Archive for August 12th, 2007
All three of the network morning shows have declined at least 10 percent over last year in the 18-49 demographic, reports Media Life. While some of the decline may be attributed to talent turnover, the aging of the audience as well as the growth in morning cable news are also factors. However you cut it, 10 percent is a big drop.
Writes ADM in comments below: “I’m sure no one at the networks will ever admit this, but could it possibly be that the shows are all so incredibly bad that no one wants to watch them anymore?”
Adds Dan: “Not only that, but have you watched the Today Show lately? There is so much crap zooming around, crawling over and fonts and logos everywhere, it’s beyond ridiculous. And nothing is ‘in the moment.’ Everything they do is about what’s up next, or tonight or tomorrow or whatever. And over 20 minutes of commercials an hour? Not to mention teases. People are saying enough already. Like me, they probably get their morning update online with an RSS reader.”
August 12th, 2007
Amazon.com, Wal-Mart.com, Best Buy, Rhapsody and others will sell “thousands” of digital rights management-free songs from the Universal catalog as the company tests the waters. The DRM-free music won’t be available on iTunes — Universal says it wants to use that user-pool as a control group during the experiment. The songs will come in plain-Jane MP3 format - which you can do just about anything with.
Earlier this summer, Universal decided against a long-term deal with iTunes
August 12th, 2007
KING-TV photographer Ron Sanford blogged about his experience in Phoenix after he and a KING reporter went to help provide relief for the mourning KTVK crews. Sanford used to work in the Phoenix market - and shares some emotional details about the mood in the KTVK newsroom the day after the crash.
August 12th, 2007
…That’s a mantra I repeat in our newsroom often. Why? It’s so easy to write a generic, cookie cutter web tease that says “for more on this story, log on to our website at klmn.com.” Dumb. Very few viewers will actually follow through. While it might help build awareness - it isn’t very effective. Instead, write a topical tease. Give viewers something specific - something that isn’t in the TV story. Don’t have any content that hasn’t already been featured on TV? Don’t do the tease. The last thing you want is to promise “more on” — and not deliver.
In the iVillage piece we blogged about below, the Today Show’s Phil Griffin seems to get it:
…hosts of the morning program have stopped parroting the line, “For more information, go to iVillage.com,” he said. “Now we try to direct viewers to the site by telling them what specific three related stories they can find if they go there,” he said.
August 12th, 2007
More than a year after NBC Universal handed over $660 million for iVillage, the site is seeing increased traffic - but is only up about 5% from July 2006 to July 2007, according to a New York Times feature today. Content partners like Hearst jumped ship - and the iVillage Live program flopped.
But NBCU thinks a turnaround is afoot. The site replaced its antiquated back-end, replaced the old content partners with new ones - and plans to relaunch iVillage Live this fall. The site is profitable, and has integrated its sales staff with NBCU’s TV-side sales groups
August 12th, 2007
