Today's TV Top 10

TV biz in a basket for you. If you care about the TV business like we do and want to stay up on the latest but don’t have time to digest everything from everywhere– take advantage of our work: save this link and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Every day we’ll post the top ten (or more) articles on the business of TV disruption. And each day we’ll push what you missed to the bottom. So, you can stay on top of the news or at the end of the week have a sick batch of news to skim through. You’re welcome, we love you. DMA Backs Vizio In Video Privacy BattleMediaPost -- Wendy DavisThe ad group Data and Marketing Association is seeking to get involved in a lawsuit accusing smart TV manufacturer Vizio of violating a federal video privacy law by sharing information about viewers with ad-tech companies and data brokers.As Viewers Drift Online, Advertisers Hold Fast to Broadcast TVThe New York Times -- John Koblin and Sapna MaheshwariYet while audience attention has drifted toward platforms like Netflix, Facebook and YouTube, there is one group of stubborn holdouts who are not ready to give up on broadcast television: advertisers.Walt Disney Looks to Sell a Unified Mouse House to AdvertisersAdvertising Age -- Jeanine PoggiThis year, ABC and ESPN parent Walt Disney is extending that partnership by offering some marketers the opportunity to also incorporate its movie studio, consumer products and on-the-ground activations at its theme parks, for example, as part of an all-encompassing ad buy.TV Industry Mobilizing To Secure Its Fair Share Of Data-Driven Media SpendAd Exchanger -- Scott FerberTV Must Create The Standards for Advanced Advertising, Or Someone Else (like Google) Will. TV has been great at certain things for a long time. Efficiency of the planning and buying process is one. Providing brand-safe, engaging, premium content is another. This is an area where TV consistently wins, and it still matters to advertisers – a lot.Politics, It Seems, Has Jolted Even the Idiot Box AwakeThe New York Times -- Jim RutenbergResistance/Woke/Whatever-You-Want-to-Call-It TV didn’t dominate the Top 10 shows this television season. According to Nielsen, among the most-watched shows were the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” which has an average audience of 14 million people on CBS; the zombie thriller “The Walking Dead,” the second-most watched show, with an average audience of more than 11 million people on AMC; “The Voice” with more than 10.6 million people on NBC; and “This is Us” with nearly 10 million people tuning in on NBC.Marines Debut First TV Ad Starring a Woman Amid Harassment InvestigationThe Los Angeles Times -- Jeanette SteeleThe Marine Corps is rolling out a recruiting commercial starring a female captain in an appeal to women candidates at a time when the military branch is burdened with a sexual harassment scandal.Fox Leans on Big Name Producers, Live ‘Rent’ for New TV SeasonThe Wall Street Journal -- Joe FlintFox is doubling down on live programs following on the success of last year’s live musical “Grease.” Fox is disappointed that the producers of its long-running talent show “American Idol” are bringing the show back on rival ABC after just one season of it off the air on Fox.How the Big TV Networks are Adapting to Ad-Skipping Viewers ... and Google, Snapchat and FacebookThe Los Angeles Times -- Meg James and Stephen Battaglio“Television isn’t losing relevance; in some ways it is gaining relevance when there is engagement across all of these different screens,” said Navin of Samba TV. The ability of Google, Facebook and Snapchat to target specific users “has created tons of pressure on the media companies to prove that their commercials still work,” said Navin.Over-The-Top, Ad-Supported Tubi TV Closes New Round On Eve Of UpfrontMediaPost -- Joe MandeseBurgeoning ad-supported, over-the-top movie and TV streaming service Tubi TV last week closed a $20 million round of funding, which it will use to expand its presence on Madison Avenue, as well as with consumers.The service, the closest thing to a conventional ad-supported TV network distributed online, utilizes conventional TV advertising breaks to pay for consumer access to film and TV show libraries users would otherwise have to buy. Tubi TV is bucking a trend of OTT services, such as Hulu, which are going in the opposite direction and charging consumers for access to their libraries.A Network Ad Wrangler Undaunted by Facebook and GoogleThe New York Times -- Sapna MaheshwariMs. Yaccarino, who oversees $10 billion in annual ad revenue, has drawn particular attention for her vocal criticism of Nielsen ratings, which have long been the standard for how TV ads are bought and sold, and for her use of digital