Jon Lafayette

The wave of TV station consolidation that is driven in part to extract larger retransmission payments from cable and satellite operators, might also help broadcasters push back against network demands for reverse retransmission payments.

In a new report, analyst Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson Research says that retransmission payments to the Big Four broadcasters has increased seven-fold to more than $1.5 billion over the past five years. The network’s owned and operated stations command much bigger retransmission payments than other affiliate owners.

Nathanson estimates that Fox stations got retransmission payments of $1.01 per home in 2013. CBS' stations got 90 cents, NBC’s got 87 cents and Disney’s generated 83 cents, he figures. Non-O&O station groups earned retransmission payments ranging from almost $1 for Nexstar to 25 cents for Tribune. Getting fees closer to what the O&Os get is one factor driving station mergers.

But the networks are looking to grab a piece of their affiliates growing retransmission fees. “By most accounts, the expected rate of reverse retransmission payments for a Big Four station in one of the Top 100 markets is between $0.50-$0.75 per subscriber, which would mean that station owners would be forking over a majority of their own current retransmission payments,” Nathanson says in the report.

Google and YouTube say they have a significant impact on television viewing.

At a time when Twitter and Facebook are scrambling to get closer to TV networks and their advertisers, Google says in a new research report that 90% of TV viewers also visit Google and YouTube and that online behavior is a clear indicator of a show’s popularity.

“In an effort to identify how digital has impacted viewer behavior in this new era, we analyzed search queries, video views, and engagement metrics from a sample of 100 cable and network television shows,” Google said. The results of the study have been published in a report called The Role of Digital in TV Research, Fanship, and Viewing.

“Digital platforms have fundamentally changed the way that TV viewers research, participate in and access their favorite shows. Search, video and engagement activities, which show a positive correlation to viewership, can provide additional insight into a show’s popularity,” according to the report. TV related searches on Google have grown 16%, and on YouTube, TV related searches are up 54% from 2013.

The pride is back in the peacock. NBCUniversal CEO Stephen Burke invited the press up to its headquarters at 30 Rock to do a little pre-upfront boasting about how well the NBC broadcast network is doing among the 18-49 year old viewers that are so important in winning the ad sales game.

On the chairs in the conference room were a set of charts and graphs showing NBC as No. 1 with Today, Nightly News, primetime, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

“That’s the grand slam of network television,” Burke said, adding that NBC was going into the upfront “in better shape than we have been for a decade.” CBS CEO Les Moonves, no shrinking violet, has been predicting at financial conferences that he expects his network to lead the broadcasters in volume and price increases. But Linda Yaccarino, NBCU’s aggressive ad sales president, won’t settle for second best. NBCU has rolled out a new slogan “All Together. Different.”

While CBS has the most watched network in total viewers, NBCU has an array of assets and a sales structure reporting to Yaccarino designed to slice and dice them according to client needs.

A new analysis done by Nielsen with CBS found that advertising campaigns combining local television and local radio doubled the campaign’s reach in certain markets.

In five markets, Nielsen found that advertisers could reach 84% to 93% of all adults by putting TV and radio together. One effective tactic involved mixing dayparts. For example buying primetime on TV and morning drive on radio reached 75% of adults 18 to 49 in Boston within four weeks.

“Industry-standard measurement is a first step toward showing large advertisers what local advertisers already know -- there is a lot of value to combining local television and radio in a media buy,” said David Poltrack, chief research officer, CBS Corporation, which owns TV and radio stations in a number of major markets. “We will continue working with Nielsen to bring to the industry the rich analytics, reporting tools and planning software needed to prove these benefits to advertisers. The long-term plan is to include online as well. This proof of concept demonstrates the power of broadcasting to quickly and frequently reach mass audiences.”

Media agency ZenithOptimedia forecasts that global advertising spending will return to the kind of growth rates seen before the financial crisis.

ZenithOptimedia sees spending growing 5.5% to $537 billion in 2014 and 6.1% in 2016. Spending grew just 3.9% in 2013, according to the agency. Television is the dominant media, representing 40% of global ad spending, compared to 21% for the Internet. ZenithOptimedia forecasts that TV spending will grow 5.2% globally in 2014. Ad spending increases in North America will be smaller than the worldwide growth rate. ZenithOptimedia expects 4.8% growth in 2014, a 4.6% gain in 2015 and 4.3% growth in 2016.

ZenithOptimedia says the Internet is the fastest growing media and that its growth will bolstered by the spread of programmatic buying. The agency sees spending on online advertising growing 16% annually from 2014 to 2016, with display advertising growing at 21% a year through 2016. Mobile Internet advertising is growing six times faster than desktop Internet, according to ZenithOptimedia. With the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets, mobile advertising is expected to grow 50% a year from $13.4 billion in 2013 to $45 billion in 2016. Desktop Internet advertising is expected to grow just 8% a year.