| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Disney Approached Fox to Buy Cable Nets, Studio | | A Wall Street Journal report says it was the Walt Disney Co. that approached Fox to initiate discussions about the possible acquisition of Fox's cable TV networks and its studio. CNBC first reported the talks, which broke off but could be resumed, according to sources. The Journal, which is part of Fox owner Rupert Murdoch's media empire, says Fox wasn't happy with the terms Disney proposed, but is open to the idea of selling entertainment assets including cable networks FX and National Geographic Channel and the Twentieth Century Fox studio. Fox would then focus on its broadcast network, cable news operation and Fox Sports. Fox cable operations (including news and sports) bring in $16.1 billion a year in revenue, while the studio brings in $8.2 billion and the broadcast network brings in $5.6 billion. The Journal, citing sources, says Fox's thinking is that a slimmed-down broadcast, news and sports-focused media company could be successful, just as CBS Corp. has been a top performer despite not being among the largest revenue producing media conglomerates. As for Disney, the acquisitions would help the company upgrade its struggling TV business, which has been hit hard by ratings declines and subscriber losses at Disney Channel and ESPN. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: It would consolidate studio ownership but gone are the days when studios produced programming only for the networks owned by their parent companies. Today, studios sell programming to all networks so that move wouldn't have much of a negative impact on the networks. As for changing cable network owners, that also is not going to impact advertisers or media buyers that much. If this deal were to eventually go through, it would have more impact on the internal finances of the two media companies with minimal impact on the advertising community. | Two Takes: WSJ | CNBC
| | | | #2 NFL Sept. Ad Pricing Down for Most Networks | | Prices for commercials in NFL telecasts were down an average 6.7% in the scatter market in September, according to data from research company SQAD. For the first month of the season, among the networks that carry NFL games, only NBC showed an increase over last year in commercial pricing. Traditional 30-second spots on NBC's primetime telecasts sold for an average of $791,000, up 13.7% compared to the same month last year. Spots on CBS's Sunday afternoon NFL games were down 19.1% to an average of $339,845. Fox's afternoon game spots sold for an average of $564,198, down 6%. ESPN Monday Night Football game spots averaged $292,117, down 15.7%. For October, NBC scatter prices were up 14%, ESPN was up 7%, while Fox and CBS were down 27%. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Previously, another research company, Standard Media Index, reported that total ad revenue for the national networks carrying NFL games in September was up 2% overall. But that could mean that the networks sold more inventory, even if pricing per unit was down. And regardless of pricing being down, ad spots in the NFL are still among the highest-priced on television. | Two Takes: MediaPost | B&C
| | | | #3 Salesforce, Google to Integrate Data | | Salesforce Marketing Cloud is teaming up Google Analytics to integrate their data so that advertisers have access to both companies' pools of stats when running ad campaigns, Adweek reports. Salesforce customers will gain access to Google's trove of data about what websites consumers use and what searches they conduct, which can then be used to fine-tune email, push notification and SMS campaigns, Adweek says. And advertisers who use both systems will now get to see both Google and Salesforce stats in their dashboards. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Personalized marketing is growing in importance among marketers and this deal will help facilitate an enhanced and smarter way to target consumers. The Salesforce deal with Google Analytics is only one part of a larger global partnership between the companies. "This partnership has a number of pillars to it," says Ryan Aytay, executive VP of business development and strategic partnerships at Salesforce. | Two Takes: Adweek | MediaPost
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| | 177.7 | | Number in millions of U.S. adults who monthly will go online while watching TV during 2017, according to estimates by eMarketer. That's up by 5.1% from 2016 and that number is expected to reach 193.5 million by 2019. Some 162.6 million people will use smartphones as their second-screen device while watching TV this year. | – Reported by eMarketer
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| | 'The Voice', 'The Brave' Up as NBC Wins | by Michael Malone
NBC was the top ratings grabber in Monday's prime contest, putting up a 1.6 rating in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 6 share. Second was ABC at 1.2/5. ABC won the previous Monday's race. The Voice ticked up 5% to a 2.0 for NBC, then The Brave grew 25% to 1.0. On ABC, Dancing with the Stars dropped 7% to 1.4 before the special Luke Bryan: Living Every Day did a 1.0. Fox scored a 1.0/4, with Lucifer climbing 25% to 1.0 and The Gifted at a flat 1.1. CBS was at 0.9/3. Kevin Can Wait scored a flat 1.2 and was followed by a Big Bang Theory repeat. A new Superior Donuts jumped 25% from its premiere to 1.0 and 9JKL rated a level 0.8, before Scorpion did a 0.8, up a tenth of a point. Telemundo scored a 0.7/3, with Sin Senos Si Hay Paraiso at 0.8. Univision rated a 0.6/2. The CW did a 0.4/1, with Supergirl at a flat 0.5 and Valor up 50% to a 0.3. | |
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| • ALOK NATH was named senior VP at independent agency 22squared, where he will oversee digital content creation and production through its Maker Studio. He was most recently senior VP, retail creative director at BBDO Atlanta.
• ERICKSON HOG was appointed chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Los Angeles-based creative agency Zambezi. He was previously CFO at WPP's ad tech operation Iconmobile, and prior to that was executive VP and director of finance and operations at M&C Saatchi. | |
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