properties that NBCU has either invested in or forged partnerships with, like Snapchat, BuzzFeed and Apple News. She believes her focus on aligning with tech companies and reaching a large number of people on a variety of platforms will pay dividends. “It’s about real audiences, real people who buy stuff, because they experienced your content all throughout the day,”Cross-Screen Addressable Advertising Is HereAdvertising Age -- Rick WeldayAs addressable TV continues to grow in scale and adoption, the next phase is cross-screen addressable advertising. Hundreds of millions of devices are used every day, and the people using those devices are accustomed to receiving ads on them. There is tremendous opportunity to scale this product and deliver integrated advertising campaigns to consumers at home and on-the-go.Team of Rivals: Inside Fox, Turner and Viacom's Strange CollaborationAdvertising Age -- Jeanine PoggiPerhaps more important than any possible advances in targeting TV audiences for advertisers, however, the OpenAP effort suggests that a new wave of cooperation among longtime TV rivals in other key areas could be on the horizon. ... Donna Speciale believes that more precise targeting means brands can buy less ad time. Targeting also represents a move toward making TV advertising incorporate outcomes instead of just viewers, she said.This Is Us Went From Being an Abandoned Film Script to a Breakout Hit. Here’s What’s NextAdweek -- Jason LynchMore importantly for advertisers, This Is Us had NBC’s highest commercial ratings this season (a 3.14 C3 rating; a 3.36 C7 rating) outside of football, and trailed only The Big Bang Theory and Empire among all broadcast entertainment series.Without Sports, Broadcasters Fumbled This SeasonThe Wall Street Journal -- Joe FlintAll of the broadcast networks have taken a ratings hit this season when you exclude prime-time sports like the Super Bowl, upping the pressure on programmers to deliver some entertainment breakouts that will resonate with viewers and advertisers.The NFL Could Be Due for Some Changes in the Next TV ContractAwful Announcing -- Ken FangBut since 2014, the NFL has been experimenting with a few tweaks to its Thursday Night Football contract by having CBS on the games, then splitting it among CBS and NBC. For streaming, it was Twitter last year and Amazon this year. There’s no sign that the league will end this type of experimentation any time soon. Through its two-year TNF TV contracts and one-year deals for streaming, the NFL is looking to see what will work and what won’t for its next deal.A Triad of TV Giants Wants to Create a New Standard for Targeting. Who Else Will Come on Board?Adweek -- Jason LynchAfter announcing the platform in March and unveiling more details at a presentation last month, including the news that Accenture will run the platform and provide third-party measurement auditing, the consortium is now working to get more networks and clients on board.Broadcast, Cable Networks Presenting Programming Plans This WeekThe Wall Street Journal -- Joe Flint and Suzanne VranicaMany TV networks posted lower ad revenue for the first quarter thanks to ratings weakness and softness in ad spending by categories such as automotive.Analysts are predicting that ad pricing will increase in the mid-single-digit percentage range compared with last year and the overall volume of ad dollars being committed during the upfront will be down slightly. Last year, overall prime-time upfront ad revenue last year for broadcast networks was up 4.6% to $8.75 billion, estimates Media Dynamics Inc., while cable TV upfront revenue was up 4.5% to $9.87 billion.Upfront 2017: TV Networks Square Off Against Cooling Ad MarketVariety -- Brian SteinbergA range of ad buyers suggest TV’s annual “upfront” market, during which the U.S. networks try to sell the bulk of their ad time for the coming season, is likely to be more challenging than last year’s. In 2016, TV carried the day, and advertisers agreed in many cases to pay double-digit rate increases. The five English-language networks secured between $8.41 billion and $9.25 billion in advance ad commitments for primetime, according to Variety estimates – the first time in three years they might have managed to break the $9 billion mark.Time Internet & Moat to Offer Brands Newer Ways to Measure Campaigns The Economic TimesTimes Internet (TIL) has partnered with Moat - a SaaS (software as a service) Analytics company that provides third party measurement and attention analytics to marketers and publishers. The partnership integrates Moat's viewability and attention analytics with Times Internet's marketing platform - Colombia Audience Network. This integration will provide marketers with actionable insights into their campaign performance.