Tuesday November 23, 2021

Today’s Finale
DIY: Building Off the Grid at 9p

IN THE NEWS

Nielsen is overhauling its C3 ratings metrics to give ad buyers and sellers more granular data, capturing estimates of viewing audiences based on individual ads versus commercial minutes. The company is working with Extreme Reach to encode national linear TV commercials with Nielsen watermarks; for commercials without watermarks, Nielsen will use content signatures from Gracenote. “By transforming our TV measurement and moving to Individual Commercial Metrics, both media buyers and sellers will be able to maximize the value of their inventory as well as capitalize and drive return on investment of their advertising spend across the rapidly converging traditional and digital landscapes,” said Kim Gilberti, SVP Product Management, Nielsen. The 2022 rollout is part of a larger revamp of Nielsen’s offerings.

The recovery from 2020’s record ad spend declines continues, with year-to-date national marketer investment growing 7% from January-September 2019 levels, according to Standard Media Index data based on media agency ad spend billings media agency partners in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In those markets, combined ad spend lifted +24% above the total recorded in January-September 2020. share. “The COVID pandemic accelerated certain trends, and nowhere more so than in digital,’’said SMI CEO James Fennessy. “It clearly indicates a continued focus across ad-supported media.’’

The FCC has scheduled a forum for December 2 to discuss the state of OTT closed captioning. Co-hosted by the FCC‘s Media Bureau and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, the event will feature two panels of speakers to discuss ways to enhance accessibility, including the Commission’s authority to adopt new rules.

Production company MRC won $31 million in damages and legal fees in its case against Kevin Spacey and his production company over his firing from Netflix’s “House of Cards,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Spacey was let go following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct; MRC sued for lost revenue caused by to his exit. The ruling was made in October 2020 but didn’t become public until MRC filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court.

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Bobby Flay isn’t leaving Food Network after all. Negotiations between the celebrity chef and the network stalled in October, but Flay has signed a new three-year exclusive deal that includes development of new content for Food Network as well as for elsewhere within the Discovery portfolio. “I’m thrilled to extend my relationship with Food Network and Discovery,” said Flay, who has been in business with the company for 27 years. “Although these talks to renew took a little longer than expected, the important thing is that both sides are happy that we can now build on an already rock solid foundation.”

“As union members, mistreatment of one of us is a problem for all of us,” states the WGA West’s Safe and Inclusive Workplace Pledge from over 50 prominent showrunners. “First steps” for the participants to take to help bring about systemic change include attending the WGAW’s inaugural anti-bias training; sharing and adhering to community standards, including how to report failures; and committing to meeting at least one writer from an underrepresented group for every open staffing slot.

Music industry drama “The Idol” scored a series order from HBO. Co-created by Sam Levinson (“Euphoria”), Abel Tesfaye (aka The Weeknd) and Reza Fahim, the series will star Tesfaye, Lily-Rose Depp (“Voyagers”), and Suzanna Son (“Red Rocket”). The studio is A24.

Big Bad Boo Studios greenlit animated series “Galapagos X” with commissioning Canadian broadcasters TVOKids, SRC Radio-Canada, Knowledge Kids, and TFO.
Directed by Shabnam Rezaei, the new series focuses on climate change.

Peacock and UK’s Channel 4 handed a season two renewal to comedy series “We Are Lady Parts.” The show “exploded onto our screens and into our hearts with irreverent humor, original storytelling, and boundary-pushing comedy,” said Lisa Katz, President Scripted Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “We’re incredibly proud that this fan-favorite series was heralded as groundbreaking for Muslim representation on TV and can’t wait to continue on this journey with visionary creator Nida Manzoor and this beloved ensemble.”

Also coming back for season two is Netflix’s “Arcane.” The first six episodes of the animated series were watched for 34.1 million hours globally.

Roberto Patino (“DMZ”) signed an overall deal that establishes his own production banner, Analog Inc., in partnership with Netflix. First up is a series adaptation of Image Comics’ Nocterra, in development with Atomic Monster.

Newsmax’s Saturday primetime show “Benny Report,” starring Benny Johnson, has been renewed and will expand to one hour.

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Tastemade is launching two products to enable Makers to earn new streams of revenue. Tastemade Makers allows Makers to create a subscription package where they can use the platform to sell benefits to their fans like secret recipes and recommendations. Tastemade Experiences is an event-based marketplace where Makers can directly offer ticketed in-person and virtual experiences, and provides Makers with the tools to build, promote, sell, and conduct their events.

Alison Sweeney (“Murder, She Baked”) has joined the cast of Peacock film “Days of Our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas,” streaming Thursday, December 16. Sweeney joins former “Days” castmates Eileen Davidson, Deidre Hall and more.

Gabriel Basso (“Hillbilly Elegy”) and Luciane Buchanan (“The New Legends of Monkey”) will star in “Netflix” political thriller series “The Night Agent,” based on the Matthew Quirk bestseller.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Netflix’s “Inventing Anna” will premiere on the streamer on Friday, February 11. The Shondaland series was inspired by the story of Anna Delvey, a German-born fraudster who conned New York society.

