ABC Looks Beyond Upfront (ABC Suit: "Disable the DVR Fast-Forward")

Media Daily News ^ | July 6, 2006 | David Goetzl and Wayne Friedman

[abb]

ABC HAS HELD DISCUSSIONS ON the use of technology that would disable the fast-forward button on DVRs, according to ABC President of Advertising Sales Mike Shaw, with the primary goal to allow TV commercials to run as intended.

"I would love it if the MSOs, during the deployment of the new DVRs they're putting out there, would disable the fast-forward [button]," Shaw said.

While MSOs risk losing some of their DVR customers if fast-forwarding were blocked, Shaw said the cable operators--who are beefing up their own local ad sales operations--"are in the same business we're in." "They've got to sell ads too," he said. "So if everybody's skipping everybody's ads, that's not a long-term business model for them either."

Shaw also threw cold water on the idea that neutering the fast-forward option would result in a consumer backlash. He suggested that consumers prefer DVRs for their ability to facilitate on-demand viewing and not ad-zapping--and consumers might warm to the idea that anytime viewing brings with it a tradeoff in the form of unavoidable commercial viewing.

"I'm not so sure that the whole issue really is one of commercial avoidance," Shaw said. "It really is a matter of convenience--so you don't miss your favorite show. And quite frankly, we're just training a new generation of viewers to skip commercials because they can. I'm not sure that the driving reason to get a DVR in the first place is just to skip commercials. I don't fundamentally believe that. People can understand in order to have convenience and on-demand (options), that you can't skip commercials."

Shaw said it's crucial for ABC and networks to hold these discussions with MSOs while DVR penetration is still in its early stages. DVRs are at around 10 percent of U.S. TV households. "It's in our interest and the MSOs' interest to figure out something that works for the two of us," he said.

The frequently outspoken Shaw made his comments Wednesday in a post-upfront interview where he offered up another round of no-nonsense commentary.

Looking back on the protracted upfront, Shaw said he was surprised that competitors at CBS and Fox were so quick to fold the tent and accept buyers' refusals to pay for increased ratings generated from DVR viewing. Shaw had argued earlier in the spring that the ratings jumps--which have reached double-digit percentages for top shows--had value, and he intended to charge for them. He continued that position early in the upfront until it became clear the two other networks weren't willing to hold the line, and had agreed to negotiate on "live" ratings only.

"I'm sure they told their upper management in their two companies why it wasn't a good idea for them to do so," Shaw said. "They and their management must have decided that the same thing we thought was important wasn't important."

Shaw said if he knew he'd be the lone proponent for negotiating on time-shifted ratings, he might have changed course. "Obviously, going back to last February, if I knew nobody else on the entire sell-side of the equation was going to open their mouths besides us, I don't know if we would have gone down the same track," he said.

Some research executives--even at networks with sales departments that acted differently--had argued before the upfront that ads viewed in fast-forward mode generated value for advertisers, since consumers were at least partly exposed to their messages. But Shaw said ABC was only interested in finding a way to receive compensation for un-skipped ads.

ABC's upscale audience, coupled with a strong performance in "A" counties and in leading markets, made his network a must-buy. "If you were looking for those attributes, with the programming on ABC that we deliver, are you going to move those dollars to CBS?" he said. "It doesn't make sense."

No shrinking violet, Shaw is the only sales chief at a major network to speak to the media as part of an upfront postmortem.

As questions fade about whether to negotiate solely on DVR ratings, Shaw said ABC will move aggressively to make deals based on Nielsen's new "commercial ratings," set to be unveiled at the start of the new season. He said ABC was interested in possibly using them as a currency in this upfront, but buyers felt implementing the logistics in such an abbreviated time period wasn't feasible. "We were too late in bringing that to the market for practical reasons," Shaw said. But, he added, "it's going to transform how people buy and plan television."

But Shaw said ABC executives will be fanning out to agencies and advertisers over the next two weeks to present an analysis of commercial ratings data from the last six months, which presents ABC in a favorable light. He added that some scatter business may be written based on the new ratings.

[HIDEK6]

They have no male audience.

Men don't watch commercials.

Men don't watch 98% of the chick stuff that is on TV, either.

[pepperdog]

Yes, I hate that LOUD commercial stuff. It causes me to immediately change channels and many times I don't bother to go back.

[Milhous]

The dinosaur media can't survive using a one way medium in a two way era

Life after Television

. . .

TV defies the most obvious fact about its customers -- their prodigal and efflorescent diversity. people perform scores of thousands of different jobs; pursue multifarious hobbies; read hundreds of thousands of different publications. TV ignores the reality that people are not inherently couch potatoes; given a chance, they talk back and interact. People have little in common except their prurient interests and morbid fears and anxieties. Necessarily aiming its fare at this lowest-common-denominator target, television gets worse and worse every year.

ABC HAS HELD DISCUSSIONS ON the use of technology that would disable the fast-forward button on DVRs, according to ABC President of Advertising Sales Mike Shaw, with the primary goal to allow TV commercials to run as intended.

