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Learn how marketers are taking advantage of the explosive growth of local news, one of the few segments seeing sky-high ratings in 2020. Gain exclusive insights from executives at News12, Canvas & NY Interconnect.

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CBS introduced targets to ensure its reality shows are more diverse

. Starting with the 2021-22 broadcast season, 50% of casts for unscripted shows must be Black, Indigenous or People of Color, and at least 25% of its annual unscripted development budget must go to creators and producers that are BIPOC. “The reality TV genre is an area that’s especially underrepresented, and needs to be more inclusive across development, casting, production and all phases of storytelling,” said George Cheeks, President and CEO of the CBS Entertainment Group. “As we strive to improve all of these creative aspects, the commitments announced today are important first steps in sourcing new voices to create content and further expanding the diversity in our unscripted programming, as well as on our Network.”

E-shop ‘til you drop: NBCUniversal introduced One Platform Commerce, a strategy that includes a new retail partner network and a partnership with PayPal. The goal: help consumers purchase goods flagged in shoppable gift guides and ShoppableTV segments. “As we approach a holiday season unlike any other, we expect the shift to digital commerce to continue to grow,” said Jill Cress, VP of Consumer Marketing at PayPal. “Since the pandemic started, PayPal has seen an 85% increase in purchases of beauty and personal care items and a 32% increase in items like clothing, shoes and jewelry in the US. As some of the most gifted categories during the holiday, we are excited to partner with NBCUniversal to help consumers access these products on their new marketplace.”

More e-shopping temptation: Verizon Media and Walmart are teaming for holiday commerce content. This year’s “30 Days of Savings” expansion is the second iteration of Verizon Media and Walmart’s 2019 holiday season campaign, enabling consumers to experience shoppable content experiences including first look access to deals, gifting ideas and recipes, interactive series and videos and other dynamic content formats from Yahoo, HuffPost, TechCrunch, In the Know, Engadget and RYOT Studios.

Twenty percent of US TV households are SVOD only, the same as last year, while pay TV-only households dropped from 21% to 14%, according to a survey from Leichtman Research Group. Sixty percent of households have both pay TV/MVPD and SVOD service, up 54% from last year. Among age groups, 81% of those 55+ have a pay-TV service, compared to 76% ages 35-54, and 63% ages 18-34.

Dentsu international has partnered with VidMob to offer new a new measurement solution to track creative intelligence and performance. VidMob’s Agile Creative Studio will power dentsu’s Attention Ads Lab, focused on identifying which ads capture consumer attention, supporting brand campaigns across the digital ads landscape including social media, programmatic and OTT/CTV channels. “This global partnership with VidMob gives us the power to change the way that brands think about creative — ushering in a new era of creative data-powered marketing,” said Clive Record, Head of Global Partnerships, dentsu international.

NBCUniversal and Cox Communications are teaming for “The Real Housewives Arcade,” an interactive gaming experience that tests Cox customers’ knowledge of “The Real Housewives” franchise. The trivia gaming app launched November 9 on Cox Contour, ahead of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” season premiere on November 11 . The game directs Cox customers to tune in to the show, as well as watch the Housewives library of VOD content on Cox Contour and on Peacock (Cox Contour customers get Peacock Premium as part of their subscription).

MONEY TALKS

TEGNA reported total company revenue of $738 million in the third quarter, up 34% year-over-year, driven by record 2020 political advertising revenue, continued strength of subscription revenue, and stronger than expected advertising and marketing services revenue. Excluding political advertising, 3Q20 grew 14% year-over-year. Political revenues were $116 million, a new third quarter record. “Despite the significant impact of COVID-19, advertising and marketing services has benefited from our sustained efforts to diversify our platforms and an expansion of our number of new advertisers, which is reflected in an aggregate market share increase across our portfolio,” said President and CEO Dave Lougee. “Advertising and marketing services has continued to show sequential monthly improvement since April. This performance demonstrates the sales transformation improvements we have actively implemented over the past several years, including bringing national sales in-house and creating one, holistic sales organization, which we call ‘One Team TEGNA,’ to accelerate growth and better serve clients and agencies.

