CBS Receives Most Consumer Generated Buzz and Sentiment

Brandimensions has announced (via Adrants) the release of a new research report that captures the share of online discussion and sentiment generated by viewers of the Fall season’s new television shows on major networks.

Brandimensions searched over 150 million Internet sites and approximately 395,000 sources pertaining to the television industry, ultimately analyzing 6,497 relevant consumer comments posted online between September and November 2005 and specific to the season’s new television shows. The results conclude that with its new shows, CBS retains its Best-in-Class position among all networks, based on the greatest combination of online discussion share and high viewer sentiment. Additionally, NBC recorded the highest average sentiment for all new shows with the No.1 ranked My Name is Earl contributing greatly to the overall audience appeal of NBC shows.

Amazon Offers Alexa Search Index to Everyone

In a move sure to shake up the world of search, Amazon-owned search company Alexa is offering its vast index of about 5 billion documents to anyone who wants it, and anyone can use Alexa’s servers and processing power to mine that index writes John Battelle (via MarketingVOX), citing a couple of possibilities among many: creating a vertical search engine, or building entirely new kinds of search engines altogether - and they can run any such new service on the Amazon Web Services platform.

“Alexa Web Search Platform Beta (websearch.alexa.com) [is] effectively opening up the Alexa Web Crawl and ushering in a new era where anybody can create new search services without having to invest millions of dollars in crawl, storage, processing, search and server technology,” writes the official Alexa blog.

Scripps to Launch Its First Broadband Channel, HGTV KitchenDesign

Scripps Networks announced that this week it will launch a trial of HGTV KitchenDesign, the first of its targeted broadband channels, before going live at the beginning of January with more than 200 streaming videos on design trends, kitchen fixes and room-makeover tips, MarketingVOX reports. HGTVKitchenDesign.com will include various related interactive tools to enable users to personalize, plan and share ideas and projects.

“By providing content that appeals to a whole new audience and introducing them to our established brands, we are creating demand for our networks and for the broadband service that our cable operator partners provide,” said John Lansing, president of Scripps Networks, said in a statement.

BIN: B-to-B Ad Pages Up

Business Information Network (BIN) estimates show B-to-B Ad page volume figures for October up 2.72 percent over October 2004, MediaPost reports. All but seven of the 22 B-to-B ad categories tracked by BIN posted ad page gains in October, especially banking/financial (+24 percent), environment/utilities (+17 percent) and automotive (+10 percent).

Sirius, NBA Enter Multi-Year Broadcast and Marketing Agreement

The NBA and Sirius have announced a multi-year agreement which makes Sirius an official NBA marketing partner and the broadcaster of more live NBA games - more than 1,000 regular season games and every playoff game - than any other radio broadcaster. Sirius has also launched NBA Radio, the first 24/7, year-round radio channel devoted to the NBA.

Cable Responds to a la carte with Kid-Friendly Packages

At least six cable companies, including the two largest, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, are developing kid-friendly channel packages, The New York Times reports.

Kyle McSlarrow, the head of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, told lawmakers that each cable company would come up with its own lineup and that they would be purchased like other bundles.

The FCC recently announced that cable companies could best serve consumers by letting them subscribe to individual channels instead of offering only prepackaged bundles. This essentially opened a new front in the government’s efforts to impose indecency standards on cable and satellite providers by pressuring them to voluntarily offer a la carte choices or set up a “family-friendly tier” of channels suitable for children. With yesterday’s announcement of kid-friendly packages, cable providers have shown their preference for the second option.

Golf Cart Ads Recalled by 70 Percent of Golfers

Advertising to golfers via GPS-enabled, golf cart-mounted displays apparently works, according to a new study from Edison Media Research on the effectiveness of an advertising campaign run by Cadillac. The study showed that nearly 9 out of 10 golfers felt that the GPS system - which displays real-time course information such as layout, hazards, pro tips, and distance to the hole - added to their golf experience. An ad recall rate of 70 percent was noted among all golfers who used the GPS system.

Conservatives Top Talk List

Talkers magazine reports (via Radio Ink) that Conservative hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are the leading talk radio hosts in the U.S., with more than 13.75 million people listening to Limbaugh per week while Hannity draws more then 12.5 million weekly listeners. Michael Savage is third with more than 8 million listeners a week.

Reach and Targeting Reasons Most Media Buyers Use Ad Networks

A large plurality of media buyers and planners are relying more on ad networks today than two years ago, with 42 percent of those who use them saying they now spend more with those networks than they did in 2003, writes MediaPost (via MarketingVox), citing the results of a ValueClick Media/FastClick study. Some 30 percent of respondents reported spending unchanged from two years ago, 16 percent said ad network spending had declined, 12 percent said they did not know.

New Harvard Alumni Mag Launches Next Year

A new glossy “fan” magazine for Harvard alumni is launching next year and, according to the Boston Globe, “it’s hard to see who would want to read this one, apart from the not-inconsiderable universe of narcissistic Harvard graduates.” However, The Atlantic publisher David Bradley is building the publication, which may give it some steam. Currently the magazine, titled 02138, has a handful of staffers at The Atlantic’s current offices in Boston.