Wow! Grab Grabix!

November 3rd, 2009

Here is a first for me - I am really impressed with a new product from Nielsen.  Usually I am at odds with the ratings service for poor sampling, having a monopoly (with the inherent high prices) - the list goes on.  But they are now offering a new service in metered markets that blew me away during a demo last week.

It is called Grabix.  Finally local TV stations can make sense of those overnights through this daily minute-by-minute recap of audio and video from all newscasts in the market.  The service displays a minute-by-minute ratings graph across the top of the page with video of all newscasts stacked below that with graphs that show where viewers are going and coming from.   So, instead of guessing why you lost viewers at 6:21 p.m. you can see what your newscast and the competition were doing at that very minute.

It also has a nifty feature that allows you to quickly email a clip to anyone.   For instance, let’s say you have been telling your anchors to keep their chit-chat quick and focused during the morning newscasts.   You go on Grabix and see an exchange that goes too long, and causes meter tune-out.   With one click you can email not only the video clip, but the meter graphic to those anchors for instant feedback.

You get the video clips and minute-by-minute information the next day, and on the second day you get additional charts showing where the gains and losses where during each minute as well as closed-captioning of all the newscasts.  The closed-captioning feature opens up a number of other options with Grabix.

With the closed captioning you can do an amazing word search.  Let’s say, for instance, you want to see how quickly the news audience lost interest in the Balloon Boy story.  You search the key word - Balloon Boy - and quickly get a list of all mentions of those two words in your newscasts over the past 3-to-7 days.  You can scroll down the page and not only see what the copy said, but also the household ratings while the story was on your air on that day as well as seeing the video seven minutes on either side of that particular slice of copy.   The page is filled with your copy on the Balloon Boy with the date and time each reference was made.   It is a great tool.

This instant side-by-side comparison of your newscasts and the competition is a powerful weapon.    The best part is your staff can be trained and explore Grabix in a myriad of ways without asking NSI to run some special ratings info that usually comes back with graphics that are difficult - if not impossible - to easily analyze.  

I have just touched on what I think are the best parts of this new service.   Here is the list of possibilities from Nielsen’s Grabix web site:

• See which elements of your news are attracting viewers or losing them
• Determine what type of audience your lead-in program delivered
• Assess your audience’s reaction to topics, guests and break-aways
• Schedule breaks and teasers for optimal results
• Compare how other stations are covering news stories in your market
• Compare your program content and audience delivery with your competition
• Search for and retrieve news clips with ratings
• Analyze audience movement more easily
• Evaluate on-air talent in your market
• Document success, proving your news was first with the story

Now, while many of those items may be possible, I do need to add some caution here.  Just as you have to guess what might have caused a tune-out during the old minute-by-minute breakouts - Grabix also requires some interpetation.   Yes, you did drop at a certain point, and you can see what was on your air versus what the competition was airing at the same time - but did your rating drop because of the content, the anchor, the story telling?   Even with this improved service there remains some guess work.  That’s why we believe it is a service that should augment your AR&D research and partnership with your strategist.   Strategy will be set based on the opportunities seen in the research - and Grabix can help us make decisions on whether it is working - based on many factors.

With that caution - it is a very cool new idea.

Jim

Posted in Willi | No Comments »

The Multi-Media Train has left the station - but most TV staffs are not on it!

October 15th, 2009

Over 40% of television station general managers “don’t know” if their property is turning a profit on the web!   That’s the most incredible finding of a just-released RTNDA/Hofstra University study.   At AR&D we have been pushing our clients hard to offer news on multiple platforms - and to make the entire news department responsible for that content.   My client stations are moving smartly forward with multi-platform news.   But apparently nearly half of the TV stations in the country have missed the multi-media train as it roars down the tracks leaving them far behind.

When the study asked about news staff contribution to multi-platform news - only 38% of the news directors said “most of the staff contributes.”  A whopping 48% said they “have a long way to go.”    In fact, nearly 4-out-of-10 news directors said that they were “comfortable that their station was really on top of the new technology.”

When it comes to the exploding world of social media - only 41% of the stations say they integrate social media on their website.  But another 36% have their collective heads in the sand - saying they do not have a station Facebook page or Twitter.

This lack of vision and leadership at half of the television stations in the country offers your station a great opportunity to quickly, and effectively sprint ahead of the competition.  If you are at a loss on how to do it - take a look at our book - “Live, Local, Broken News,” - or give me a call - we’d be happy to help.

Jim

Posted in Willi | No Comments »

Continuous News Works For WLEX-TV!

October 5th, 2009

For years, AR&D’s 2.0 guru Terry Heaton has been espousing the value of offering continuous news on your TV station web site.   We touted the idea in our new book - “Live, Local, Broken News” - saying that a local TV station must be in the “Finished” (scheduled newscasts) news business, and the “Unfinished” (constantly updated news on the web, mobile devices etc.) news business at the same time.

