Tag / CBS

by Frank Maduri

Summer TV Heats Up: Broadcast TV Ratings Review

The summer television season in the United States was once a barren terrain consisting of re-broadcasted programming from the main television ratings “sweeps periods”, also known as “reruns”. It has also been a time for some limited engagement mini-series type events, and when I was a child I remember ABC TV out of New York running children’s movies in primetime slots during the summer months. The other broadcast channels would use the primetime slots to broadcast “second run movies” during the week, and especially on Saturday nights from May through early September.

 

That dynamic then changed slightly to a situation where the “Big Four” networks (later adding CW Network, Univision, and My Network Television) would be comfortable in conceding the summer months to the cable networks. They would let the cable networks dominate the ratings without putting much effort into production of any new programming options.

 

Eventually, due to the growth of cable and satellite television providers, and the advent of internet streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon; the major networks decided to become real competitive players in the once dormant summer broadcasting period.

 

Summer Ratings Heat Up

 

The decision by the “Big Four” broadcasters (plus the CW network which skews towards the key summer demographic: kids, tweens, teens, and young adults all home from school) has created a scenario where the summer TV ratings and subsequent advertising dollars are becoming a growing ancillary revenue stream for the networks.

The timing of the decision about 4 years ago was right too, Americans were caught in the grip of an economic recession. Many families were forced to forego their usual summer vacation plans, and very hot periods of weather in the summer of 2010 and 2011 kept people indoors which drove up television viewership levels.

 

Each of the “Big Four” networks have, over the course of the past two to three years, developed their own “mainstay” show which drives their summer programming. Currently, it is 12 weeks into the summer television season (which begins the day after the May sweeps period ends) so I thought it would be an ideal time to review the ratings for this summer.

 

First, some background on each network and their approach to summer programming:

  • NBC – their approach at “the Peacock” to the summer months centers around two programs: America’s Got Talent (A.G.T.) and Night Shift. They run the A.G.T. talent search program on two nights: Tuesday (new content) and Wednesday (the results show). The show has been a huge success for the network and is a family friendly show which is appealing in the summer.
  • CBS – they bank their success on science fiction type programming to capture the interest of the crucial 18-49 ratings demographic with Under The Dome (which set summer ratings records for them in 2013) and a new program featuring Academy Award winning actress, Halle Berry, called Extant. The strategy at CBS, like everything else they do lately, has been very successful. Extant has the best ratings of any new show this summer. Then the long time mainstay program The Big Brother reality series came from out of nowhere to outperform expectations and become a huge hit for the network this summer.
  • ABC – the summer season is jump started by the NBA Finals with live sports television being the new gold standard for television ratings. This summer’s edition of basketball’s biggest series provided a huge ratings boost to the network with a 6.1 rating and a 20 share in the 18-49 demo per Nielsen. Then in mid-June (the NBA Finals ended on Father’s Day) the network shifts to their other summer centerpiece The Bachelor/Bachelorette reality series depending on where they are in that cycle. The summer of 2014 brought a Bachelorette series into the mix which ended up being the 8th most watched program in total viewers and made it into the Top 10 at the 10th spot of top ratings for the 18-49 age group with a 2.07 Nielsen rating.
  • FOX – their strategy was to reintroduce a short series run of their one-time hit show 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland, called 24 Live Another Day which is an action/suspense thriller type program. The strategy worked with the program in the Top 5 for overall viewers this summer. Their other featured summer program is the cooking competition series with the volatile and unpredictable celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey titled Master Chef.

 

Summer TV: By the Numbers

 

After 12 weeks, the summer TV ratings have solidified to the point where some finite results can be determined. The ratings from Nielsen are based on the total of 115.6 million television households in the United States with a single ratings point representing 1% or 1.156 million households tuned to the program. The share is the percentage of all the televisions in use during that time slot which are tuned to a specific program. In the most recent data from Nielsen, the ratings breakdown is as follows:

 

Total Ratings by Network:

  • ABC and NBC are tied at the top of the leader board in the total ratings with a 1.4 and a 5 share in the 18-49 demographic. However NBC has the edge between the two in total viewers with 5.48 million compared to ABC with 5.1 million – both figures for both respective networks are down 7% from last summer.
  • FOX is in third place, just barely, with a 1.2 rating and a 4 share of the 18-49 demographic which is down 14% from last summer.
  • CBS is in fourth place with a 1.1 rating and a 4 share of 18-49 which is down 8% from the summer of 2013. The silver lining is that CBS averages 5.83 million primetime viewers this summer, which demonstrates the trend of older viewers who tend to be loyal to the network.
  • CW Network (joint venture between CBS and Warner Brothers) is last with a 0.3 rating and 1 share of 18-49. However their total viewership number is 7% higher than last summer.