Univision Communications financial results for 3Q20 included an 8% decrease in revenue versus 3Q19, to $627.6 million. Income from continuing operations was $30.9 million compared to $77.4 million. Year to date, the Company has reduced net indebtedness by $218.8 million. “Univision delivered solid operating and continuing financial improvement, as our strong ratings continued into the third quarter of 2020 and delivered year-over-year primetime audience growth among Adults 18-49,” said CEO Vince Sadusky. “Despite the ongoing uncertainties of COVID-19, advertising significantly improved from the second quarter, including record political advertising on our platforms.”

SESSION SPOTLIGHT | 11/17 – Get the Full Picture with TV Data

In order to accurately plan, buy and measure your advertising investment with confidence, data reflecting the true viewership habits of your target audiences is critical. Quality over quantity is an absolute must. Join TiVo’s Fariba Zamaniyan, VP & Head of Sales of Advanced TV, to review a checklist of criteria to inform your investment consideration in this increasingly fragmented marketplace.

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ABC ordered Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, a primetime spin-off of the daytime staple hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White. The original show, with Sajak and White, is in season 38.

HBO is in production on “Oslo,” a film adapted from the Tony Award-winning play of the same name, based on a true story of negotiations between implacable enemies that led to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords. Ruth Wilson (“The Affair”) and Andrew Scott (“Sherlock”) star. Oslo is written by J.T. Rogers, who also wrote the stage play, and directed by Bartlett Sher (“South Pacific”). The film is executive produced by Marc Platt (“La La Land,” “Bridge of Spies”) of Marc Platt Productions, Kristie Macosko Krieger (“The Post,” “Bridge of Spies”), Steven of DreamWorks Pictures and David Litvak of Bold Films. Filming will take place in Prague, Czech Republic this fall and is scheduled to air on HBO next year.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

CBS set the date for the return of its Friday night dramas. Season 5 of “MacGyver,” season 3 of “Magnum P.I.,” and season 11 of “Blue Bloods” premiere December 4 at 8p, 9p and 10p.

“On Pointe,” capturing a season of NYC’s School of American Ballet, debuts Friday, December 18 on Disney+. The six-part docu-series follows the lives of the students ages 8 to 18 pursuing their dreams to become ballet dancers.

TECH TALK

Video advertising platform Unruly and Publica are teaming to give OTT publishers access to ad pod monetization and automated deal management tools. Capabilities include:
* Ad Pod Monetization — Gives publishers the ability to guarantee an advertiser first position within an ad pod and category exclusivity within a pod in the context of a Unified AuctionConsolidated Deal
* Reporting — Creates enhanced efficiency for publishers, as well as unified management and reporting on deals through one holistic sourceAutomated Deal * ID Workflow — Streamlines workflow for publishers and leverages first-party data for deal targeting“With Publica’s CTV header bidding and ad serving capabilities and Unruly’s self-service tools and unique demand capabilities, we’re uniquely positioned to help our publisher partners efficiently optimize the value of their inventory to maximize revenue,”
said Kenneth Suh, Chief Strategy Officer at Unruly.

Talking turkey: Viewers of the Thanksgiving Day Parade are 19% more likely to purchase a Purdue brand turkey, and 10% more likely to purchase a Butterball turkey, according to advertising software company Viant. Other fun factoids include:
· Viewers who purchase stuffing are 27% more likely to purchase Progresso brand, 14% more like to choose Pepperidge Farm and 13% more likely to select Stove Top.
· When it comes to canned goods, viewers are 10% more likely to go for Libby’s brand followed by Dole brands at 6% and Del Monte brands at 5%.
· Parade audiences are 14% more likely to purchase Ocean Spray brand cranberry sauce.
· Viewers are 16% more likely to purchase Pillsbury pie crust closely followed by Marie Callender’s at 14%, while viewers are 1% less likely to purchase Mrs. Smith’s pie crust

COMING UP

Amazon Original Series “The Pack” is offering livestream event “24 Hours of Pawsitivity,” available on YouTube and Twitch ahead of the series’ November 20 premiere on Prime Video. “The Pack Presents: 24-Hours of Pawsitivity” includes a special dog meditation session from Chopra Global and features some dogs looking for forever homes. Viewers can enjoy footage from animal charities of dogs playing, napping and slo-mo running, as well as behind-the-scenes footage of “The Pack” contestants.

