As linear TV viewing falls, NBC tries some pixie dust
Live sports rights are increasingly expensive, and there are only so many compelling awards shows and specials to go around. That’s left networks and advertisers looking for other solutions.
The mis-measure of Netflix
In Netflix’s subscription-based on-demand world, viewership is cumulative. Measuring it at any given point in time might give you a number, but that number has little correlation with the content’s value to Netflix.
Nielsen to measure Twitter chatter about TV shows
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/business/media/nielsen-to-measure-twitter-chatter-about-tv.html
Execs are talking about measuring tweet volume and the reach of those tweets, but isn’t the real value in figuring out what people think? It’s not worth touting that 200,000 people tweeted and 4 million people saw those tweets if the overall sentiment is that the show sucks. But given the history of shows such as “Arrested Development,” 20,000 of the right people tweeting about how great something is might be worth noting even if ratings aren’t high.
Tweets = public opinion? New data suggests we should think twice on this
While Twitter is increasingly encouraging us to look at measures like tweets per minute to measure reactions to national events, data from the Pew center comparing Twitter opinions with overall public opinion serves as a reminder that tweets aren’t yet a perfect measure.
Twitter officially reels in Bluefin Labs, as social TV gets interesting
Twitter has officially acquired Bluefin Labs, confirming earlier reports and demonstrating its intent to move into the television and media markets, working to understand how people are interacting with that content on social media.
Network TV’s house of cards
Apart from the loss of viewers, traditional TV networks are also losing their monopoly on A-list creative talent. On Thursday, Amazon formally announced it was beginning production on the first six pilot episodes for a series of web-based sitcoms it plans to launch on Amazon Prime Video. The fledgling shows boast writing talent from The Daily Show, The Onion and The Big Bang, as well as Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau.
Deloitte: 9% have cut cable, another 11% are considering it
While cable operators and networks continue to downplay the effect of cord cutting, in Deloitte’s State of the Media Democracy survey, the firm reports that 9 percent of respondents have already canceled their cable subscriptions, with another 11 percent saying they are considering doing so.
It’s official: Facebook is the 21st century Nielsen family
Thanks to a new product from Nielsen and Facebook, the Internet could be on the cusp of become a first-class citizen in the advertising world for good. But there’s just one problem: Do Facebook users want to be part of a Nielsen family?
Bad news for Nielsen: TV ads to be bought more like online ads
TV ads will increasingly become performance-based, moving the industry beyond just trying to amass huge audiences, according to execs from media agency Initiative. That could change the way that brands and agencies think about media buying, and could be disruptive to Nielsen’s ratings system.
Coach Lombardi to Yahoo!: Success ain’t no annuity.
“Success is like anything worthwhile. It has a price. You have to pay the price to win and you have to pay the price to get to the point where success is possible. Most important, you must pay the price to stay there.” — Vincent T. Lombardi
OK, so I’ve been writing about Yahoo! this week, and I have football on the brain. Go Giants!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Gq5q88uro&rel=1] (Watch this video, an example of huge mental discipline by an indefatigable kicker.)
Anyway, when I read this quotation from the storied Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, I thought it was worth sharing.
I mean, look at Yahoo!. (Update: Microsoft makes $44.6-billion offer for Yahoo. ) Once the #1 destination on the Web, the company that helped establish the Internet era is reeling, having lost its vision, lost its product edge, too much top talent, then market share and, of course, market value. (Nielsen Online says Yahoo! can still claim to be #1 in total page views per user per month, but Google is #1 in the more valuable statistic of “average monthly uniques.”) It seems leadership hasn’t been willing to “pay the price to stay there.” And so now Yahoo! will be losing 1,000 of their 14,300 staffers (and an ex-CEO board member!), too.
Lombardi could’ve taught those techies a thing or two: : Success is no annuity. It must be earned, over, and over, and over. Maybe Jerry Yang, et al, will learn this lesson yet. (And maybe Eric Schmidt should take pause, too.)
Let’s hope so, but for now, why don’t we all just thank those Yahoos! for “doing the research” for us on this one. Sit on your duf, even a little, and you’ll find yourself riding out of town on it. So that’s one less business lesson the rest of us have to learn the hard way.