A potty-mouthed Santa played by Seth Rogan and an intrepid elf (Sarah Silverman) are the focus of HBO Max animated series “Santa Inc.”, arriving Thursday, December 2.

Lifetime’s “Married at First Sight” is back for season 14 with a three-hour episode starting at 8p on Wednesday, January 5. The debut will be preceded by two specials: “Season 14 Matchmaking Special” on Wednesday, December 29 at 8p, and “Kickoff Special” the following night at 8p.

“MacGruber,” based on the SNL parody of “MacGyver,” launches Thursday, December 16 on Peacock. Will Forte reprises his SNL (and 2010 film) role, along with Kristen Wiig.

“Impulse Try with Remi Bader” premieres Thanksgiving weekend on Instagram, Facebook and Xfinity. Powered by NBCUniversal Checkout, the shoppable episodes will allow consumers to interact with the livestream and purchase products.

Amazon’s “As We See It” will premiere Friday, January 21 in more than 240 countries. Based on an Israeli format, the comedy follows twentysomething roommates on the autism spectrum.

Ten-part limited series “Outbreak,” following the interconnected lives of people during an epidemic, premieres on Crackle on Wednesday, December 1.

COMING UP

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be honored with “The People’s Champion” award at the 2021 “People’s Choice Awards,” airing Tuesday, December 7 at 9p on NBC and E!.

The season two premiere of discovery+ series “Family Dinner” on Friday, December 10 has host Andrew Zimmern visiting families to explore how the cultural, regional and historical facets about what and how we eat.

The 12th annual “CMA Country Christmas” special will blend holiday classics with several original songs performed in an at-home setting, overseen by first-time hosts hosts Gabby Barrett (“Silent Night”) and Carly Pearce (“O Holy Night”). The program debuts Monday, November 29 at 8p on ABC.

Showtime’s “Ray Donovan” movie launches Friday, January 14 at 9p. The film picks up where the series, canceled after seven seasons with no closure for fans, left off.

The 59th annual MIPTV will take place in person in Cannes from April 4-6. A reformatted“business-efficient” schedule will have MIPFORMATS and MIPDOC – previously held the weekend prior to the market – rolled into the main MIPTV program in the Palais des Festivals.

Disney+ and HBO Max will share streaming windows for theatrical film “Ron’s Gone Wrong,” starting Wednesday, December 15. It’s one of select titles that will stream on both Disney+ and HBO Max via an amended output agreement running throughout the 2022 release year.

STREAMING

Crown Media Family Networks and Philo have reached an agreement on a multi-year partnership renewal, as Crown Media rolls out its holiday programming. “Our movies are currently leading Philo’s viewership charts, so we know there is great demand on the service for our content,” said Crown Media President & CEO, Wonya Lucas. “With this renewal agreement, we look forward to continuing to entertain Philo subscribers and bringing them more of the positive, feel-good Hallmark programming they know and love.”

With plans to develop 50 new “ad-friendly” shows for the A18-49 demo, Roku is taking pitches for scripted and unscripted series. The push for more originals is aimed at generating more ad revenue – the company sells 100% of the ads on its Roku Channel, versus 30% on content viewed on other apps on its platform.

TikTok TV has arrived on Samsung Smart TVs in the US. The TikTok TV app has been specifically created for a TV home-viewing experience, and includes a personalized “Discover” page. Available on all 2018 – 2021 Samsung Smart TVs, the app can be downloaded directly to Samsung Smart TV from the app store.

Cinedigm announced that The Bob Ross Channel has launched on IMDb TV. The painting channel is now available on all major FAST/AVOD platforms.

FAST channel generator Frequencey has partnered with video monitoring platform Interra Systems to enhance monitoring and quality assurance across Frequency’s network of linear SVoD channels. Through Interra’s ORION and ORION-OTT systems, Frequency will deploy real-time monitoring capabilities for its 24-hour IP and OTT content feeds.

AWARDS UPDATES

Scenic Artists Michael and Denise Okuda (“Star Trek” franchise) will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Art Directors Guild Awards, set for Saturday, March 5.

Nominees in television categories for the Casting Society of America’s 37th annual Artios Awards include “The Boys,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Mandalorian,” “Pose” and “This Is Us” for drama, and “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” “Call My Agent,” Pen15,” “The Kominsky Method,” “Shrill” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” for comedy.

TECH TALK

Despite congressional testimony to the contrary, Facebook continues to use maching learning to target ads to young people, says a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Reps. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) and Kathy Castor (D-Fla.). “Facebook explicitly stated it was committed to taking a ‘more precautionary approach’ in its advertising practices when it announced its policy change,” wrote the lawmakers. “Unfortunately, new research suggests that harmful advertising practices on Facebook continue.” In fact, Facebook does not use data from its advertisers’ and partners’ websites and apps to personalize ads to people under 18, responded Facebook spokesman Joe Osborne. Rather, “The reason this information shows up in our transparency tools is because teens visit sites or apps that use our business tools. We want to provide transparency into the data we receive, even if it’s not used for ads personalization.”