OWN announced the acquisition of documentary film “OWN Spotlight: (In)Visible Portraits” from thought leader and filmmaker Oge Egbuonu, as her directorial debut to air in 2021. Nearly three years in the making, the film is a celebration of Black women, sharing their stories of struggle, resilience and beyond.

STREAMING SCOOP

Demand for OTT content is up 80% year-over-year on Comcast’s platforms, said Rebecca Heap, SVP of Entertainment and Video at Comcast, at the Stream TV Show. Comcast spent about seven weeks focusing on free previews of premium services near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spring, Comcast’s annual Watchathon extended across X1 along with Stream, Comcast’s mobile video service, and Flex, and was the company’s biggest Watchathon ever. “We will continue to lean in,” said Heap. “We’ve got free TV week coming up later in November and you’ll see a rolling cadence of free, ungated promotional periods going forward,” she said. “It is critical to our strategy.”

Tubi has been named a launch partner for the PlayStation 5. Viewers will have access to Tubi’s library of 26,000 movies and television series for free via direct integration in the PS5 search interface, and a Tubi featured row that will be available on the video home screen. In the future, the Fox Entertainment streamer will also offer viewers access to live streaming news, weather, and entertainment via News on Tubi. “We’ve enjoyed a robust partnership with PlayStation and are thrilled to continue our synergy for the launch of its next-generation console,” said Andrea Clarke-Hall, Global Head of Business Development at Tubi.

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment announced a collaboration between Crackle Plus and Amagi to power the linear channel experience for Crackle, Popcornflix and other FAST platforms. At launch, Crackle and Popcornflix linear channels will be available on platforms like Plex and VIZIO Watch Free, with additional platforms and channels expected to be announced soon. “Launching free linear channels is the next phase in making our streaming services Crackle and Popcornflix more ubiquitous and accessible to a growing number of viewers,” said Philippe Guelton, President of Crackle Plus.

TNT, TBS and truTV are taking “Thanksgiving to the HBO Max,” offering audiences a taste of their streaming sib’s programming slate. Over the course of the holiday weekend the networks’ nearly 140 million collective viewers will get a sampling of new Max Originals, DC films and series, blockbuster movies and the opportunity to receive a week of HBO Max for free. “’Thanksgiving to the HBO Max’ is an excellent demonstration of the powerful synergies that are possible at WarnerMedia,” said Brett Weitz, General Manager of TNT, TBS and truTV. “This type of partnership speaks to the strength our core networks continue to have within WarnerMedia’s overall business.”

Anime content provider Funimation is now available to stream as an app on the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. The app will be available in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Funimation previously confirmed its streaming app will be available on the PlayStation 5, launching November 12 in North America and November 19 in the UK and Ireland.

GOING GLOBAL

The finalists for the PRODU Awards 2020, recognizing excellence in Latina audiovisual content production in the region in the Content, Talents and Marketing categories include Hernán (Dopamine/Amazon, History, Azteca Siete) with eleven nominations; Apache, La Vida de Carlos Tévez (Torneos and Netflix) with seven; 100 Días Para Enamorarnos (Telemundo Global Studios/Telemundo, Netflix), El Presidente (Gaumont, Kapow, Fábula/Amazon) and Control Z (Lemon Studios and Netflix) with six nominations, followed by La Jauría (Fábula, Fremantle, Kapow, TVN/Amazon) with five.

Abacus Media Rights has acquired the international distribution rights for new CBC original comedy series “Sort Of,” produced by Sienna Films. The coming-of-age story, created by Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo, follows the journey of Sabi Mehboob (Baig), a gender fluid millennial who straddles various identities.

Armoza Formats announced the commission of six series by new platform, IZZY. The platform, which offers Israeli content to viewers around the world, will stream the finished tapes of scripted dramas “Allenby,” “Muna,” “Red Lines”, and “Street Justice” as well as scripted comedy “My Life in 60 Seconds” and docu-series “Back to Life.”