Well, our Lexington client - WLEX-TV - has proven the value of continuous news in a big way.  For the first three weeks of September, www.LEX18.com  had been averaging a little over 52,000 page views a day by 19,000 visitors.  The average time-on-site was 2-minutes-58-seconds. 

LEX18 launched continuous news on September 22nd and from that day to the end of September the average time-on-site shot up to   4-minutes-46 seconds.  That’s a whopping 215% increase!   The page views increased 36% to nearly 71,000 per day, and the number of daily visitors ballooned by 25%.   All this was done without an on-air marketing campaign.

LEX18 News Director Bruce Carter says they are still in the midst of training the entire news staff to contribute to their continuous news effort. Right now between 10-to-15 people write web stories on a daily basis and they average about 60 stories a day - with 90 being the most ever posted in one day.   Bruce says at this point about half of the staff has been trained.

Bruce says the really encouraging sign of the power of continuous news driving web traffic and time spent on the site, is that there have not been any big news stories so far.  They are making these gains without one huge story driving people to their site.

On Friday, October 2nd, WLEX promoted their continuous news for the first time with a spot that encourages viewers to “Log on and leave it on, all day long.”  Friday’s time spent on site zoomed to an average of 6-minutes-1 second - the highest so far.  On Saturday the time-on-site was a very strong 5-minutes-48-seconds.

Carter expects those numbers to keep rising once the entire news staff is trained and posting stories.  Check out the site for yourself at www.LEX18.com - the colorful headline banners catch your attention - and the continuous river of news keeps you reading for a long time.

Jim

Posted in Willi | 2 Comments »

Leno Tanks In Week 2 - Late News Mixed Bag

September 28th, 2009

Jay Leno’s ratings, as expected, tanked as season premieres hit the other networks in the second week of his new program.  But while Leno’s numbers fell of a cliff, the late news numbers of the NBC affiliates I am tracking were both up and down.

For the second week of the Jay Leno Show the program was either third or fourth in the ratings for every day last week.  But just as in week one of the program - it seems that most viewers tend to be late news viewers.  Retention numbers into the late newscasts for those NBC affiliates were pretty strong once again.

For instance, in the Greenville-Spartanburg market the Jay Leno Show ratings fell a whopping 108% from week one to week two - but the NBC affiliate’s late newscast in that market was actually up 10% from the debut week.   In Ft. Myers Leno dropped 72% from his first week on the air, but the NBC station in that Florida market saw its late news ratings grow by 18%.

It was a different story in the LPM (Local People Meter) markets that we are tracking.    In Seattle, the Leno program dropped by 121% on KING-TV from the first week with 25-54 year-olds, and KING’s late newscast was down 13% in that key demo from Leno’s debut week.  In Tampa, Leno’s show fell by 72% in the 25-54 demo from week one to week two, and WFLA’s late newscast dropped by 18% in the key demo from the week before.

So that is my snapshot of a few metered markets across the country.  We’ll let the program settle in for awhile, and then give you another update on these markets in a month.

Jim

Posted in Willi | No Comments »

Leno’s First Week Rollercoaster Ride

September 21st, 2009

Jay Leno’s new primetime program had a strong first night - as expected - but the rest of his first week was a rollercoaster ride.   I am tracking his overnight numbers in some select markets - four of them with only Household meters, and two markets that show the 25-54 demo each night.  I think it will give us a good snapshot of Leno’s performance over the next few weeks.

The household only overnight markets are in Columbus, Ohio; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Ft. Myers, Florida; and Greemville-Spartanburg.    The two markets with the 25-54 overnights are Seattle and Tampa.

Overall, Leno’s number spiked up on Monday and Wednesday - and spiked down the rest of the week.  His average HH number (in my 4-market sample) for the week was 7.58.  That included a 10.2 average HH number on Monday that dropped to a 4.85 HH on Friday.  The encouraging news for NBC affiliates in my little sample is that they retained an average of 85% of that audience into their late newscasts.

In the two markets (Seattle and Tampa) that have the LPM’s - the Leno show averaged a 4.83 for the week in the 25-54 demo.  If memory serves that is a better number than usual NBC primetime fare in the past few months.  The 25-54 retention rate into the late newscast in those two markets was quite a bit lower than the HH markets at 58%.  But at 2.82 it was a little higher than normal for those two NBC affiliates at 11 p.m.

It is early - but it appears that the audience fluctuation may be higher than most pundits predicted.  The numbers jumped around all week.  In the HH markets the Leno numbers looked like this - 10.2 on Monday, 7.5 on Tuesday, back up to a 9.52 on Wednesday when Robin Williams was on the program, before dropping like a rock to a 5.85 on Thursday, and falling further to a 4.85 on Friday.  It is only the first week - but it looks like the popularity of the guest may affect the HH numbers each night.

