Through the Wire
By Kent Gibbons, Linda Moss, Linda Haugsted and Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 9/30/2007 6:00:00 PM MT
Bragging Rights: Who’s DVRed Most
No Biblical Plague This, Just a Stunt for 'Dexter’
Chris Moseley Wants You To Think History Is Fun
Sidebars:
Now Batting for TBS: 'Postseason Pete’
Bragging Rights: Who’s DVRed Most
No Biblical Plague This, Just a Stunt for 'Dexter’
Chris Moseley Wants You To Think History Is Fun
Sidebars:
Now Batting for TBS: 'Postseason Pete’
Bragging Rights: Who’s DVRed Most
Digital video recorders are, of course, increasingly used by TV watchers to catch their favorite shows when they want, or to sample shows they might like. That’s why Nielsen Media Research this year started providing “Live Plus 7” figures that include a week’s worth of recorded playbacks, along with those who watched the show live or within 24 hours.
The Wire’s been hearing from networks touting how much of the audience records and watches their shows later. BBC America, for example, is proud that 21.7% of adults ages 25 to 54 (its target) watching its primetime schedule in August used their DVR, according to Nielsen Live Plus 7 data.
That 21.7% topped a list of cable networks by that measurement (percentage of 25-54 age audience in August). Among ad-supported cable networks, next came Sci Fi Channel at 12.9%, USA Network (10.4%), Noggin/The N (10.3%) and Bravo (9.3%), according to a list BBCA prepared.
After Bravo came FX (7%) and TNT (7%). Others include Travel Channel (5.7%), Comedy Central (5.4%), Oxygen (4.2%) and HGTV (4.5%).
“These figures show that live ratings simply don’t capture the true value of BBC America to our viewers,” BBC Worldwide America president Garth Ancier opined in a statement. “They’re upscale, technically savvy and are using their DVRs to make sure they catch must-watch shows” on the channel.
Turner Research’s analysis of summer shows (May 28 to Aug. 12) listed “DVR Worthy” cable dramas. Turner ranked them by audience lift (ages 18 to 49) from a week’s worth of recorded views.
Sci Fi’s just-renewed Eureka topped that Turner list, at 48.9%. Other DVRed cable shows: FX’s Rescue Me (44.2%), TNT’s The Closer (33.8%), AMC’s Mad Men (32.5%), USA’s Psych (32.2%) and Monk (31%) and ESPN’s miniseries The Bronx Is Burning (29.8%).
Next, USA’s Burn Notice (28.3%) and The Starter Wife (28.1%) and FX’s Damages (27.3%).
Sci Fi Channel general manager Dave Howe said another Nielsen breakdown — “C3,” a combination of commercial minutes and three days of viewing — on which most NBCU upfront-auction ad deals were done shows Sci Fi’s “passionate” fans are watching on their own schedules and not necessarily skipping ads.
“I think we’ve been at the forefront of this [research] because we’re most heavily impacted in terms of DVR,” he said. “We can finally charge advertisers for ads that people are watching on a DVR.”
Maybe technology expertise stops at the fast-forward button.
No Biblical Plague This, Just a Stunt for 'Dexter’
Fountains in 14 cities ran red last Thursday (Sept. 27) amid Showtime’s massive promotional campaign for season two of serial-killer drama Dexter.
The network and Pop2Life: Creative Marketing & Promotion took existing or custom-built fountains, dyed the water blood red and cordoned them off with Dexter-branded yellow tape. Street teams in lab coats passed out free DVDs and other premiums. The finale was in Chicago, where Buckingham Fountain’s 1.5 million gallons were colored red and lit up. The stunt also played out in New York’s Times Square; on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles; at Love Park in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.’s Union Station; Faneuil Hall in Boston; Smith and Clay streets in Houston; the Shops at Sunset Place in Miami; the Denver Pavilions; Keiner Plaza in St. Louis; PPG Place in Pittsburgh; Paris Hotel in Las Vegas; the Capital Commons in Indianapolis and Phoenix’s Desert Ridge Marketplace.
Chris Moseley Wants You To Think History Is Fun
Chris Moseley has helped build several worldwide cable brands, notably Discovery Channel. Her current assignment is refreshing The History Channel’s brand, where she’s senior vice president of marketing and changing how people view history itself.
Her strategy includes conducting “a psychographic-segmentation study” of the network’s viewers, starting this month. The research will involve “just talking to people who watch us, finding out if our hunches are on target, or if there are other insights we may have missed.”
Part of her challenge is to erase negative perceptions — ingrained by boring teachers and dull documentaries — that dog history with a small “h,” as well as History Channel. Perceptions such as: history is only about the past; history is not relevant to people’s lives; history is dull and too cerebral; history is about only a few event categories, like wars.
Moseley is out to change those views to: history is about the past, present and future; history is entertaining; history programming has warmth and emotion; and history — the channel and topic — embraces many genres, such as science, archeology and contemporary sociology.
Change is good for established, respected brands, Moseley says. To just be “known for quality, blah, blah, blah,” she warns, can lead to “low-brand insistence,” valued but not an important part of people’s lives.
In which case, they’re history — er, toast.
Viewers Find ‘Lost’ on Sci Fi
09/16/2008Sci Fi Channel Expands Beyond 'Geek' Origins
09/08/2002Sci Fi Channel Gets Into The Game
06/08/2008This Just In
10/08/2006
