October 2008

Is your local TV news providing enough local election coverage?

[Commentary] This is a big election year. There will be records broken all over the United States for voter turnout, individual campaign contributions and campaign volunteer hours. The public has gotten involved at levels never seen before. But the way it seems on television, you wouldn't know there is much more than a Presidential race and a question about the balance of power in Congress. Unfortunately, while there are thousands of races for city council, state legislative seats, ballot measures and school board all across our country, the local TV stations have given them short shrift. When you consider that it is your school board, your city council and your state legislature that is going to impact your day to day life more than who is in the White House, it's a real shame that so little attention is devoted to local issues.

Landslide for TV

The 2008 race for the presidency has been memorable for many reasons, not the least of which is the jaw-dropping effect it has had on the television industry. The campaign brought to media companies a record $750 million in advertising revenue -- of which local stations and the broadcast and cable networks reaped 90%, helping offset a precipitous drop in other types of TV ad buys as the economy stumbled toward recession. And it also reinvigorated cable news channels, helped fuel ratings records for politically incorrect comedy shows and dramatically raised the profile of some TV stars. While the fat lady has not even begun to sing yet, what soon may get dubbed "The Great Campaign of 2008" can be summed up as a race of record-smashing, eye-popping impact. Political ads appeared in places not seen in recent years: the Olympics, soap operas and NFL games. For the first time, cable systems were used extensively as ad vehicles for the primaries as well as the general election. The national broadcast TV networks, which hadn't seen presidential campaign ads in 12 years, sold time to the campaigns of both Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) and the Sen John McCain (R-AZ). Local stations generated unexpected revenue twice -- first because the tightness of the Democratic race forced the contenders to extend spending to more states, then because the Obama campaign's decision to skip federal financing allowed it to spend far more than the $84 million the government gave the McCain campaign. Cable networks also attracted more political advertising than ever before. Also, ratings generally rose for presidential campaign programming, whether it was straight news coverage or comedy material about the campaign.

'SNL' Playing a Role in 2008 Election?

Does the McCain campaign have a Tina Fey problem? Pollster Dick Bennett, head of Manchester, American Research Group, said Fey's portrayal of Gov Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) on Saturday Night Live "made a joke of the criticisms about Palin and made them real to people." Bennett said he was stunned that Gov. Palin, in appearing on "Saturday Night Live" Oct. 18, didn't humorously respond to the portrayal with some comment on the Obama campaign but instead played along. "She was the reason for the increased ratings," he said. "She could have demanded a lot." He pointed especially to an opening skit in which Gov Palin appeared with Lorne Michaels and Alec Baldwin, then replaced Ms. Fey's fake Sarah Palin at a news conference. "At the end, she said, 'I'm not going to answer any of your questions' [before doing the 'Live from New York' introduction]. What a dumb thing to say. It supports all the criticism [of her] in the media."

White Spaces Debate is White Hot

On Monday, more than 20 groups sent a pair of letters to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to postpone a scheduled Nov 4 vote to adopt rules affecting television white spaces. Among the organizations signing the letters include the Government Accountability Project, Media Freedom Project, Americans for Tax Reform and the Liberty Coalition. Addressed to Chairman Kevin Martin, the letters urge the FCC to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and open the proposed rules for public scrutiny and comment. The organizations are not taking a position on the final disposition of the white spaces, instead, they say they are concerned regarding various media reports that the FCC has abandoned a public comment period for proposed rules and will go straight to rulemaking. The first letter, which addresses sound and responsible regulatory governance states: "Federal regulatory agencies, such as the FCC, should be completely transparent in consideration of new rules, particularly those that impact every household in America that owns a television set." The second letter addresses the process by which the FCC intends to make spectrum available for use. It notes: "To depart from the government's 15-year old practice of electromagnetic spectrum auctions, particularly in light of the current economic climate, is irresponsible." The National Cable and Telecommunication Association also urged the FCC to issue a public notice seeking review of the recently released Office of Engineering and Technology report detailing the results of testing devices that are designed to use the TV band white spaces.

