Big slothful bodies and small closed minds
do not bode well for the dinosaur media.
.
Published on NewsBusters.org (http://newsbusters.org)
NBC Ad Sales Refunds - More Dinosaur Media Woes
By Warner Todd Huston
Created 2007-12-11 03:04
The world of entertainment is in a world of hurt. With the massive diversification of entertainment offerings these days, older forms of media — like movies, TV and newspapers — are finding a dwindling number of customers as NBC is finding out this month. NBC has found itself in the lamentable position of giving their advertisers refunds because of poor performance in its ratings. The promised number of eyes that NBC promised that advertisers would reach didn’t materialize, so NBC has to refund their advertisers for the over estimate of viewers that might see the ads placed on their airwaves. Of course, NBC is trying to keep a lid on this damaging story, but the Genie is out of that bottle. We can surely say that the network’s News arms ain’t helpin’ sales a whole lot, in any case!
Adweek gives us the story [1]:
NBC has quietly begun reimbursing advertisers for fourth-quarter prime-time ratings shortfalls, averaging about $500,000 per advertiser, according to media buyers, marking the first time in years a network has taken such a step to compensate marketers for ratings deficiencies.
It was also reported in Adweek that new network CW has had a loss of ratings and an over estimate of ad revenue, as well. So has CBS, ABC, and Fox, all of whom are giving advertisers “make goods” wherein the networks give ad time in compensation for having overcharged the advertisers.
And what is the culprit?
The nets have blamed ratings softness on the conversion of the upfront sales metric this season from live program ratings to commercial ratings plus three-day DVR viewing (C3). But media agencies contend broadcast prime-time ratings are down significantly even when DVR viewing is added in.
We just might be living at the end of the era of dominance of entertainment by the networks and big entertainment empires. It will be very interesting to see where it all goes from here on out but several hurdles remain to be jumped before the new era of entertainment takes hold. Many questions remain.
Will the Internet shape up as a reliable device of delivery for entertainment? (It sure as heck isn’t a stable delivery system currently)
Will digital storage devices in the amounts of the mega terrabytes range that we all will need to store massive amounts of entertainment soon be cheaply available?
Will a new system of storage be developed to solve that problem, perhaps?
Will a loss of the big money behind the entertainment giants affect the quality of our entertainment?
Man’s ingenuity is a never emptying well, of course, so let’s not be too pessimistic. But, we might find more problems than we expect when the big media moguls collapse or scale downward in the near future.
One thing is sure, though. We have an opportunity to break the stranglehold the fringe left has on our forms of entertainment here. Let’s hope we can take advantage of this new era.
Source URL:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2007/12/11/nbc-ad-sales-refunds-more-dinosaur-media-woes
$500 grand here and $500 grand there....pretty soon it adds up to real money
Too bad that the technology is so spectacular, but there is so little of quality to watch. It’s like having a top-of-the-line Lexus and nothing but dirt roads..........
With the writer's strike, we're getting used to re-runs.
ping conservatism_IS_compassion: Note Boriss' designation of journalism as entertainment.
That giant sucking sound you hear is the formation of the unified InterTainment industry. And it’s taking down newspaper, TV news, and Hollywood jobs with it 12/9/07
Posted by Steve Boriss in InterTainment.
trackbackAs the Internet continues its spectacular growth, it has been revealing some shocking truths never before known or long denied. One of them that many will not want to hear is that journalism is entertainment. News, like other forms of entertainment, is almost purely about giving us diversion from the worries of our day-to-day lives. Political happenings give us a sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. Sports, entertainment, and human interest features allow us to imagine living more thrilling, glamorous, or emotion-laden lives. Gossip about the troubles of the wealthy, sexy, and successful help us even-up the score with those we envy, feeding our pride to make our own mediocre lives seem more acceptable. And murders, sex crimes, and car accidents quench our all-too-human thirsts for lust and morbid curiosity. Just like all other forms of entertainment, virtually none of what we see in the news has any direct impact on our personal lives - that’s because the Old Media’s falsely-marketed “news we can use” drills-down no deeper than the few interests we have in common with everyone else in our metropolitan areas.
By placing all forms of entertainment, including news, on the same medium, the Internet has launched a Darwinian struggle where the news, entertainment, and video game industries are now direct, head-to-head competitors for the distraction of audiences from their daily concerns. Crueler still, they must also now compete against mere amateurs, talent around the globe, blogs, porn, and also their former selves — their own archives of older articles, older movies, older programs, and older games never before available. That’s why audiences are plunging and pink slips are flying across all media - newspapers, TV, and Hollywood. The emerging, unified Internet entertainment, a.k.a. “InterTainment,” industry is now just one big happy family - but only if you happen to be a member of the audience.
Here's the problem. I often record a few weeks of a series and watch them in row or over a couple of days. This isn't being picked up even though the shows are eventually being watched.
They (the liberal media and the liberal journalists who write about them) STILL DON'T GET IT......and they never will.
If they ever do, their very lives would explode into fragments never to be put back together again.
Leni
The bias in their news has soured me on the entertainment product. Why should I financially support adveryisers who keep traitors in business?
and yet their news departments still have just enough energy to try and control the outcome of presidential elections.
.
Olbermann was on the football game commentary sections the other night. It was all I could do to refrain from screaming at him, but my hubby was watching the game. That “man’s” voice grates on and on. You can just hear him calling another conservative “the worse person in the world!” What a drama queen he is. When the score finally got too silly to watch, we changed channels.
NBC could save some money by getting rid of Olberman and Dan Abrams and going back to those celebrity biographies. I think they had higher ratings...