Now, there is one important thing to keep in mind.  Last week - all of the networks were still in re-runs.  This week is premiere week and the big guns will be firing at Leno every night with lots of hype and special episodes.  We’ll let you know how it goes in our tracking sample next week.

Jim

Posted in Willi | No Comments »

C’mon Move That Key Demo to 30-to-60!

August 31st, 2009

I am standing tall on my soapbox once again shouting loudly that it is time to move the key TV sales demo far beyond 18-49, or even 25-54 to 30-to-60 years old!   And, it has nothing to do with me personally, as sadly, I am not in that demo anymore either.

I have been suggesting this to my client general managers for years - and they salivate at the idea.  As I wrote in my blog in June of 2008 - those Americans over 50 have real money to spend - the highest level of disposal income.  Oh, and they watch more television too.  But the neophyte buyers who only know how to read the numbers 18-to-49 in Neilsen books have no clue about that.

Now comes a new study of televison viewing by Steve Sternberg who reports that “the five broadcast networks average live median age this year (not counting DVR usage) was 51-years-old” - cracking the 50 barrier for the first time.   That is a huge eight year upswing from ten years ago.

When you factor in delayed DVR viewing, CBS’s average viewer is 54, ABC prime is at 50 years old, and NBC is at 47 (with Leno’s new show expected to spike that number higher beginning in September).   Fox prime averages 44 years old, and the CW, with its limited viewership, is at 33 year-old.

The ages of live viewers (excluding DVR watching) for all five major networks are at their highest levels ever.  As expected CBS leads the parade with an average age of 55 - the first time they have left the 25-54 demo.  ABC was right behind them with an average age of 51, with NBC at 49.  The Fox viewers average 46, and the CW fandom average 34 years old.

That’s alot of numbers but the bottomline is simple:  It is time to increase the target demographic for advertisers to a more realistic 30-to-60 years old.  Have they forgotten that huge Baby Boomer bubble of viewers that continues merrily on its way to 60 and beyond?   If so, it is time to face reality!

I’ve said it before - and I’m saying it again - C’mon join me in the crusade to raise the key demo to 30-to-60 years old - your bottomline will love you for it.

Jim

Posted in Willi | No Comments »

Going after the Nielsen monopoly (again!).

August 23rd, 2009

So, did you see where a number of media companies and some top advertisers have committed millions of dollars to develop their own multi-media ratings measurement system?   They have even brought in a few advertising heavy hitters this time around - top-spender Procter & Gamble, as well as third-place spender AT&T, plus Unilever.  Others, of course, have announced plans before to try to topple the elitist Nielsen monolith  - and failed miserably.

The new consortium, which includes Time Warner, CBS, Viacom, NBC Universal, Disney and Discovery put out the standard line that they are not “out to replace Nielsen.”  Yeah- I’m sure that’s the case.  Why would you want to come up with your own system instead of paying Nielsen millions and millions of dollars so they can ignore your concerns?

There is a new driver this time though - the consortium says there is “no single source measurement for TV and digital video.”  Nielsen, of course, responds they are working on this with it fully operational by 2011.  Ah, huh! 

The new consortium hopes to have their ratings measurement system up and running by the fourth quarter of 2009.  They plan on using set-top box data and cross-platform viewers who use both TV and digital video.

As always, it will be an interesting battle to watch.  Can someone finally topple the monopoly that is NSI?   A monopoly, by the way, that uses a national sample of a whopping (he writes facetiously) 18,000 homes!

But there is a hidden message that all local TV broadcasters should be picking up on.  The goal is to marry a way to measure BOTH television viewing, and to gain a more accurate measurement of all the portable devices that deliver video today - and the many more that will deliver it in the very near future.

If you are not providing, or working on a plan, to put your local news on all these devices - than the big advertisers will only be measuring your station on its broadcast signal - and you will be missing out on not only thousands of viewers/users of your product - but all those precious advertising dollars as well.

That big ole portable device train is roaring down the tracks - has it already passed you by?

Jim

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

You Tube’s “News Near You”

August 9th, 2009

So, have you heard about You Tube’s new News Near You feature that senses your location and serves up a list of relevant videos?  They are partnering with local TV stations to obtain that video - so they can compete with you.  At least that was my immediate reaction until I talked with AR&D 2.0 guru Terry Heaton.

Now You Tube says this partnership will produce a new revenue source for TV stations - although at this time - the cash flow seems miniscule.  So, shouldn’t local TV newscasts be concerned about this latest ploy by a national Internet competitor?   Again that was my reaction until Terry said to me, “that’s where your mass market mindset can trip you out.”   That’s a nice way to tell me to quit thinking in the past.

Terry Heaton says he “absolutely believes” our clients should be  partnering with You Tube in this venture.  The main reason, Terry says, “it is an audience that we will never reach any other way.”   He points out that You Tube is the world’s second biggest search engine, and “they can’t find us if we’re not on there.”

