Americans are spending 33+ hours per week watching video, and across numerous screens, according to the just-issued Nielsen Cross Platform Report. That is a lot of media time, but where to buy ad time? It depends who you are attempting to reach. Older viewers watch the most television. Young viewers are watching less, but as The New York Times describes it, "Youths are watching, but less often on TV."
Nielsen reported data for Q3 2010 and Q3 2011, year-over-year (YOY), and as Nielsen describes it, “changes are afoot” as consumers seek the options that make the most sense for them (usually depending upon their comfort with the Internet, or household income).
Younger viewers are spending less time watching TV, at 120.56 minutes per month, while those over 55 watch the most at 195.10 minutes per month. But the total viewer time is more even, taking into account mobile media and online. The upshot, says TechCrunch, is that “the issue isn’t as simple as switching from one medium to another,” for example, from TV to TV-over-Internet. Rather, with a “plethora of new TV consumption choices,” the mix is inconsistent, even among viewers in the same household.
Three quarters (75.3%) surveyed pay for broadband Internet, up from 70.9% in 2011. Fully 90.4% pay for cable, telco-provided TV or satellite. Also, homes with both paid TV and broadband increased 5.5% since last year.
The number of homes subscribing to wired cable decreased 4.1% over the past 12 months, while telco-provided and satellite TV increased by 21.1% and 2.1%.
Although they comprise less than 5% of TV households, homes with both broadband Internet and broadcast TV are on the rise, having grown 22.8% over the last year. In those households, viewers stream twice as much video content as do the average households, and watch half as much broadcast TV.
Among other findings for Q3 2011, YOY:
- Households watching time-shifted TV increased by 65.9% YOY
- Mobile video viewing increased by 205.7% increase in users
- TV over Internet increased by 21.7%
- Asian wired cable subscribers declined from nearly 66% to 51%
- 12% of Asians opt for telco delivery, up 3% YOY
- Hispanic homes are more likely to be broadcast only at 15%, or satellite connected at 34%, than any other ethnic demographic.
Cross Media: Motor Trend Calls YouTube Channel “Logical Next Step”
Source Interlink Media (SIM) has announced the launch of the MotorTrend YouTube Channel, with original automotive content available to online audiences. The Motor Trend Channel is part of YouTube’s rollout of around 100 new original content channels throughout the year.
“We are really treating this like a TV channel,” said Source Interlink Media Chief Content Officer and Motor Trend Channel Executive Producer Angus MacKenzie. “What separates it from linear or traditional TV – is how interactive Internet television is. These new channels are very social-media driven. We can immediately communicate with our viewers for instantaneous feedback on what they do and don’t like, and what they’d like to see more of.”
The Motor Trend Channel’s programs garner content from SIM’s portfolio of automotive media brands, including Motor Trend, Hot Rod, Motorcyclist and FourWheeler, among others. The programs cover first rides and drives and tests of the latest two- and four-wheeled machinery, as well as automotive lifestyle and documentary shows.
SIM identifies its in-market auto group audience as:
- 52% male
- Mean age 43
- Mean household income $71,000
- 72% college educated
- 73% employed full or part time
A full schedule of programming with eight separate shows is expected to be available by February 17. New videos from each show will be posted on a varying schedule, but there will be new content available every business day.
Motor Trend’s new programming will be produced by Michael Suggett and Julia Sanchez with MacKenzie serving as Executive Producer. Jim Gleason will assume the role of Creative Manager.
“This was the next logical step for SIM as it continues its transformation from a legacy magazine publishing business to a media-neutral content creation company,” said McKenzie. “The channels and content provided by Motor Trend and others under YouTube’s initiative represent a paradigm shift for how enthusiasts watch and consume video online.”
Among the eight original programs:
- “Ignition,” a weekly five-minute block feature first drives and first tests
- “Head 2 Head,” a comparison test series focusing on performance vehicles and motorcycles
- “Roadkill,” a feature-length program following HotRod’s David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan as they enjoy hot rods, street machines and “other highly strung performance vehicles”
- “Epic Drives,” a travelogue of road trips from around the world.
Election Year Ad Buys: Who’s Tuning In, and Where?