OTT/CTV have transformed the way audiences watch tv, with consumers increasingly watching programming across both linear and OTT platforms.
As advertisers scale their OTT buys, it’s important to know how they can measure daily incremental reach across OTT & Linear TV to better optimize their ad dollars. Join Kevin O’Reilly, SVP of Data, Product + Monetization for a4 advertising, on November 18th at 1:10pm.

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NFL’s Notre Dame/Clemson game drew a preliminary Total Audience Delivery of 9.44 million viewers across NBC and NBC Sports Digital – the most-watched Fighting Irish game on NBC in 15 years, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

CNN topped Saturday night in the ratings, after its earlier call that Joe Biden was the projected winner of the presidential race. The news net drew 13.6 million viewers for the primetime speeches of Biden and VP-elect Kamala Harris.

“Departure,” starring Christopher Plummer and Archie Panjabi, has debuted as Canada’s #1 new series this fall according to Numeris data. The Global Original series, which premiered in October, is tracking 1.2 million viewers and ranks as a Top 5 series overall.

Newsmax TV drew 287,000 average viewers per minute in from 9a-4p on November 4, the day after Election Day, and OTT viewership on platforms like YouTube added an additional 100,000 per minute live viewers. “Our trajectory is like a rocket right now,” said CEO Chris Ruddy.

Shareablee Top 10 TV Shows for the week of November 2
Program, Network, Total Actions, Total Content, Actions per Content, Fans & Followers
Ellen Degeneres (Warner Bros, Syndicated), 3.9M, 75, 51,893, 204M
The Daily Show (Comedy Central), 14.1M, 181, 77,643, 26.5M
Hannity (Fox News), 3.5M, 301, 11,510, 10M
Good Morning America (ABC), 3M, 1,303, 2,326, 14.1M
Ellen Degeneres (Warner Bros, Syndicated), 2.7M, 43, 61,567, 204M
Today Show (NBC), 2.6M, 560, 4,569, 13.7M
Saturday Night Live (NBC), 2M, 42, 48,549, 13.7M
The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC), 2M, 63, 31,072, 13M
Fox & Friends (Fox News), 1.9M, 116, 16,114, 4.8M
Entertainment Tonight (CBS), 1.8M, 494, 3,585, 9.1M
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS), 1.4, 192, 7,476, 4.4M
Good Morning America (ABC), 955K, 885, 1,079, 14M

Shareablee Top 10 Streaming Shows for the week of November 2
Program, Platform, Total Actions, Total Content, Actions per Content, Fans & Followers
Stranger Things (Netflix), 5.6M, 13, 427,860, 26.2M
You (Netflix), 560K, 2, 280,015, 1.6M
Black Clover on Funimation (Funimation), 393K, 15, 26,217, 750K
The Mandalorian (Disney+), 359K, 8, 44,846, 1.6M
Nanatsu No Taizai (Netflix), 200K, 46, 4,346, 592K
One Piece (Hulu), 161K, 8, 20,140, 3.1M
Netflix is a Joke (YouTube), 160K, 15, 10,684, 2.2M
Konosuba (Crunchyroll), 119K, 15, 7,963, 314K
Dragon Ball Super (Hulu), 119K, 10, 11,864, 1.3M
Star Trek (CBS All Access), 115K, 56, 2,060, 650

TV Time’s Shows on the Rise for the Week of November 2
Love & Anarchy (Netflix) – 100%
Ici tout commence (TF1) – 99.5%
Heirs of the Night (NRK3) – 92.3%
Deadly Class (Syfy) – 88.3%
9-1-1: Lone Star (FOX) – 68.7%
Young Sheldon (CBS) – 67.9%
Mom (CBS) – 63.2%
Utopia (Amazon) – 57.2%
Unus Annus (YouTube) – 54.1%
Stolen Away (Antena 3) – 54.1%
Every week, millions of viewers around the world us e TV Time to track their favorite series. “Shows on the Rise” is calculated by determining the week-over-week growth in episodes watched for a given program.