OK, I can buy that argument - but just like when local stations started providing news on CNN - it means we are giving away our biggest strength - localism - that drives viewers to our TV station websites.  Again, Terry shot holes in my thinking.  He says, there is no evidence that supports that assumption, and that “there is plenty of evidence that the audience of You Tube is happy to stay right where they are.  So the reality is we are dismissing an entire generation because they have no interest in coming to TV station web sites.”    The clear implication is - the You Tubers simply have no interest in going to your local TV web site - but if your videos play on You Tube they might trip across your newscast - or start to have at least a video relationship with your news product.

Terry also offers a hard economic argument for partnering with You Tube to show your local newscast video.   While the payments may be tiny now the money will grow - and when it does - it will go to those stations that are participating and partnering with You Tube.

So there you have it.  The advice to me - and you  - is get your head out of the past - and plunge it directly into the future.  It is all about being everywhere possible on the Internet - and You Tube is a highly visible place to be.

Jim

Posted in Willi | No Comments »

Add Texts Along With Your Tweets

July 29th, 2009

Local TV news is enamored with Twitter right now.  That’s good - but - are you missing an even bigger way to connect with your viewers?    Are you interacting with your viewers by texting?   My informal research shows few local TV news station are using this very popular social media tool in an aggressive manner.   Sure - your station may have people sign up for weather and news alert texts - but what about daily conversations?  What about an interactive relationship?

Check out the numbers.   Pew research shows about 11% of American adults use Twitter.  That number is around 20% for those aged 18-to-34.  But only 10% of those aged 35-44 use Twitter, and the number falls to 5% for those 45-to-54-year-olds.

An Online Harris Poll shows less than 5% of the American population has used Twitter.    A Harvard Business School study projected that most Twitter users send one Tweet in their lifetime!

Compare those numbers to Text messaging.  Nielsen Mobile research shows that 18-to-24-year-olds text an average of 790 messages a month - compared to making 265 phone calls on their cell phone.   Nielsen says the numbers for everyone who owns a cell phone - covering young people to the older crowd - show that they send 357 text messages a month compared to making 204 cell phone calls.  Those are huge numbers.

So my message is this - make a big push to begin a texting relationship with your viewers that goes beyond the occasional news or severe weather alert.  Your reporters and producers should be sending out short - very short - one or two sentences at the most - updates to viewers throughout the day.  You get them to opt in to this service - the same way that you got them to sign up for the news and weather alerts.

This texting relationship will also turn into a two-way communication as your viewers begin to let you know about traffic delays, breaking news etc.   Yes, it may be a little more difficult to set-up than Twitter - but it is a “target rich” environment.   It is a segment of social media that you cannot afford to ignore. 

Jim

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Want Viewers? Update Your Late Newscast

July 15th, 2009

Viewers keep complaining that late newscasts are filled with too much repetition.   In fact, repetition is their #1 complaint about all television newscasts.   It is especially important in your late newscasts - a place where viewers want to be updated on all the important news of the day in a manner that does not waste their time.

This repitition issue was driven home to me when I recently tackled the task of watching every newscast, on every station in five medium to large markets.  By the late newscast I could almost tell you verbatim what the anchor was going to say during the lead-in to the story, if not in the body of the story itself.   It seems that cutting and pasting is a new skill for television producers to ply every day.

But repitition from one television newscast to the next is not really the biggest problem these days.  Only about half of all viewers watch both an early evening, and late newscast the same day.   The repitition issue is huge  because most viewers hear about local and national stories on their car radios, from co-workers, by checking the Internet, on their mobile device, by text alerts on their cell phones - the list goes on and on.

So, when they settle down in front of the tube to watch your late newscast  they expect - indeed demand - that you update those stories and give them new information that they did not see on the Internet during lunch.   But you don’t.  They are disappointed every night because there is no real effort to add new information - or to simply write the lead with a “looking ahead” bent to it.  And you wonder why TV news viewership is eroding.

Please don’t give me excuses like - “we have reduced staffing,” or “there is really nothing new on that story.”   Your once loyal viewers don’t want to hear it - they simply want you ro give them the most updated newscast in the market.   Updating is the most important task for your late news producers.

How do you do it?   Assign your anchors to make follow-up calls on important stories of the day.  It is time they stepped up to the plate.  Ask yourself - “what is the most important new thing viewers want to know about this story” - and then answer it in your copy.  

The same is true of the beginning of the newscast.  How do you grab the viewers who are reaching for the “off” button that you have new, fresh and updated information that is worth an investment of their time?   Read your copy - if it does not meet this simple test - re-write it and give it some impact.

It is critical that you ban REPITITION from your newscasts - especially the late newscasts.

Jim

Posted in Willi | No Comments »