| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Turner to Launch Streaming Sports Service | | The media company says it plans to use the rights it has acquired to soccer's UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League as the foundation for a new stand-alone direct-to-consumer streaming platform, Broadcasting & Cable and other media outlets report. Turner, which is spending a reported $60 million a year on the soccer rights, will air games on its TNT, TBS and truTV cable channels. And its Bleacher Report online sports service will also carry soccer content and will be a portal for fans looking to watch the games that aren't on traditional TV. The new streaming service has yet to be named but is expected to be named and it has not been determined how much it will cost subscribers. But the streamed games will be ad supported. Of the 340 matches UEFA schedules each year, only about 60 or so are likely to be televised on Turner's TV networks. So the rest will be available on the new OTT service. Turner also said it would offer other sports on the streaming service but did not elaborate. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: With ad revenue flat and the number of pay-TV subscribers eroding, direct-to-consumers subscription products are looking more and more attractive to TV companies. Turner's announcement comes a week after Disney announced it was moving up the launch of a new ESPN-branded subscription streaming sports service. And CBS has also announced similar plans. Meanwhile, the competition for ad dollars heats up as MLB games are being streamed on Twitter and Amazon will stream Thursday night NFL games this season. | Three Takes: B&C | WSJ | USA Today
| | | | #2 Deloitte Acquires Swedish Creative Agency | | Deloitte Digital, the creative consulting unit of professional services company Deloitte, has acquired Stockholm-based creative agency Acne in its latest series of acquisitions aimed at helping it garner a larger portion of marketer ad budgets, The Wall Street Journal reports. Acne was founded in 1996 and has worked with clients such as IKEA, Spotify and H&M. Deloitte Digital is planning to hire about 80 new employees across northwest Europe, half based in the U.K., which will double the size of the current Acne staff. Acne does about $32 million annually in revenue. Deloitte has made other acquisitions in the creative agency space over the past few years, including U.K.-based Market Gravity in May, U.S. creative agency Heat in February 2016 and Swedish digital agency Mobiento in 2015. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: This is another move made by a major consultant company to move into the traditional ad agency space. PwC and Accenture Interactive have also been making similar acquisitions, which haven't gone unnoticed by the concerned CEO's of the traditional agency holding companies. | Two Takes: WSJ | Adweek
| | | | #3 Spotify Focuses on Boosting Ad Sales | | The music streaming service, which launched its free, ad-supported service on mobile over three years ago, and grew its monthly active user base to 140 million including 60 million paid subscribers, wants to make it easier for small and midsize businesses to buy ads, The Wall Street Journal reports. Part of that plan, Spotify chief marketing officer Seth Farbman tells The Journal, is to grow ad opportunities for marketers globally. "We're not in India," he says. "We're brand new in Japan and there are many more markets like that." He adds that if Spotify is to continuing offering a free music service, it needs to monetize it with advertising. He says right now, "sponsored sessions" is the service's most popular ad unit. One brand sponsoring a half hour. Sponsored playlists are also popular. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: The streaming music category is competitive one as marketers use those services to reach younger audiences. Farbman says the key to drawing in more advertising is to develop new content on an ongoing basis and to share with marketers data about Spotify users that helps them more easily target them. The other goal is to improve its self-service platform so small and medium-sized businesses can more easily buy audio ads. | | A Take: WSJ | |
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| | 10 | | Percentage of decline in C3 primetime 18-49 viewers for the Big Four English-language broadcast networks in July, according to data compiled by MoffettNathanson Research. A year ago in July, those same networks – ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox – cumulatively lost 7% of their viewers in the demo compared to 2015. Cable networks overall had an 8% decline in July viewers. | – Reported by MediaPost
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| | NBC Edges ABC in Wednesday Ratings Race | by John Consoli
A strong performance by America's Got Talent helped NBC win the Wednesday night primetime 18-49 demo ratings race, with the network averaging a 1.3/5 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., edging out ABC which scored a 1.2/5, per Nielsen fast nationals. A one hour Talent opened the night with a 2.1/9 and was followed by the premiere episode of comedy Marlon, which scored a 1.3/5. A second episode of Marlon produced a 1.0/4. At 10 p.m., a repeat of Law & Order: SVU produced a 0.6/2. ABC aired a three-hour telecast of CMA Fest 2017, which averaged a 1.2/5. Its 18-49 rating was even with last year's annual telecast. CBS averaged a 0.9/4 for the night, led by Big Brother at 8, which scored a 1.9/.8. However that was dragged down by back-to-back episodes of Salvation, which scored a combined demo rating of 0.5/2. Fox scored a 0.8/3 with a 0.9/4 from MasterChef and a 0.6/2 by The F Word with Gordon Ramsey. Telemundo finished with a 0.7/3 in the demo, led by 10 p.m. novella El Senor de los Cielos which drew a 0.8/3.
Univision recorded a 0.5/2 with its three novellas. The CW averaged a 0.2/1 for the night, with repeats of Arrow and Supernatural. In the viewer race, NBC's AGT averaged 10.7 million, with CBS' Big Brother pulling in 6.3 million and ABC's CMA Fest averaging 5.7 million. NBC's Marlon premiere at 9 p.m. drew 5.4 million.
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| • JON WAX has joined YouTube as head of drama series, scripted and current, while ANGELA COURTIN was appointed global head of YouTube TV & originals marketing. Wax was most recently executive VP of scripted programming at WGN America and Tribune Studios. Courtin was previously executive VP and chief marketing officer at Fox Broadcasting. DUSTIN DAVIS, head of current series at YouTube, also had his responsibilities expanded and will now be head of comedy development and current programming.
• CHARLIE CONEY was named head of creative for the Los Angeles and San Francisco offices of IPG agency Golin. He was previously head of creative for Golin in Europe, Middle East and Asia.
• CARLTON CUSE is returning to ABC Studios, where he was co-showrunner for the ABC hit drama series Lost for six years. Since then, he co-created Bates Motel on A&E, where he served as executive producer and showrunner. He also executive produced The Strain on FX and his current series, Colony was recently renewed for a third season on USA. His new company is called Genre Arts and Cuse will develop projects for ABC Studios. Editor's Note: MBPT will be taking a day off tomorrow. We will see you again Monday. | |
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