Media buyers and planners hoping to take advantage of Campaign 2012, take note: cable news leads the pack among sources, with local TV in second place, but on the decline. A surprising second-to-last, the Internet. The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press’ 2012 campaign news survey discovered the trends in a January survey of 1,507 adults nationwide.
Pew reports that fewer Americans are closely following the campaign than four years ago, which has caused long-term and sharpening declines in the number of people tuning into local TV and network news.
Cable tops the sources in 2012, at 36%, but is only treading water. That despite the fact that cable nets have hosted most of the Republican debates, which are among a campaign year’s strongest draws. Almost half of Republicans (47%) watched a Republican debate during this campaign, up from 32% during the 2008 campaign.Still, cable news “reaches a substantial number across age and partisan lines,” reports Pew. Republicans tune into Fox News, Democrats into CNN and MSNBC.
Only 20% of Americans “regularly learn something” about the campaign or its candidates from local daily papers, a plummet from 31% in 2008. Local TV is down as well.
It is easy to blame it all on the Internet, but not so fast: the Internet as a source has gained only 1% since the 2008 campaign. The Internet had jumped from 13 to 24%, from campaign 2004 (Bush/Kerry) to campaign 2008 (McCain/Obama). Pew speculates that the Internet is the key source for a younger demographic, who are less likely to be Republican. Just 20% of those younger than 30 followed the campaign closely, down from 31% in 2008.
Upfront Digital: Super Bowl Internet Dip | Google’s Groupon Answer | eReader Malaise
- Internet usage in the U.S. dipped about 20% during the Sunday night Super Bowl broadcast, reports Multichannel News. That compared with an average Sunday, and despite the "Social Super Bowl" hype. NBC’s online video feed of the game took 6.2% of all downstream broadband traffic at 9 p.m.
- Google Offers, the Internet giant’s answer to Groupon, has just launched in its 40th major city. With this week’s launch in Oklahoma City, Okla., and Omaha, Neb., plus ten cities in the two weeks prior (including Boston and Washington, DC), Google Offers has aggressively expanded in just six months. As WebProNews describes, Groupon turned down an acquisition offer from Google.
- Barclays Capital is guessing that an Apple HDTV, priced at $1,500, could quickly take 5% of the HDTV market—bringing with it the accompanying Apple ad platform. As MobileMarketingWatch describes, the Apple TV would be less of a television, than a delivery vehicle for gaming, video, content delivery and apps, all of which presumably will be funded in part by iAds.
- The Washington Post yesterday launched free iPhone and apps for its Facebook-powered Social Reader app, reports the Poynter Institute. With the apps, users have “mobile-optimized access” to articles that participating Facebook friends have read, not just from the Post but from more than 30 participating publications. The Post claims 11 million people are using the app on Facebook.com.
- Digital magazine publishers may see a plateau on eReaders, eMarketer forecasts, and based on stats from Verso Advertising and Burst Media. While almost 16% of U.S. Internet users surveyed in December, 2011, owned an eReader, those who plan to buy one is declining. The good news—for marketers anyway—is that eReaders are losing ground to tablet computers, with their larger screens and higher processing capacity. Tablets are expected to see double-digit growth, reaching 89.5 million users in 2014. However the eReader/tablet horserace ends, the mobile ad opportunity is still a powerful one.
Facebook Ads: NYT Questions “Active Visitor” Figures
The New York Times read between the lines of Facebook’s IPO prospectus. As chief mergers and acquisitions reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin figures like 845 million monthly active users “should have an asterisk next to them.” Facebook counts among those 845 million monthly active users, and daily active users of 483 million, anyone who visits it’s Web or mobile site; but also, anyone who uses a Facebook “Like” or “Recommend” button in third-party sites, to share activity with Facebook friends.
How significant is that? Practically all significant online properties, including CNN.com, MSNBC.com, TheSmokingGun.com (pictured below) and ESPN.GO.com, include a “Like” or “Recommend” button alongside stories. So an “active user” may never leave the ESPN or CNN sites; theoretically, an active user may never visit Facebook, or see its featured ads.
Also counted among those active users: those click on the Facebook logo within a “Follow Us” bar, which typically includes an RSS feed logo, Twitter, Digg and email logos, among others.