 

Top Shows by Total Viewers

 

  1. America’s Got Talent (Tuesday) =         12.5 million average
  2. America’s Got Talent (Wednesday)=   10.3 million average
  3. Under The Dome    =                                  10.1 million average
  4. Extant                        =                                  9 million average (best new show)
  5. 24: Live Another Day        =                      8.55 million average
  6. Night Shift                            =                      8.3 million average
  7. Unforgettable                     =                      7.65 million average
  8. Bachelorette                        =                      7.35 million average
  9. Big Brother  (Sunday)       =                      7 million average
  10.  Big Brother (Wednesday) =                   7 million average

 

Top Shows in 18-49 demographic

The following are the top shows in the 18-49 demographic which is important to note because while another show might have more total viewers, the shows that rank highly in this list can charge more for advertising time which generates more revenue for the network.  This list is calculated by overall 18-49 group rating:

 

  1. America’s Got Talent (Tuesday) = 3.1
  2. Big Brother (Thursday) =                            2.49
  3. Big Brother (Sunday) =                  2.45
  4. Big Brother (Wednesday) =         2.43
  5. Under the Dome =                         2.43
  6. 24: Live Another Day =                2.39
  7. America’s Got Talent (Wed.) =    2.38
  8. Master Chef =                                 2.31
  9. Hell’s Kitchen =                               2.16
  10.  Bachelorette =                               2.07
  11.  American Ninja Warrior =         1.92
  12.  So You Think You Can Dance=  1.84
  13.  Night Shift =                                   1.83
  14.  Extant =                                           1.68

 

Analysis

 

The cursory review of these results provides apparent conclusions on the demographics of certain programs. A show such as Big Brother is at the bottom of the Top 10 in overall viewers, yet it compromises the second, third, and fourth place slots in the 18-49 demographic which aptly reflects the younger audience for the program.

 

Stephen King’s science fiction concept, Under the Dome, is third in overall viewers with a whopping 10.1 million viewers for a summer show, but it ranks 5th in the 18-49 demo with a 2.43 rating. That reflects two issues, a stronger viewership in older viewers which is interesting given the content of the show, and a loss in viewers that is trending downward. The show has been killing off popular cast members, causing some viewers, my wife and I included, to discontinue viewership of the program.

 

The reboot of Jack Bauer’s character in 24: Live Another Day is 5th in overall viewers and 6th in 18-49 aged viewers which demonstrates the appeal to that demographic almost exclusively.

The ABC reality series The Bachelorette, is 8th in total viewers and 10th in the 18-49 category proving that the program appeals to a range of audiences including an older audience of people over 50. This series is the only top 10 program for ABC and it hurts the network because they cannot sell advertising time for the show anywhere near the rates that the other 3 networks can command.  NBC has A.G.T. which is the top show in 18-49 ratings, CBS has Big Brother which is a powerhouse show for the target demographic as well as Under The Dome, and FOX has 24 which is 6th in the coveted 18-49 ratings.

 

Finally, the group of shows Extant, Unforgettable, and Night Shift are great examples of programs that receive excellent overall ratings and limited to no 18-49 demographic support. Extant pulls down an average of 9 million viewers, yet it is fourteenth on the 18-49 list. Night Shift on NBC is very similar with 8.3 million total viewers and a thirteenth place showing in the 18-49 bracket. Unforgettable on CBS is the 7th most watched show of the summer and is not anywhere near the top 15 in the 18-49 group meaning that the majority of those viewers are older based on the time slot and data, they are not younger than 18.

