Happy New Year to all. To kick off 2021, I’ve provided quick takes below on some of the bigger stories we’ll be watching
WME v. WGA
Just before Christmas, CAA closed a deal with the Writers Guild regarding phasing out of package commissions and partial divestiture of its ownership of production entities. That left WME
In another controversial move, the FCC has approved by a 3-2 vote the adoption of the ATSC 3.0 standard for broadcast TV, known as Next Gen TV. This IP-based standard will permit over-the-air broadcasters to offer Ultra High Definition signals and improve mobile transmission. Sounds good, right? Opponents cite two concerns.
The upfront selling season is when broadcast networks sell the majority of their advertising inventory. That season kicks off this week as the networks present their fall schedules to advertisers in lavishly staged events. The networks have been losing viewers to online platforms steadily for years, particularly younger viewers in the coveted 18-49 demographic. Ad
The TV manufacturer Vizio agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission and the State of New Jersey over its data collection practices.
The lawsuit alleged that the company’s internet-connected smart TVs were recording exactly what consumers
The social media wars rage on, as apps invest heavily in new features to grab and hold their fickle young audiences. Snapchat seems to have developed a knack for introducing enticing features that are also attractive to advertisers.
I recently blogged about Snapchat’s geofilters
On February 18, the FCC opened a rulemaking process to deregulate the cable set top box. Currently, cable, satellite and telco multi-system operators (MSOs) require subscribers to use only boxes they furnish. These are generally rented to subscribers at an average cost per household of $231 per year. The proposed regulations would permit consumers to
I had lunch recently with an executive at one of the largest multiplatform networks. He expressed the opinion that the television advertising market would collapse if advertisers had accurate data regarding the extent to which DVR-equipped viewers are skipping ads. This may or may not be true, but it is the case that measurement of
Expect to see more television networks and social media joining forces to sell ad space. The latter get the benefit of TV’s decades-old web of relationships with media buyers. The former get to package social media buys together with their own commercial spots. It’s the rare marketing campaign that doesn’t include both traditional and online
On June 15, the LA Times reported on an innovative way that Snapchat is monetizing its popular ephemeral messaging service–sponsored geofilters. Snapchat already lets users add backgrounds to their selfies that are specific to the user’s location. The effect is like a photo booth image of the user in front of a picture postcard image.
According to this story from Forbes, advertisers are already getting excited about feeding ads to consumers through their virtual reality headsets. As advertising largely funded the internet explosion (and television before it), this interest will likely spur development of content for what is, at best, a nascent medium.