Douglas L Ross: Broadcast Cable Channels

Targeted Television Advertising

Fri, 22 Aug 2003 14:28:06 GMT

There is a significant battle going on for control of the intellectual property surrounding the delivery of targeted television and internet advertising.

Ad firm 24/7 pushing for patent power. 24/7 Real Media wins another patent for delivering digital ads, giving it new authority over the online-ad serving market as it pursues patent licenses to improve shareholder value. [CNET News.com]

Sexiest Man In America

Mon, 11 Aug 2003 19:10:26 GMT

ABC recently launched it's "Search for the sexiest man in America" contest in conjunction with TV show All My Children [ http://amc.tcsinteractive.com/phase3/index.cfm ] . The contest is comparable to some of BSkyB's iTV programs in the UK. Consumers can use their cell phones to vote by sending a premium text message to the show. [This requires a subscription to premium text messaging plus a transaction charge $0.50 per message.]

This is something of a milestone. It is the first time in the USA that we have seen a linkage between a television program and the use of cellular telephone text messaging premium services.

Carat On ITV Advertising

Wed, 06 Aug 2003 15:01:04 GMT

Carat has an interesting little item on their web site.

Is interactive TV advertising a lost dream?

09-Mar-2003

To many observers, interactive TV is starting to look like an unfulfilled marketing revolution. Potentially, iTV can bring a new dimension to advertising by adding relationship-building and transaction to what is already the most powerful brand-building medium. But operators' financial problems, over-promised and under-delivered technology and poor communication of digital's benefits have stalled mass take-up by consumers. With the current mismatch between potential and reality, is it worth investing time and money in interactive advertising?

Evidence collected by Carat strongly suggests that it is, and that iTV advertising can already deliver marketing ROI.

Although almost no-one switches to digital TV for the interactive services, Carat research with Netpoll has found that once people have access to them, they use them to an increasing degree.

Integrated Digital Ad Delivery System

Mon, 21 Apr 2003 13:31:15 GMT

GTN, essentially an advertising agency which produces advertising [mainly for the Auto Industry] and Starnet [MediaDVX division which delivers digital ads via satellite, owned by the Lenfest people] have created an integrated system which uses an order entry system for adertising [owned by GTN] to enable ad agencies to direct digital ads to the right recipients by aligning the GTN order entry information with delivery information in MediaDVX's satellite distribution system. The integrated system does at least three important things:

It allows ad agencies to maintain control of digital ads from the time the ad leaves the "creative" computers until they reach the local broadcast or cable ad insertion points via MediaDVX's satellite system.
It reduces the time to deliver digital ads from days or hours, to minutes.
It thereby increases the amount of time available to the agency to create and customize the ads for local market conditions, essentially creating something like a "just-in-time" ad delivery system.

BBC's Celebdaq Celebrity Trading Game

Thu, 06 Mar 2003 14:23:43 GMT

The basic principal is that clelbrities are traded on an exchange like stocks. Their value is influenced by player trading which in turn is influenced by, among other things, what the BBC broadcasts every Friday night at 10:30pm on BBC3. A very clever idea and apparently a sensation in the UK. Here's the link to the Celebdaq website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/celebdaq/index.shtml

Cable vs Broadcast Advertising

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 16:08:59 GMT

An interesting article in Cableworld about the difference between Broadcast Network and Cable Network advertising rates. Among other things, Cableworld points out that cable advertising CPM's are half that of the Networks in prime time...

"According to Nielsen Media Research's Monitor-Plus service, which measures ad spending in all major media, buyers spent $21.10 to reach each 1,000 viewers in the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic (called cost-per-thousand, expressed as CPM in agency jargon) during prime time on broadcast, compared to $10.60 on cable."

Television Week Links To Television & Media Sites

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 15:43:01 GMT

Pursuing the new Television Week publication's website [formerly Electronic Media] I discovered this useful television / media links page. http://www.tvweek.com/links/index.html

Game Show Network Working With GoldPocket On One-Screen ITV

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 15:36:59 GMT

TV Week.com is reporting that the Game Show Network is looking to do interactive applications in the one-screen [as apposed to two-screen TV/PC approach] to take advantage of all the digital settop boxes that are already deployed. http://www.tvweek.com/technology/030303gameshow.html

NYT On The Liberty Comcast QVC Deal

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 15:05:18 GMT

Liberty's Malone and Comcast Set to Weigh Future of QVC. John Malone, the billionaire who controls Liberty Media, will soon negotiate ownership of QVC, the cable shopping network. By Geraldine Fabrikant. [New York Times: Business]

Liberty Media Triggers QVC Ownership Rights To Comcast

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 13:15:59 GMT

Yesterday, Liberty Media triggered one of the exit rights it has governing its 42% stake in QVC. This indicates that Liberty Media may be interested in buying Comcast's 58% interest in QVC. For Liberty it is primarily a "valuation" issue [which is apparently to be done independently sometime later this year], for Comcast it is a very complex value/growth, tax, debt reduction trade-off issue.