Good morning. It's Thursday,
November 29, 2007, and this is
Cynopsis:
Weekender. Below are a handful
of industry stories - with which you may agree or disagree. If you'd like
to be heard - put together your own 350 word submission! Details below.
HBO Bets on DVR,
VOD Viewing for New Shows By Daisy Whitney
As HBO preps for its next batch of original series premiering in
January, the premium network is betting that the non-traditional viewing
patterns of its recently concluded original series, Curb Your Enthusiasm
and Tell Me You Love Me, will continue.
Both of those shows, which finished their fall seasons in mid-November,
more than tripled viewership in some cases when video-on-demand viewing
on HBO On Demand, multiple linear plays and digital video recording
viewing was factored in. That data is encouraging for the network, as it
both deals with life sans Sopranos and prepares for the return of The
Wire and the debut of freshman show In Treatment in January. In Treatment
runs 43 episodes and will air Monday through Friday as the network's
first-ever stripped show. Because the show runs daily, the network
expects time-shifted viewing to boost viewership as it did for Tell Me
You Love Me. HBO contends that non-linear new viewing patterns now play a
major role in determining which shows to pick up.
Many critics of the network had openly wondered why HBO picked up the
Tell Me You Love earlier this fall based on lackluster initial ratings.
Only 680,000 people watched it live on average on its Sunday night
premieres. When the live plus seven day figures from Nielsen were added
in, viewership reached slightly less than 900,000. However, when the
network added VOD viewing and additional linear plays throughout the
week, the audience shot up to more than three million viewers.
Those numbers underscore that HBO picked up Tell Me You Love Me
specifically because of its cumulative audience. Viewership for Curb your
Enthusiasm also grew throughout each week as additional linear viewing
and VOD viewing was computed.
The network started to see the impact of non-linear viewing on The Wire
last year when the show generated about one million VOD orders for each
episode, numbers that helped bolster weekly viewership to more than 5
million viewers for the show, up from 3.9 million in the previous
season.
About 29 million homes subscribe to HBO. Of those, 14 million have HBO on
Demand.
New Political Ad
Rules By Louis Chunovic
Attention broadcasters: Here comes even more political ad
money. With little more than a month to go before the first '08
votes, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has eliminated restrictions
that kept big-money corporations and unions from financing so-called
independent "issue" advertisements before an election.
Now, "broadcasters will have more organizations and groups that want
to buy ads on their shows," said FEC Chairman Robert Lenhard, a
Democrat, on CSPAN after the FEC vote, "and so there will be ... an
increased amount of business for broadcasters, especially in certain
media markets."
The FEC rule change followed a June Supreme Court ruling, in FEC v
Wisconsin Right To Life (WRTL), that voided a provision of the 2002
McCain-Feingold campaign finance-reform law, prohibiting corporations and
unions from paying for issue ads within two months of a general election
and 30 days of a primary election. When the Supreme Court, voting
5-4 and siding with WRTL, said the provision was unconstitutional, the
FEC was required to change its regulations.
The 2004 TV spot in the Supreme Court case targeted Democratic Senator
Russ Feingold, co-sponsor of the campaign finance law, by name, urging
viewers to tell him to stop blocking President Bush's judicial nominees,
who, presumably, would have the pro-life inclinations that WRTL
favors. Under last week's FEC rule-making, that once-prohibited ad
will now be legal, according to Chairman Lenhard. "The Supreme
Court ruled that that ad was protected by the First Amendment," he
said. Still prohibited are issue ads directly for or against
specific candidates.
However, guided by the language of the Supreme Court's ruling, issue ads
now can refer to specific candidates, unless the ad is "susceptible
of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or
against a specific candidate." That means, as Republican FEC
Commissioner Hans Von Spakovsky put it, when drawing the "line
between campaign speech and issue speech ... a tie goes to the speaker,
not to the censor."
Opponents of the Supreme Court-mandated new direction contend that the
new FEC regulations will open the way to attack ads
"masquerading" as issue ads, according to one widely quoted
observer, Professor Richard Hasen of the Loyola Law School.
Professor Hasen offered a number of hypothetical examples of the types of
covert attack ads that now can be expected, including, "Call Senator
Clinton and tell her to stop coddling illegal aliens and terrorists by
supporting the New York driver's license plan."
The bottom line for voters: Brace yourselves for an onslaught of
new TV and radio ads.
G-G-G..oogle
TV by Dave Zornow
In the 1987 TV series Max Headroom, TV advertising prices are set
by a live auction where continuously changing ratings let advertisers bid
on commercial avails. The series, canceled by ABC after 11 episodes,
aired 11 years before the Internet was commercialized and twenty years
before last month's deal between Google and Nielsen.
