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 and save this link. 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.As advertisers compete for ways to reach live audiences, ABC raises the price of ad slots during the Oscars. Ad tech has an opportunity to save TV, targeting and reaching audiences in new ways through OTT boxes.Nielsen's Gracenote has combined its sources of consumer data into one database spanning a number of verticals across 85 countries. ABC and Accenture released a study that found the ROI for TV advertising is typically understated by 10%, and TV significantly amplifies digital campaigns.Facebook takes another stab at TV, adding advertisements to Facebook Live videos. The media giant details its video monetization plan to publishers and networks, with a focus on longer-form content and commercial-style ad breaks. Trump remains lucrative for SNL and news networks, sparking ad revenue growth for networks.How Ad Tech Might Save TVAdvertising Age -- Jeanine Poggi21st Century Fox acquired ad tech company TrueX in 2015, but now as more TV content is delivered via IP-enabled devices instead of set-top boxes, what TrueX is crafting on desktop and mobile could have important implications for larger screens. In December, TrueX brought its engagement ad model to TV with the introduction of sponsored streams on Roku in the FX app. "Our goal is to go from a linear TV ad model of 18 to 20 minutes of commercials per hour to around 60 seconds in digital and on-demand," said David Levy, a TrueX co-founder.Inside Facebook's Video Monetization PlanDigiday -- Sahil PatelFacebook is said to be looking for scripted and unscripted serialized shows focusing on entertainment and sports, which will live on the video tab on its mobile app and its upcoming connected TV app. Short-form videos would be on the news feed while users could find longer content in the tab and the TV app. These changes might make Facebook a real competitor to YouTube. Facebook is testing mid-roll commercial-style ad breaks in on-demand and live video content.Trump Remains Lucrative for Cable News Networks and SNLAdweek -- Jason LynchAccording to Standard Media Index, ad unit costs for the two SNL episodes that aired in January rose 86% from 2016. That’s partially a result of increased CPMs this season as NBCU reduced SNL’s ad load by around 30%. Broadcast and cable news also enjoyed a substantial Trump bump in January, with ad revenue up 10.3% from 2016.Following Nielsen Acquisition, Gracenote has Unified its Video, Music and Sports DatabasesTechCrunch -- Ryan LawlerMedia metadata company Gracenote, acquired by Nielsen just a few weeks ago, hopes to be the one-stop data provider for TV providers, manufacturers and media distributors. Gracenote has now combined its sources of data (music, video and sports) from over the years and unified it into a common database across a number of verticals and geographies. Now Nielsen/Gracenote have TV schedules for more than 85 countries, live scores and statistics for sporting leagues and events all around the world, and musical data for every song ever recorded.Ads are Coming to Facebook LiveUSA Today -- Jefferson GrahamFacebook just announced initiatives to put more TV commercial-style ad breaks in live videos, and will also begin testing ad breaks in traditional News Feed videos. The ads won't appear until at least 4 minutes into the video. Facebook wants to rival YouTube, which offers 55% of ad revenue to the video creator. Facebook says users need to have at least 2,000 followers and an audience of at least 300 viewers in a recent live video to have ads inserted in the stream.ABC TV + Accenture Study Find Understatement of Multiplatform TV ROIHuffington Post -- Andy PlesserABC partnered with Accenture to quantify the “halo effect” that multiplatform television has on other digital advertising and examined $12 billion worth of ad spending. The study found that multiplatform TV advertising amplifies paid search and display in particular, along with short-form video ad performance. Specifically, digital ROI was overstated by about 18% and the ROI for television was understated by about 10%.Dish Network CEO: Streaming Video is Starting to Replace Traditional Pay TVDeadline -- David LiebermanDuring a fourth quarter earnings call, Dish CEO Charlie Ergen said that OTT is becoming a direct replacement for traditional TV, one that's more consumer friendly given that traditional TV has 16-18 minutes of advertising per hour. He also reported that Dish and Sling subscriptions were up by 28,000 even though many predicted a loss.Spreading Truth: The New York Times Will Run an Oscar TV AdAdweek -- Tim NuddIn the world of fake news, The New York Times is launching a multimedia campaign that includes a 30-second Oscar spot titled "The Truth is Hard."ABC Sells All its Oscar Ad