 

Summer Ratings Outlook

 

The data is clear, the broadcast networks have come to compete with the cable networks and the internet streaming services for viewers and ratings. Some of the networks have been pretty innovative in producing limited summer series which have captured viewers, others have gone the reality show route or the talent competition route to draw in viewers.

 

This data proves that many Americans enjoy watching television and demand more choices and options, even in the summer time. The data has even driven some networks to end their summer series during the same week their Fall television programs are set to premiere. A few years ago that decision would have been unthinkable.

It is also apparent from this summer television data that whether you are watching Jack save the day on 24, Big Jim and the next problem the dome will dish out on Under the Dome, Halle Berry’s struggles with re-entry from a long “solo” mission in space on Extant, or the next contestant to move forward on America’s Got Talent; summer television programming is here to stay.

 

The summer television terrain is no longer a place for second run movies and rebroadcasts of earlier programs, it is a place dominated by new content and original programming. That is a welcome change for both the networks and the viewers.

 

(Ratings data, demographic data, advertising revenue data, total TV market/share data courtesy of AC Nielsen, Ad Age, The Wire, and TV Guide.com)

 

by Frank Maduri

TV Wars: Aveo Loses Supreme Court Decision – Follow Up

In a follow up to a previous piece I did on this blog entitled “TV Wars”, the Supreme Court ruled today that the service known as Aveo should be required to pay licensing fees to broadcasters in order to display copyrighted programming. Aveo is a service that transmits broadcasts of TV programming over the Internet via their technology, which subscribers pay a fee to utilize.

 

The argument from Aveo’s side was that their service did not broadcast the programming to everyone over the Internet that the programming was provided only to their subscribers, who paid a fee to receive the service. Since it is not a public broadcast, then they should not be required to pay the licensing fee. The argument continued that they merely rented a small broadcast antenna to each of their subscribers to access the copyrighted programming, which should not require that they (Aveo) pay a licensing fee to the broadcasters.

 

The Supreme Court disagreed, they ruled that the Aveo service was just like a cable television service, which under the current system, are required to pay licensing fees to broadcasters in order to display copyrighted programming. Therefore, Aveo will be required to pay licensing fees to the broadcasters, which they cannot afford to do.

 

It is important to note that if the Court had ruled in favor of the current setup of Aveo, it would have completely altered the landscape of the television industry. A favorable ruling for Aveo would most definitely trigger the major cable television players to develop Internet based antenna rental services similar to Aveo in order to circumnavigate the payment of licensing fees.

 

A favorable ruling for Aveo also would have created a situation where the network television broadcasters would stand to lose huge amounts of licensing fee revenues. It would have created an environment where many people would continue to cancel their cable television plans, known as “cord cutting”, which would have created losses of revenue for the big cable television service providers such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

 

Status Quo

 

Instead, the ruling today effectively retains the current system and most likely marks the end of the Aveo service. Their CEO essentially stated that the ruling makes their business model unviable moving forward. The technology that Aveo developed does have an inherent value, which the ownership of Aveo will have to determine if they are going to sell off to an interested party in the future.

 

The ruling today by the highest court in the land also purposefully went out of the way to create a distinguishable difference between the Aveo service and other Internet based entertainment providing services and cloud based services. It is unclear at this point if they went far enough to make that differentiation and only future judiciary activity will determine that scenario.

 

This portion of the ruling opinion of the high court would deal with only certain new technologies and not others that I had mentioned in my original article on this topic. The larger internet based entertainment programming services providers such as Netflix and Amazon already pay huge licensing fees to the broadcasters and movie production companies to obtain the rights to stream copyrighted programming to their subscribers.

 

Big Business

 

In fact, the recent agreement between Amazon and HBO which provides the Amazon Direct internet streaming service with the exclusive rights to a huge catalog of HBO produced series was a deal with significant impact for everyone involved. Those types of exclusive streaming rights deals will only continue in the future, as the popularity of services such as Netflix, Amazon, and now Google’s Fire TV will continue to increase their respective subscriber bases.

 

These types of exclusive rights deals with the big internet streaming services provide a huge injection of revenue dollars to the broadcasters and the networks involved such as HBO or CBS. In fact, CBS syndicates and produces so many different series across a variety of networks that their stock increased on the news of the favorable Supreme Court ruling today.