"We think that TV is becoming like the Web: content explosion,
audience fragmentation, and a long tail of networks," says Keval
Desai, Product Management Director/Google TV Ads. "Internet
principles like accountability and measurement can be applied to the TV
business to the benefit of users, advertisers and publishers."
Google TV Ads leverages the online auction technology used by Google to
sell search keywords on the Web. Through deals with EchoStar and Astound
Cable, a system operator in the Bay Area, Google TV Ads offers
second-by-second set-top box data from digital set-top boxes. Google has
plans to increase TV Ads reach through additional cable
distribution.
The Google-Nielsen relationship addresses challenges faced by both
companies. Google TV Ads gets demo data that ad agencies need to plan and
buy TV. Nielsen gets an opportunity to
learn how people meter data can be credibly melded with a virtual TV
viewing census - albeit a census limited to the TV sets in cable and
satellite homes that have digital boxes.
Google will initially use demo data from Nielsen's national people meter
sample to target buys and report audience delivery on the Google TV Ads
platform. Set top box data will be adjusted initially at the DMA level
for satellite subscription. "We will apply algorithms to essentially
take the satellite subs out of the Nielsen data," says Desai.
Both companies have high hopes for shared learning. "In the future,
the two engineering and product teams will collaborate to develop models
that incorporate set top box data with the people meter data to see if we
can take the Nielsen panel and fuse it with EchoStar to improve the
reports that go back to advertisers and agencies."
Desai thinks Google can bring the industry together so there's something
in it for both buyer and seller. "We are bringing the parties
together instead of pitting them against each other," he says.
"We are hoping to be a catalyst for the TV business."
T'is the Season …
for Horror Fans? By E. Maya
As we enter into the Christmas holiday season, what comes into
mind? Candy canes, winter wonderlands, Christmas carols … and
horror movies? Well, that's what multiplatform network FEARnet is hoping
to accomplish. The network is on tenterhooks to entice year-round horror
fans to access horror-themed content from one of their three different
platforms - mobile, video on demand and Internet. And, with the writer's
strike here, FEARnet is giving horror fans the best gift of all -
original content.
While the networks will be airing mostly reruns, FEARnet.com will be
streaming originals. And, coming soon on the FEARnet site are a series of
20 self-contained horror stories and an original movie. They're also
looking into one-off, five-minute horror stories.
The original content possibilities on FEARnet are endless.
According to Diane Robina, President of Emerging Networks at Comcast,
"the web is much more liberating because there is no set
format."
When asked about the network's long-term strategy, Diane said "we
make strong acquisitions for the VOD channel, like The Exorcism of Emily
Rose, and then we serve up good original series on the Internet, like
Buried Alive." They also do tent pole events, including the
launch of 30 Days on their site.
After a number of tent pole events this summer and fall, the network has
so far been able to retain viewers. The key now is - can they keep these
people around through the holiday season?
All signs indicate that this is a strong possibility. Scripted
shows tend to already go into reruns in the month of December, so
viewership will naturally be slightly down. If the writer's strike
lingers, and our favorite shows, such as "Heroes" and
"Supernatural," are in reruns, then viewers may turn to the
Internet for their dose of horror and sci-fi.
Bottom line says Diane: "We want horror fans to come to us
first. We have to stay focused to serving our community, because we
want to be known as the horror expert."
Perhaps that mission will be accomplished during the holidays as people
take a break from the shopping frenzy … and crazy in-laws.
WGA Ripples By Circlewipe
Week 4 of the WGA strike, with a glimmer of hope as talks resume. Each day we see new fallout from the strike, its effects on viewing habits as time and picketing marches on. Besides the writers and studios, the effects of this strike are showing up in unexpected quarters.
Audiences: With the Broadway Stagehand's strike reportedly over, the NYC tourism biz gets a break. As Broadway lights back up, the late night TV shows are still dark ... no Dave, Jon, Conan, or Colbert. In LA, no Jay, Craig, or Jimmy. We're starved for current topical humor. Even ABC's This Week is soliciting viewers for material for their Sunday Funnies feature.
Publicists: With the late night shows out, publicity machines are scrambling. Tis the season of the Oscar-buzz movies, of major CD drops, and it’s still November Sweeps. The daytime news and talk shows suddenly have a tsunami of A-listers. With entertainment industries targeting the last two months of the year for their big campaigns, they have to put their artists somewhere. Major names are showing up outside their normal hipper time slots, and the daytime audiences are benefiting. At the same time, projects promoted in late night a month or two ago are getting a second bounce via re-runs.