Netflix is acquiring special effects company Scanline VFX (“Cowboy Bebop”). The streamer will invest in Scanline’s pipeline, infrastructure and workforce “and continue to support the pioneering work that Scanline’s Eyeline Studios is doing in virtual production to push the boundaries of what is visibly possible,” wrote Netflix’s VP of Studio Operations Amy Reinhard in a company blog post.

Audience insights company Diesel Labs is formally launching the Audience Anticipation Index, a weekly ranking, fueled by TikTok and other social media data, of upcoming titles across the media landscape that are likely to garner the largest socially engaged audiences. “We are continuously evaluating the importance of emerging data sources,” said Anjali Midha, CEO and Co-Founder of Diesel Labs. “With 1 billion active global users, it’s clear that TikTok ranks among the most important environments that audiences are using to express their interest in and reactions to media content.”

Walmart and Yahoo have launched “Holiday with Heart,” featuring shoppable content and immersive capabilities from AR to add-to-cart functionality. This marks the companies’ third consecutive year partnering for the holidays.

GOING GLOBAL

French animation production and distribution company Dandelooo announced pre-sale deals for season two of pre-school series “Ernest and Célestine – The Collection.” Onboard are France TV, TV5 Monde, TVP (Poland), RTP (Portugal), DR (Denmark), Ceska TV (Czech Republic), RTBF (Belgium), CLS (Russia), HRT (Croatia), LTV (Latvia), RTVS (Slovenia), YLE (Finland) and RTS (French Speaking Switzerland).

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HGTV’s “Fixer to Fabulous” delivered its highest-rated season premiere on Tuesday, November 16, at 9p with a 0.66 Live+3 rating among P25-54, a 24% increase over its season two premiere. The rating among P25-54 was a 15% increase over year-ago levels and a 60% lift over the prior six weeks.

Shareablee Top 10 Streaming Shows for the week of November 15
Program, Platform, Total Actions, Total Content, Actions per Content, Fans & Followers
You (Netflix), 324k, 6, 54,017, 1.9m
Nanatsu No Taizai (Netflix), 319k, 91, 3,503, 992k
Netflix is a Joke (YouTube),301k, 37, 8,141, 2.4m
Trailer Park Boys (Netflix), 229k, 59, 3,879, 3.1m
Get Organized With The Home Edit (Netflix), 239k, 20, 11,968, 5.9m
The Witcher (Netflix), 228k, 5, 45,528, 1.9m
The Grand Tour (Prime Video), 220k, 8, 27,491, 5.9m
One Piece (Hulu), 196k, 17, 11,503, 3.8m
Queer Eye (Netflix), 180k, 4, 45,018, 2.7m
Red Table Talk (Facebook Watch), 170k, 17, 9,985, 6.1m

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Friday, November 19
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: Shark Tank 4.34 (0.7), 20/20 7.41 (1.0)
CBS: SWAT 3.28 (0.3), Magnum PI 5.17 (0.4), Blue Bloods 5.79 (0.5)
CW: Penn & Teller: Fool Us 0.68 (0.1), Nancy Drew 0.35 (0.0)
FOX: WWE Friday Night Smackdown 2.06 (0.5)
NBC: The Wall 2.21 (0.3), Dateline NBC 1.92 (0.3)
Telemundo: Por Amor o Por Dinero 0.79 (0.3), Hercai: Amor y Venganza 1.02 (0.3), Malverde: el Santo Patron 0.81 (0.3)
Univision: La Rosa de Guadalupe 1.39 (0.4), Vencer el Pasado 1.29 (0.4), La Desalmada 1.51 (0.4)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Scott M. Mills has been promoted to CEO of BET. Mills has spent four years as President of the brand.

Christina Spade, CFO of AMC Networks, is adding the role of Chief Operating Officer. Spade replaces Ed Carroll, whose exit from the company was announced earlier this year.

Digital collectible company Candy Digital hired Andre Llewellyn as its Chief Marketing Officer. Previously, Llewellyn helped spearhead the launches of Instagram Shopping and Instagram Stories.

Boom has appointed Hollie Abbott as Director of Development. Abbott joined the company as a Development Executive in 2020.

New hires at EarthxTV include Dan Russell, former VP of Channel Management at Curiosity Systems, as EVP of Content and Strategy; former Discovery exec Rose Stark as President of Marketing; and RideTV alums James Levitt and Mike Clark as EVP, Global Advertising Sales and EVP of Gobal Distribution, respectively.

American Public Television announced leadership changes effective December 17. Shawn Halford, VP of Exchange Content & Digital Services, has been promoted to the position of EVP, Content, and Vice President, Exchange & Digital Services, while Dan Soles has been named VP of Syndication & Premium Service, succeeding Eric Luskin, who will retire in late January 2022 after 25 years at APT. Soles was most recently VP of Programming at The Programming Service for Public Television.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
What was the name of the TV show where the title character worked on the short-lived comedy “Tabitha” (1977-1978)? “The Paul Thurston Show.” Kudos to: Charles Lore/NYC; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; Evan Williams-Roger Wilco Productions/New Canaan, CT; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo, CA; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton, FL

Today’s Trivia Question
Who recurred as Paul’s Uncle Phil on “Mad About You” (1992-99)? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four answers per time zone.)