TimeLos Angeles Times -- Meg JamesABC is charging advertisers $2 million for a 30-second spot during the Oscars, up from last year-- In 2016, ABC sold 30-second spots for an average of $1.72 million, according to Kantar Media. ABC's rate increase comes as advertisers scramble to buy time during shows that will be watched live. Advertisers that purchased spots months ago now must prepare for politically-charged speeches.Despite Fake News Claims, CNN's Ad Revenue Sees GrowthCynopsisCNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker told journalists that President Trump’s attacks haven’t hurt CNN. CNN commissioned a study and found that less than a third of Americans thought CNN’s coverage of Trump had been unfair, and considerably more respondents trusted the brand more than Trump or members of Congress. According to iSpot.tv, CNN earned $72.8 million in national advertising from January 16-February 16, versus $33.5 million during the same period last year.National TV Primetime Impressions Rose in JanuaryBroadcasting & Cable -- Jon LafayetteAccording to Pivotal Research Group and Nielsen's C3 commercial ratings, impressions in primetime among adults 18 to 49 were up 1.7% in January compared to a year ago. National commercial load times were up from last year, Viacom had the largest share of commercial impressions, at 15.5%, up from 15.2% a year ago. Discovery’s share jumped to 6.9% from 5.9%. CBS’ share dropped to 6.3% from 7.3%.Scottish Startup TVSquared Raises $6.5 Million to Help Brands Optimize their TV Ad SpendingVentureBeat -- Paul SawersTVSquared, a Scottish startup that specializes in measuring the impact of TV ad campaigns, has announced a $6.5 million funding round. TVSquared claims that it can improve TV campaign efficiency by up to 80% through its measuring and optimizing platform-- current clients include Comcast and FanDuel. TVSquared is trying to create the “gold-standard TV optimization and measurement platform.” It will use this funding for a global push-- in addition to its Edinburgh headquarters, the company has offices in New York, Los Angeles, and London.Infographic: What We Learned From The Walking Dead’s Midseason PremiereAdweek -- Emma BazilianAmerica's favorite zombies are back on television. Samba TV found that the show's audience peaked 8 minutes into the broadcast and began to drop off after 10 minutes. The Walking Dead retained the majority of its audience (60%) for the entirety of its broadcast, a sign of a dedicated fan base.YouTube Will Stop Selling 30-Second Unskippable Mobile Ads in 2018Adweek -- Lauren JohnsonBeginning in 2018, brands won't be able to buy the 30-second ad format but can purchase other lengths of unskippable pre-roll ads like 20-second promos and 6-second bumper ads. YouTube is focused on improving user experience as the site shifts towards mobile and into emerging areas like live streaming and virtual reality.New Service Alerts Marketers When Competitors Air New TV AdsBizReport -- Helen LeggattTVTY, a moment marketing firm, just launched a free service that notifies marketers when a competitor airs a new TV advertisement.  The service can monitor unlimited brands, and once 14 consecutive days have passed without a TV ad airing, the campaign is considered complete and alerts the company if the competitor's campaign goes live again.MobiTV Drives New OTT Pathway For Cable BusinessForbes -- Howard HomonoffFollowing an announcement about $21 million in financing, MobiTV’s CEO Charlie Nooney discussing his vision of OTT (and IPTV) as a booster rather than a barrier for the future of multichannel video. His plan for multichannel video (MVPD) relies on internet protocol (IPTV) as the center of video delivery rather than OTT boxes.Kantar Watermark Hoping to Become 'UPC Code For Media'MediaPost -- Joe MandeseKantar is developing an audio watermarking, which has just been selected by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) to move on to the next stage of standardization, which would effectively make it the “UPC code” for media.comScore Expects ExtendedTV Metric to Be Public by Year-endBroadcasting & Cable -- Jon LafayetteDespite its accounting troubles and being delisted from Nasdaq, comScore expects a public release of its ExtendedTV measurement product later this year. ExtendedTV will be a TV-centric product that measures TV content across a variety of viewing types—linear, time-shifted and digital.Sinclair Broadcast Group Sees Opportunities in Programmatic Ad SalesBroadcasting & Cable -- Jon LafayetteSinclair Broadcast Group plans to enter the programmatic TV ad sales business next month. Sinclair also predicts looser regulation by the FCC to lead to a wave of consolidation in the station business. It also expects stations to make deals with the digital multichannel video programming distributors that have been springing up.