The numbers climb. If the third-party site uses a Facebook ID for log-in (HuffingtonPost.com is one such site, and the feature is called “Facebook Connect”), and the user leaves a comment on a story in that site, he or she is counted as actively using Facebook. So, opined the CEO for equity research of Fusion IQ, those visitors “cannot be marketed to, they do not see advertising,” they simply used the extensive Facebook infrastructure.
However optimistic the unique-visitor figures, they are considerable anyway; and Facebook ads offer considerable cost-per-click savings of up to 45%, by some estimates. And a publicly-traded Facebook, with plans to become a news outlet as well, will necessarily become meticulously transparent in its traffic figures.
Upfront Digital: NBC’s Straight-to-App Launch | Apple Targets App Bots | Subway Moves Digital Ad Buy
- NBC News launch its new documentary series “Hidden Planet” not on TV, but on the “Rock Center with Brian Williams” iPad app, reports Broadcasting & Cable in an exclusive. This will be the first time NBC has premiered a series that way. Episodes of the monthly series will be exclusive to the iPad app for one week, before it becomes available on RockCenterNBC.com. The series takes the veteran foreign correspondent to such exotic destinations as Timbuktu and the Sahara Desert—places generally off the news radar.
- Mobile app rankings (including those for digital magazines and newspapers) will not be manipulated, pledges Apple. As paidContent describes, the company has acknowledged that third parties are offering download-bot services to inflate app rankings; and to place favorable reviews on apps. Apple declined comment to paidContent, but quickly issued a statement on its developer site that “Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership.”
- Subway has moved its domestic digital ad business (including search, mobile and display ads) to MediaCom, and away from Publicis, reports ClickZ. The sandwich chain is reportedly consolidating its U.S. business, and MediaCom has managed Subway’s offline ad business since 2000. Kantar Media clocks Subway’s 2011 digital spend at about $12.7 million, excluding mobile, but the chain announced it will up that spending considerably in 2012.
- Elsewhere in digital/agency news, Ad Age discovered that AOL is searching for an agency to refresh its image and spread the word “why people should care about AOL again.” Supposedly, the company finds consumers vague on its value proposition. AOL struggles against competitors Google and Yahoo, has also struggled to support its Patch.com community news outlet, but has recently acquired online properties Techcrunch and the Huffington Post. AOL posted Q4 2011 display ad revenues at $363.8 million, up 10% year-over-year.
Upfront TV: “NCIS” at 200 | Super Bowl Tops Itself | “Voice” Soars | Hispanic News, English Language
- Kudos to CBS and “NCIS,” which tonight will air its 200th episode. The Navy/legal drama debuted in 2003, with actor Mark Harmon at the helm, who was best known for his work on NBC’s “St. Elsewhere,” and as a hunk-for-hire on such shows as “The West Wing.” “NCIS” has defied the approaching-a-decade malaise, delivering an average 22.7 million viewers for new episodes this season. 100 episodes is industry standard to reach syndication level. The record number of episodes in history television belongs to “Gunsmoke,” which ran for 20 seasons and 635 episodes.
- Super Bowl XLVI attracted a record 111.3 million total viewers, reports Media Life, to become the most-watched broadcast in television history. This is the third year running that the Super Bowl has set the record, held until 2010 by the series finale of "M*A*S*H" in 1983. It was also the highest-rated Super Bowl in 26 years, with an average 47.0 household rating and 71 share. The game took a 40.5 share among adults 18-49.
- The post-Super Bowl Season 2 premiere of “The Voice” on NBC took a 16.3 rating adult 18-49 rating, and 37.61 million viewers, reports TVByTheNumbers. This was NBC’s best rating for an entertainment telecast since the “Friends” finale in 2004, with a 24.9 share.
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that NBC’s WMAQ-TV Chicago had a right to deny long-shot GOP presidential candidate Randall Terry a Super Bowl ad spot, reports Broadcasting & Cable. FCC ruled that while broadcasters must make ad time available to qualified candidates, WMAQ judged fairly that Terry was unqualified, given his showing at the polls. The ad reportedly contained graphic images of aborted fetuses, which Terry believed was behind the denial.
- Univision and Disney are in talks for a Latino-oriented 24-hour cable news channel, in English. As TVNewsCheck reports, neither company will confirm or discuss the project, but are likely to launch the channel in time for the November presidential election. The 2010 census revealed that U.S. born Latinos comprise nearly 60% of the growth among U.S. Hispanics over the last decade, and that an increasing number speak English as a first language.