 

In my view, that is what I take away from the decision today by the Supreme Court that the consumer in some ways is the loser here too. The Aveo service, as the dissenting opinion of the Court explained, was not providing a public display of content rather the service was provided to subscribers. Therefore, the three dissenting and more conservative justices felt that the subscription fee negated the need for Aveo to pay licensing fees to the broadcasters.

 

The Dissent

 

I would tend to agree with the dissenting opinion, the Aveo service was providing the consumer with another option to view broadcast television programming. It was providing choice and fostering competition in the Internet subscription based entertainment space. This decision is going to dismantle Aveo, and in many ways destroys the very ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit which America should espouse.

 

I think of all the time, money, and energy that the employees and developers at Aveo dedicated to designing and marketing their service, which is a unique technology, and I think the Court ruling sends the wrong message to the small business owner or the entrepreneur. This type of service should be promoted and not dismantled, other business owners could see this news today and decide not to move forward with a new product or an idea for a new service, and that can and will be detrimental to our collective best interest in American society.

 

However, it should also be noted that I am in no way in favor of a service that would infringe upon the copyright protections that these broadcasters and networks operate within. The networks and television broadcasting industry spends a significant amount of money on the production and the copyright legal protections for their programming. I am in no way promoting a service which would violate any copyrighted programming and broadcast these programs to a general public audience in violation of federal laws.

 

In relative terms, as a writer, if someone took my copyrighted written material and put it out into the general public in a way which misrepresented me and violated my rights that would be a huge issue. However, that was not the issue at hand here, because the subscription fee and the manner in which the programming was presented by Aveo with integrity made this case a difficult one for the judiciary system necessitating a ruling from the Supreme Court.

 

This decision effectively rewards the big broadcasting companies and eliminates a source of competition for the huge cable television operators. We should be fostering competition in the marketplace, yet between mergers and acquisitions and increased regulatory activity, the government is eliminating competition from our marketplace. This type of activity could prove ultimately detrimental, as we have seen in the course of history with monopolies in various industries in the past.

 

This ruling today is being reported by the media that it has moved the TV landscape into a state of clarity and removed some ambiguity. I disagree with that sentiment, I think the ruling today was only the beginning of another mountain of litigation driven by the broadcasters and networks and the groups which represent their collective interests with the goal of elimination of competition from the marketplace.

 

This ruling did not push our court system towards the end of the TV wars, in fact, I would argue, it is just the beginning.

 

 

(Some background information courtesy of Yahoo! News)

by Frank Maduri

Current Marketing Trends in Broadcast Television

I spent some time over the past few nights catching up on the hit summer TV series “Under the Dome”, thanks to the Amazon Instant Video service. This series, based on the book by Stephen King, has been a huge success for CBS, and according to the Nielsen ratings, it is the number one scripted TV series this summer.

 

So I began to think as I watched the various characters from “Under the Dome” such as Barbie, “Big Jim”, Angie, Norrie, and Junior: what makes this show a hit? I think it is a combination of an interesting plot, neat special effects, and some good character development.

 

The series also delivers something else: the “it” factor among the key demographic of 18-34 year old viewers. The “Dome” also has a huge social media buzz, which is vital to capturing that demographic.

 

The success of “Under the Dome” is a good case study in the future of broadcast television marketing. Personally, I have my wife to thank for getting me into the show because initially I had no real interest in watching it.  It made me think about how the marketing of television programming has evolved, and will continue to do so in the future.

 

NBC says “Me too”

 

Anyone who has worked in marketing, as I have, is familiar with the “me too” approach. A product or a concept is launched and is met with success, so the competition lines up in those instances to launch a similar product or concept.

In this case, due to the success of CBS with Stephen King’s “Under the Dome”, now NBC and their programming chief, Bob Greenblatt, announced that they will be running a new version of Stephen King’s “Tommyknockers” during the upcoming TV season.

 

This news and the news on some other mini-series launches were covered by The Hollywood Reporter, who also reported the announcement that NBC had hired Quinn Taylor away from ABC to run their mini-series and “longform” programming. This move is significant because Mr. Taylor has worked on previous Stephen King mini-series projects (www.hollywoodreporter.com).

