication, and production fees, according to a new analysis by SNL Kagan.

Whether it’s deliberate or not, media conglomerates are seeing ad revenues decline as a proportion of their total business, SNL Kagan noted.

Worldwide, TV viewing remains the single biggest media activity. On average, 2.58 hours per day are consumed globally, according to GlobalWebIndex’s recent Media Consumption report.

That's 23% of total time spent on the media. The US remains the biggest TV market, with an average of 4.33 hours a day. Online TV viewing continues to rise -- now at 0.7 hours a day. That's a 6% share of all media time.

Summer isn’t exactly a strong ratings playground for cable networks anymore. Top cable networks' ratings continued their decline that began at the end of April -- down 6.8% in July to 18.17 million 18-49 viewers in C3 ratings, the average commercial ratings plus three days of time-shifted data, according to a report by MoffettNathanson Research.

Cable networks traditionally use the summer period to launch their original TV shows. But now broadcast networks also compete with original programming. Analysts note that the growth of digital media is also a factor.

Streaming video service Aereo is pushing forward with its argument that it should be allowed to resume operations on the grounds that it's now a “cable system” and entitled to transmit television programs as long as it pays licensing fees.

Aereo's latest round of court papers come in response to a motion by broadcasters for “summary affirmance” of US District Court Judge Dale Kimball's order enjoining Aereo from operating in six states: Utah, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Wyoming and Oklahoma.

About 48% of prime-time TV viewers are double-timing the tube with other screens, whether using social media, checking email or shopping online, according to a study of 55,000 Internet users worldwide conducted by global research firm TNS.

This growing habit of “screen stacking” dovetails with the proliferation of devices and online video viewing. Insights like this are vital for marketers, as they shed light on emerging behavior that brands should consider when aiming to reach the distracted viewer.

Winter Olympics ad spending helped push up overall US advertising nearly 6% for the first quarter. US advertising revenue for the first three months of 2014 was $34.9 billion, with the Sochi games responsible for $600 million of incremental ad spend, according to Kantar Media.

Taking out the two-week sporting event, US ad spend climbed 4%. Broadcast network TV was among the biggest gainers in the period -- up 14.5%. Spanish-language TV grew 18%; cable TV increased 6.2%; spot TV gained 7%; and national TV syndication added 3.2%.

Overall, TV grew 9.7% in the first quarter of 2014 versus the first quarter of 2013.

Display Internet business was up 13% -- with financial, retail and insurance marketers aiding their budgets.

Newspapers, magazines, and radio lost ground overall -- giving back 5.0%, 1.6%, and 2.4%, respectively.

Broadcast networks, on the road to completing much of their upfront deal-making, are operating in a marketplace that is still concerned about weak pricing and volume gains.

"Broadcast is pretty much done; cable is moving slowly," says one veteran media-buying executive.

One issue of greater concern may be overall upfront broadcast volume. Initially, upfront broadcast volume was estimated to be down 1% to 3% from the $9.2 billion totals pulled in in 2013. Some of that money, according to executives, is being shifted to cable networks, which are poised to hit the $10 billion level in upfront advertising deals.

Network cable advertising sales executives believe much of the cable upfront process will take place soon. Some media executives are still alarmed that broadcast networks might be looking at greater overall volume losses in the upfront -- down about 5% versus 2013. This is due to viewership erosion, as well as TV marketers' efforts to shift money to cable networks and some digital video platforms.

But C7 still remains a wild card, other executives say -- depending on the number of upfront TV advertisers shifting to a C7 Nielsen viewing deal-making metric from C3. A marketplace shift to a C7 rating guarantee to marketers -- C7, the average commercial ratings plus seven days of time-shifted data -- could boost overall volume for national TV broadcasters about 2% to 3%. This will come from adding four days of viewing data from the current three days of time-shifted viewing metric.