Super Bowl Mobile Traffic: Mobile Gaining First-Screen Status in Sports
Super Bowl viewers Tweeted, checked in on mobile sports sites and furiously commiserated on Facebook; but they took a break to watch Madonna’s half-time show.
Jumptap monitored traffic on its mobile ad network between 4 p.m. and midnight. Traffic on its mobile sports channel spiked after kickoff. This is evidence of a “clear trend of multi-screen usage” among sports viewers, one reason why “ESPN is now calling mobile the ‘first screen.’”
Jumptap recorded a dip of 47% in traffic during Madonna’s half-time show, which puzzled Jumptap blogger mduffy: “For me, this was the time to catch up on email,” or perhaps to share outrage over singer M.I.A.’s middle digit offense. Jumptap saw mobile traffic dip across its entire network, by 20%, not just on sports sites. The dip was closer to 40% in Boston and New York.
But traffic spiked at 9:45 p.m. on Jumptap’s sports channel by 275%, when the Giants won.
Mobile devices, long thought the “third screen” after television and computers, are climbing to first-screen status. ESPN’s mobile audience passed 20 million in 2011, with viewing time on mobile devices up 45% over 2010. “[Mobile] is the primary way we reach an audience,” said ESPN Mobile’s VP and General Manager Michael Bayle at the January MediaPost conference.
Conde Nast Awards “Architectural Digest” for “Best Business Turnaround,” Ad Gains
Condé Nast held its annual publishers meeting last week, and in its in-house awards ceremony, recognized Architectural Digest for “Best Business Turnaround.” As WWD reports, the Digest wrapped up 2011 with a 9.1% boost in ad pages—the highest jump among the Condé Nast canon, which includes Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired.
Architectural Digest got off to a slow start, but between Q2 2011 and Q1 2012, has seen ad-page increases of 6, 5, 18 and 22% in those quarters. Publisher Giulio Capua claims that the April issue will have a 38% increase year-over-year. AD is among a vanguard of lifestyle and luxury titles that saw gains in 2011. Among other winners, Departures at a 43.3% jump and Power & Motoryacht at 24.9%.
AD appointed a new editor-in-chief in August of 2010, in an effort to revamp the book after a miserable 2009; when it saw what WWD calls a “jaw-dropping 49% fall in ad pages.” New editor Margaret Russell had overseen Elle Décor for 20 years has not remade the book: rather she has focused upon the quality of photography and writing, and has led the book in creating a stronger digital presence.
At present, AD lists its total circulation at 823,280, with a median household income of $97,123 and a 55/45 male/female readership. The website metrics are 5,319,132 average page views per month with 333,906 unique visitors spending an impressive average of 8.04 minutes on the site.
Research: 70% Of Tablet Owners Want to Buy through Digital Magazine Ads
Fully 70% of tablet computer owners want to be able to buy items by clicking on digital magazine ads, reports GfK MRI. Another 70% say they like electronic ads that are personalized to their interests. GfK MRI is the consumer-centric market research firm, which regularly polls its iPanel, composed exclusively of tablet computer and eReader owners.
GfK MRI polled tablet owners who read a magazine on their devices in the last 30 days with several digital-magazine related topics. Additional findings include:
- Nearly three-quarters (72%) of tablet owners who would prefer all digital magazines to be formatted in the same way
- A majority of tablet magazine readers (67%) say that, if available, they would rather read an electronic version of a magazine than a paper version
- Still, 65% say it's more satisfying to read a magazine the traditional way
- Almost half (48%) of tablet magazine readers say electronic magazines take too long to download, 46% say that videos in digital versions of magazines are "just a gimmick" and 43% claim they find it hard to search for magazines they want to read on their tablets
So tablet makers have a few obstacles to overcome before digital magazines offer a fully-satisfying experience, and thus, an entirely effective ad platform. "Although magazine publishers are experimenting with different formats in order to differentiate their digital brands, this is not necessarily resonating with digital readers adopting the new tablet technology," said Risa Becker, SVP Research at GfK MRI.
Still—with a full 70% of digital magazine readers wanting to buy through the format, advertisers have an opportunity to reach some attractive demographics (see chart for tablet/eReader ownership by age).