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Friday, November 6
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: 20/20 3.30 (0.5), Shark Tank 2.31 (0.4), ABC Special Report 3.06 (0.5)
CBS: Greatest #AtHome Videos 3.26 (0.4), Magnum P.I. 2.58 (0.3), Campaign 2020 2.37 (0.3)
CW: Masters of Illusion 0.50 (0.1), Masters of Illusion 0.40 (0.0), World’s Funniest Animals 0.59 (0.1), World’s Funniest Animals 0.60 (0.1)
FOX: WWE Friday Night Smackdown 2.32 (0.7)
NBC: American Ninja Warrior 2.97 (0.5), Decision ’20 2.66 (0.4)
Telemundo: Resultidad 10.3 (0.3), Todo por mi Hija 1.42 (0.3), Falsa Identidad 0.83 (0.2)
Univision: Rosa de Guadelupe 1.47 (0.4), Imperio de Mentiras 1.20 (0.3), Dulce Ambicion 1.05 (0.3)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Chris McCumber has been named President of Blumhouse Television. McCumber left his NBCU position as President, Entertainment Networks – USA Network & Syfy in September. Jeremy Gold, who has been President of Blumhouse TV, will transition to President of Production.

Warner Bros. Television Group President and CMO Lisa Gregorian is leaving at year’s end. Karen Miller, EVP Creative Services, will take on some of Gregorian’s duties. “Lisa shared that she feels this is the right time for her to leave Warner Bros., her professional home for more than 30 years,” said Ann Sarnoff, Chair and CEO, WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group. “She’s had an incredible career here and has been responsible for some of the industry’s most creative, most innovative marketing activations … I thank her for her dedication and contributions to the company and wish her the very best in what I know will be an exciting next chapter.”

In the wake of last week’s announcement that ESPN will shed 500 jobs, comes word that Connor Schell, EVP of Content is leaving the sports net in January, and creating his own production company, with ESPN as his first client. Jodi Markley, EVP of Content Operations & Creative Services, will retire in April. A new team, reporting to Disney ESPN and Sports Content Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, will include SVP Rob King, who will oversee ESPN’s journalistic direction; Tina Thoronton, who will lead content operations as SVP; and EVP of Programming and Original Content Burke Magnus, who will add oversight of ESPN and ESPN+ original content development and scheduling to his purview.

Kevin Mayer, who ran Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer & International unit before jumping to TikTok for a short stint as CEO, has joined investment company Access Industries as a senior media advisor.

Kubient announced that Ryan Adams has joined the company as SVP of Partnerships. Adams had been Head of Client Direct and Publisher Solutions in the East region at Centro.

Group Nine Media has named Fanta Camara as Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Camara most recently served as Human Resources Business Partner for Group Nine’s mobile news publisher, NowThis.

Javier Maynulet is stepping down as President and General Manager of WAPA Televisión, citing personal reasons. The company has named Jorge Hidalgo, an executive with 40 years of experience in the US Hispanic television industry, President and General Manager.

The Paley Center for Media announced additions to its Board of Trustees and Los Angeles Board of Governors. Joining the Paley Board of Trustees will be Jason Kilar, Chief Executive Officer, WarnerMedia; Mark Lazarus, Chairman, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, NBCUniversal; Crystal McCrary, Producer, Director, and Author; and Mark Read, CEO, WPP. Joining the Paley Los Angeles Board of Governors will be Bela Bajaria, Vice President of Global TV, Netflix; Dan McDermott, President, Original Programming and Co-President, AMC Studios, AMC Networks Entertainment Group; Kirk McDonald, CEO North America, GroupM; Dawn Ostroff, Chief Content & Advertising Business Officer, Spotify; and Susan Rovner, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.

Westbrook Studios tapped Sahara Bushue as SVP and Head of Unscripted Television. Bushue was previously SVP of Alternative Development & Current Programming and NBC.

IN MEMORIAM

Producer Ken Spears died November 6. He was 82. Spears founded Ruby-Spears Productions with Joe Ruby, and the two created animated series “Scooby Doo,” among other programs.