FCC decision could help Vermont

A decision expected early next week by the Federal Communications Commission could result in a major boost for Vermont's efforts to bring high-speed Internet service to the entire state by the year 2010. The FCC is scheduled to vote Nov. 4 on a proposal to open up the so-called television white spaces -- unused radio frequencies between TV stations -- for use as wireless broadband spectrums. That change could be a boon for rural states such as Vermont, where these white spaces are abundant due to the lack of in-state television broadcasters. But the proposal still faces an uphill battle as several key lawmakers urge the FCC to delay next week's vote. On Monday, the Vermont Telecommunications Authority, the division set up last year to bring universal Internet and cellular coverage to the state by the end of 2010, sent e-mails to supporters asking them to encourage the FCC to open up the spectrum.

TV quickly spreads financial crisis

Has television coverage made the financial crisis worse? The question is based on this premise: Because so many people view market movements and worrisome economic events as they happen, they may panic, sell their investments and drive markets down further. All news comes faster these days through television and the Internet. But immediacy works both ways. Markets can rebound quickly whenever good news comes out. After the technology bubble burst, television was blamed for having been a cheerleader about the stock market's historic march upward, contributing to what former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan had called "irrational exuberance." One problem television has had in covering the recent financial meltdown is that so much is changing minute by minute. Our financial system has undergone a quick, dramatic transformation. Live coverage makes the grim seem grimmer and the upbeat more upbeat.

Public Might Cut Cord on Landlines, Cable TV

For years, it's been one of those speculative staple questions of consumer-media research: If you could only keep one thing out of a list that included your phone, your TV or your computer and Internet connection, what would it be? But with the recession looming, it's no longer such an academic question. Agencies, media, telecoms and other marketers are pondering the implications of an impending shakeout where, after years of piling on one subscription fee after another, consumers take a harder look at what they really need. Their decisions in what look to be lean years ahead could play a substantial role in reshaping almost every aspect of marketing -- from determining whether DVRs or streaming video win the battle for the eyeballs of time-shifters to making it harder than ever for marketers to survey consumers by snipping the landlines by which much of survey research tenuously dangles.

Newspapers' circulation drops 4.6 percent

The nation's daily newspapers, already finding advertising revenue fall sharply because of the weak economy, saw circulation decline more steeply than last year in the latest reporting period, an auditing agency said today. Average weekday circulation was 38,165,848 in the six-months ending in September, a 4.6 percent decline from 40,022,356 in the same period a year earlier at the 507 papers that reported circulation totals in both periods. The drop was only 2.6 percent in the September 2007 period, compared with September 2006. In the six-month period that ended in March 2008, the decline was 3.6 percent over a year earlier, according to circulation figures that newspapers submitted to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Sunday circulation fell even more, 4.8 percent, to 43,631,646 in the latest period at the 571 papers with comparable totals. The drop was 3.5 percent a year ago and 4.6 percent in the period ending in March. Newspaper circulations are declining largely because of the ongoing migration of readers to the Internet. Despite the drops, newspapers are currently more worried about even steeper, double-digit reductions in advertising revenue caused largely by the weak economy. The Los Angeles Times plans to cut 75 jobs, or 10 percent of its news staff. The cuts are comparable in scale to some that the Times made on the business side of its operations last week.

Broadcasters: It's The Access, Not The Screen

[Commentary] When the government yanks analog from broadcasters, forcing them to go digital amid a prolonged recession, it will give consumers the best reason to chuck their TV sets in favor of watching the same programs on the Web. Broadcasters who remain in denial face a certain death spiral. Dramatic as that sounds, there is mounting evidence that consumers are happy to access their content of choice as streaming video on the Internet, an iTunes download or cable video on demand. There is the real prospect that many of the 9% of U.S. households whose TV sets go dark Feb. 17 because they are not equipped to receive digital signals will stay dark. The way to avoid that calamity is to play to the universal screen-whether it is a home TV monitor, a computer, a smart phone or other portable device. It is the consumer access-not the screen-that is important. Create timely, innovative, artful content that entertains and informs anywhere, anytime. A broadcast network schedule is just one increasingly uncommon place where liberated consumers watch what they want. You have already lost younger generations from prime-time regimentation; older consumers are not far behind.

The Broadcast Ad Model Is Broken. Now What?

If today's TV buying is the model for the future, advertisers are in trouble. Virtually all parties involved -- marketers, media buyers and the media themselves -- agree that in a video-on-demand world in which consumers control what they watch and when, the current broadcast advertising model is broken, or at the very least inadequate. What they don't yet agree on is the solution, leading to mass confusion as networks scramble to create their own measurements in a race to develop a standard for counting those precious eyeballs.

Benton

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