Politicians: Especially for Dems, crossing a picket line is poison. Expect to see more interviews in the field or as 2-way satellite remotes. CBS News' December debate is now cancelled after contenders announced they won't cross a WGA strike line. No danger of a candidate being caught on YouTube walking by picketers, a giant inflatable rat looming overhead.
Books: A recent Pepperdine University study claims that the lack of fresh scripted TV shows will drive Americans to … brace yourself … read more. This poll may be as reliable as your neighbor who says he only watches PBS. Netflix and Seinfeld may have a better shot than Random House.
Award Shows: Maybe the strike is God's way of saving us from award shows, or at least shortening them by eliminating the lame scripted banter. If there's any benefit of the strike, this is it.
Staffs: Many producers and on-camera talent are writers. Personal contracts cover their creative contributions. This makes for personal inner turmoil: Do I write to keep my job and serve the audience while betraying a Guild that once supported me? If the show dies, where will writers work when the strike's over?
Ripples from this strike will continue as the strike does, and nobody wins.
ION picks up Drew Carey for weeknight play at 9p and 930p as of Jan 1
(Cynopsis)
Hallmark Channel goes shopping and buys 7th Heaven, Cheers and I Love
Lucy
(Cynopsis)
Weta and Chapman to co-develop kid programs
(Cyn Kids)
New Line takes distribution rights for Planet 51
(Cyn Kids)
Warner Bros. Animation tallies deal with Register
(Cyn Kids)
Taffy Entertainment inks Asian agreements for several animated series
(Cyn Int'l)
Singapore and the Philippines enter into media co-operation
agreement
(Cyn Int'l)
Zodiak invests in newbie production house Lucky Day
(Cyn Int'l)
Verizon Wireless to adopt open standards for its mobile network
(Cyn Digi)
FCC Chairman Martin fails to get cable regulation meeting off the
ground (Cyn
Digi)
NBCU becomes the first major programmer to subscribe to Tivo
Stop||Watch data
(Cyn Digi)
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Jane Root out at Discovery; John Ford in
(Cynopsis)
NBC sets Lipstick Jungle debut date/time for February
(Cynopsis)
Univision will debut novella Pasion (Passion) on Dec 4 at 9p
(Cynopsis)
Buddy G - My Two Moms and Me new 3D animated property from Us2
(Cyn Kids)
The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures: Starlight Charity Challenge
(Cyn Kids)
Nine animated films qualify for Golden Globe Awards
(Cyn Kids)
Deals signed in quick pre-ATF days by FremantleMedia Enterprises and
Disney-ABC Int'l TV
(Cyn Int'l)
Cablevision adds The Korean Channel to its IO lineup
(Cyn Int'l)
Paramount Digital Ent signs deal to distribute content across India's
mobile subscribers
(Cyn Int'l)
Cable/NFL Network dispute causes fans to miss top NFC team match-up
(Cyn Digi)
CondeNet to distribute videos, share ad revenue with YouTube
(Cyn Digi)
Hearst Argyle to resell Google AdWords locally
(Cyn Digi)
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Emails to the Editor: subject E-Mails to the Editor
Copyright Cynthia Turner 2006
Later -- Cyn
11/29/07 What's On This
Weekend: Saturday: 8-11p, December 1, 2007 ABC: Big 12 Football Championship: Missouri vs. Oklahoma CBS: Jesse Stone: Sea Change [r], 48 Hours Mystery
FOX: Cops [r], Cops [r], America's Most Wanted
ION: Movie: Moby Dick [7p]
MNT: NFL Total Access, Control Room Presents
NBC: Radio City Music Hall's 75th Anniversary Special, Chuck, Law
& Order: SVU
PBS: Austin City Limits [r] [9p]
TELE: Cine Nuestro [7p], Cine de Impacto UNIV: Sabado Gigante
Sunday: 7-11p, December 2, 2007 ABC: AFV, EM: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, Brothers &
Sisters
CBS: 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race 12, Pictures of Hollis Woods
CW: CW Now,Aliens in America [r], Life is Wild, America's Next
Top Model
FOX: King of the Hill [r], King of the Hill, Bowling Championship
Series Selection Show 2007, The Simpsons [r], Family Guy [r],
American Dad
ION: Movie: The Night They Saved Christmas, Movie: A Christmas
Memory
NBC: Football Night in America, Sunday Night Football: Cincinnati at
Pittsburgh
PBS: Nature [r], Masterpiece Theatre [r]
TELE: El Maravilloso Mundo de Disney/Estreno, Cine Millonario
UNIV: La Hora Pico, Bailando por un Sueno Campeonato Internacional de
Baile