Paraphrasing Albee, television tyrants moved parcel and post into their own fantasy world now, and they've started playing variations on their own distortions.

[Aaron Spelling's] 6-acre mansion "The Manor" at 594 Mapleton Drive in Bel Air, California has 123 rooms, a bowling alley, swimming pool, gymnasium, tennis court, screening room and four 2-car garages. Spelling bought the property in 1983, including a house that had belonged to Bing Crosby. He demolished the Crosby house and built the largest single-family home in California.

[whd23]

Then you can only record the one channel that the tuner is tuned to.

So you add the IR Blaster functionality (a couple of bucks worth of parts at Radio Shack) and have MythTV change the channel on the satellite tuner before recording. :)

[abb]

The dinosaur media can't survive using a one way medium in a two way era

Milhous, I have shamelessly and in front of everyone, stolen that phrase for my tagline.

Oh yes, in re: Aaron Spelling's house. It's for sale...

http://people.monstersandcritics.com/article_1178274.php/Deceased_Aaron_Spelling%92s_mansion_secretly_%93for_sale%94_

[E. Pluribus Unum]

So you add the IR Blaster functionality (a couple of bucks worth of parts at Radio Shack) and have MythTV change the channel on the satellite tuner before recording. :)

Should have known that. Thanks.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

whd23 informed me that MythTV will work with DirectTV.

My mistake.

[whd23]

Should have known that. Thanks.

Grey matter is RAM, not ROM!

I looked at doing MythTV a few years back, but ended up just using the card under Windows XP. Then I got Dish satellite service with the DVR built-in and never looked back. Since I very rarely want to permanently archive a show recorded on the DVR, getting the show onto the PC isn't really an issue for me.

What I'm trying to say is that I remember reading about the IR Blaster stuff, but I haven't worked with it myself.

[Robert A Cook PE]

And he actually claims that REMOVING the fast-forward button would NOT bring immediate consumer reactions!


He's an idiot.

[American_Centurion]

SaWEET! Thanks!

[discostu]

Product placements and segment sponsorships (all sports fans are infinitely familiar with segment sponsorship) are the wave of the commercial future. In some ways it's a good thing, as the industry gets better at those and stops having to sell as many commercials and the ammount of time a show is on will increase, imagine a one hour show actually being an hour somewhere other than HBO. Of course it's often very cheesy, they need to dig up some of the old TV executives from the live days, they knew how to do product placement smoothly.

[whd23]

SaWEET! Thanks!

No charge. Now go implement IR Blaster and commence sticking it to "The Man." :)

[E. Pluribus Unum]

SageTV is a proprietary Windows DVR that works pretty much like MythTV, just in case Linux is a little foreign to you.

MythTV is free, but SageTV isn't.

[Politicalmom]

At a guess, Rush has a bigger audience, and can charge more for his commercials, so fewer are needed. (?)

[Politicalmom]

There was actually an article about that not too long ago, how they wanted to freeze the show so you couldn't change it until it was over.

Complete insanity.

[markman46]

fine then if you disable the FF then I'll just mute the commericals..

[6SJ7]

What's next? Will the networks demand that the "On/Off" switch be disabled so they can force feed their crap to us?

Been there, done that in Orwell's 1984. Certain rather horrible scenes from Clockwork Orange also come to mind.

[mysterio]

If you're paying for DVR, then you have no responsibility to watch the stupid commercials. It's not like it's being broadcast for free over the airwaves and you're just leeching the signal.

Looks like they're following the record company model : piss off the customers at every turn.

[Mad Dawgg]

"What is a DVR? This is a legit question. I have no idea what this contraption is"

In short a DVR is just a glorified Computer Hardrive usually inside your Sat TV or Cable Box. It usually comes with a service like TIVO which allows you to program your recording choices using a much more spohistocated system than the old VCRs had.

For instance You can tell TIVO to record ONLY new Episodes of Survivor and keep only 5 Episodes on your DVR. THe program will even adjust to changes in prgogram scheduling as long as the online guide on your services has been updated correctly. (which is done by your Cable or Sat TV service)

Basically DVRs are about the best way to watch TV that I have ever found. You can watch A show while nother is being recorded. You can watch a previously recorded show while TWO shows are being recorded. You can even "PAUSE" live tv.

We rarely watch shows in real time anymore, it saves so much time because you eliminate all the commercials by Fast Frowarding through them. Now We can set aside a night to watch shows when we want to not when they are shown. Further we don't have to worry if the tape is in or rewound or set correctly. We use Tivo and their Season Pass system which allows you to program an entire season of a program in less than 5 minutes.

Tivo costs us 5 bucks a month and worth every penny.

[Mad Dawgg]

"The commercials are also darned LOUD. It's as if someone pumped the volume up by ten notches or so whenever they come on..."

Yes that gets under my skin soo bad, one of the reasons I rarely watch LIVE TV any more.