 

The other mini-series projects announced by NBC include:

  • Mark Burnett produced series sequel to “The Bible” series which aired on The History Channel during Lent
  • Hilary Clinton project with Diane Lane playing the former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State
  • A re-make of Rosemary’s Baby based on the wildly popular book and movie

 

Now, in fairness to NBC, Mr. Greenblatt has stated his commitment for a long time now to limited series, special event, and live television programming. I have written previous articles about the need to make changes to the marketing and promotion of broadcast television programming, the limited series approach is one strategy which could be successful in delivering increased ratings.

 

Along those same lines, NBC is going to air a special event quiz show, which will run continuously for a certain number of days streaming over their website. The quiz show will air a segment in prime time each night over the course of the event, and will be hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

 

Finally, NBC is expanding their commitment to live sports television programming by landing the U.S. broadcast rights to the English Premier League soccer games. They will air games live on NBC and the NBC Sports Network. The network will also continue their exclusive coverage of the Olympics with the Winter Games in February 2014.

 

A Changing Landscape

 

I have written previously about the changing landscape of television, and the plethora of devices and services which provide content streaming over the internet.

 

The premium cable channels such as Starz and Encore have expanded their own production on original series and mini-series programming. The entry of subscription content providers, such as Netflix, producing their own original series content has added further competition to the major networks.

 

Some media analysts believe that the network TV model of the 24 episode season running from September to May, with the break at the holidays and the traditional “sweeps” periods may be an outdated timetable.

 

The success of series in the summer months, such as the before mentioned “Under the Dome” further forces the analysts, the network executives, and the advertising industry to think about changes to the traditional model for broadcast television.

 

An economy still in recession, and the rising costs of other entertainment choices, left many families at home this summer which lead to a rise in TV viewership. Overall, the major networks all declined in ratings last year, especially in the key demographics, according to Nielsen. Each network has a different strategy to get their share of those viewers back.

 

Fall Strategy

 

The strategy at CBS is to stay with their lineup with minimal changes, they are the top broadcast channel by total viewership and their hit shows (NCIS, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, The Good Wife, The Mentalist, Person of Interest, and The Amazing Race) are well known and well established shows.

 

The biggest new entry for the network is the return of Robin Williams to television in “The Crazy Ones” which they are heavily promoting. I think that the viewers are going to find the concept of the show as really underutilizing Williams’ acting talents, and the show will not be successful.

 

I will quantify that statement by reminding you that to be a successful new program at CBS you have to draw a huge number of viewers because they are the top network. It is easier to be a new show on a lower ranked network than to be a new show on the top network. CBS cancelled “Vegas” and it averaged 16 million viewers! That would be considered one of the best shows on one of the other major networks.

 

The strategy at NBC was detailed earlier, but the peacock network also wants to reclaim the Thursday night top comedy night spot from CBS. Their strategy to achieve this objective is to bring back Sean Hayes and Michael J. Fox to their own respective new comedy projects for primetime Thursday slots.

 

I believe that “The Michael J. Fox Show” will be a successful concept, but other critics think it will fail because it is a comedy that deals with Parkinson’s disease, which could be objectionable to some viewers. I think the very loyal fans of Mr. Fox will support the show and keep it on the airwaves.

 

I believe Mr. Hayes and his concept will be unsuccessful, and that NBC overall will still lose the Thursday night ratings war to CBS.

 

The strategy at ABC is to continue with their established programs (“Grey’s Anatomy”, “Once Upon A Time”, and “Modern Family”) while adding some new concepts such as: “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland”, and “Betrayal”.

 

The critics are mostly not enthusiastic for the other new shows they plan to introduce, and I think that ABC has relied too heavily on the fantasy angle with “Once..”, and on shows with a great deal of negative plot lines such as “Revenge”, “Scandal”, and “Betrayal”.

 

In the end, the networks will be challenged by the changing demographics and how the average viewer uses various technologies to view TV programming and content. The main objective will be innovation, and some luck, which will determine which network will land the next “it” show concept like “Under the Dome”. We will know more by the mid-season point which network was successful in marketing that concept.