Data-Labor-Technology

Linear ratings have continued to fall this season, but ad revenue is on the rise. The national TV advertising spend in January increased 7.1 percent year over year, according to new data from Standard Media Index. That January boost includes a 11.1 percent lift in cable ad revenue and a 2.7 percent jump in broadcast…

During its many years broadcasting the Olympics, NBC has learned the hard way what its viewers will and won’t tolerate when it comes to offering sneak previews of its entertainment shows during Olympics coverage. In 2012, the network aired the premiere of short-lived sitcom Animal Practice in the middle of London’s closing ceremony, which “pissed…

Following the lead of students nationwide inspired by the activism of survivors of the Parkland massacre and citing “customer feedback,” the First National Bank of Omaha stood up to the National Rifle
Association yesterday, saying that it would not renew the contract for its NRA-branded Visa card. That news was followed by Enterprise Holdings, which controls the Alamo, National and Enterprise car
rental brands, announcing that it would stop offering NRA-member discounts.

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Product-related content is an editorial anchor at GQ, Condé Nast’s men’s lifestyle pub. People who read about brands on GQ’s site spend twice as much time with its content overall – around 14 minutes – and are nearly 10% more likely to return, according to research commissioned from Skimlinks and Parse.ly. That level of engagement validates Condé’s… Continue reading »

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“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Daniel Meehan, CEO at PadSquad. On Feb. 15, Chrome began blocking disruptive ad formats in compliance with standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads (CBA). While attention has largely focused on poor ad… Continue reading »

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A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem… AdExchanger: Origins AdExchanger: Crisis In Ad City (Part I) AdExchanger: Crisis In Ad City (Part II) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part I) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part II) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part III) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (The Conclusion) AdExchanger: Angels And Startups AdExchanger: Rumble In Arbitrage Plaza… Continue reading »

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Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Snip Snip P&G will cut $400 million more dollars in agency and production fees before the end of its fiscal year on June 30. That’s in addition to the $750 million the CPG giant has already cut in agency fees since mid-2015, bringing its… Continue reading »

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Earlier this month at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Kyoto, Japan, we sat down with 40 executives from international publishers to get their thoughts on the state of programmatic adoption by publishers. Check out our earlier research on the future of programmatic TV here. Learn more about our upcoming events here.

Quick takeaways:

• Three-quarters of publishers in Japan reported increased revenue from programmatic advertising in the past year.
• Only 15 percent of Japanese publishers collect more than 50 percent of their revenue from programmatic advertising.
• Roughly one in five (21 percent) of Japan’s publishers actively block content from users employing an ad blocker.
• Programmatic advertising will grow to be worth $2.54 billion annually in Japan by 2020, up from $1 billion per year now.

Programmatic becomes mainstream
Japan’s media landscape is steadily maturing. Its once nascent programmatic market now accounts for over $1 billion dollars in digital ad spend, compared to just $10 million in 2013. Research based on a Digiday+ survey of publisher executives found that Japan’s publishers are reaping the benefits. Seventy-six percent of publishers reported seeing an increase in programmatic revenue over the past year.

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Amazon could livestream Premier League matches in the U.K. in a move that will determine whether football chiefs launch their own over-the-top service.

The retail juggernaut is poised to realize its ambitions as a sports broadcaster, should discussions with the league’s commercial bosses go the way it wants, according to two executives, who separately revealed details of the negotiations on condition of anonymity. On one end of the negotiations is Amazon, which likes the idea of new subscribers coming to Prime to watch the matches but won’t the break the bank to just show them in the U.K. On the other end, Premier League bigwigs caught by a surprise dip in value of the rights earlier in the auction now want a way to make up some of those losses.

Knowing the Premier League was trying to lure a deep-pocketed tech company to drive up prices, Amazon sat on the sidelines, only entering negotiations once it was clear the likes of Facebook weren’t going to bid and after Sky and BT secured the five best packages at a discount. Sky secured four out of the five packages earlier this month for £3.6 billion ($5 billion) over three years, a 14 percent discount on its existing deal, per reports. Premier League chiefs need to shift the two remaining packages to make money in a plateauing TV market. Those rights, however, aren’t attractive to Amazon or any of the other “multiple bidders” cited by the league; otherwise, a deal would have materialized by now.

It would be tricky for Amazon or any other bidder to benefit from either package. Both offer 20 matches each on midweek nights and bank holidays that had previously been unavailable on British television. Those 40 matches aren’t headline fixtures, said one of the executives, adding that a football fan won’t be convinced to subscribe to Prime based on those matches alone.

Repackaging the rights is the easiest way to get Amazon on board. If the league bundled near-live rights to all 380 games with one or both packages of 20 matches each, it would give Amazon a better proposition. A combined package of that scale could spark bids of around £360 million ($503 million), according to forecasts from Ampere Analysis. To cover that cost, Amazon would need to pull in another 1 million Prime subscribers in the U.K., per Ampere.

Should a deal happen, it would be the first time the league has sold rights to live matches with near-live rights. For the Premier League, it makes sense to break with tradition as it ponders its own over-the-top service. With Amazon as one of the league’s broadcasters, football chiefs can monitor from afar how fans watch matches on Prime before deciding on how and where it shows matches via its own channel, said one executive with knowledge of the league’s digital strategy. “If it looks like it [livestreaming] works in any way, then that is going to be a concern for TV broadcasters,” the executive said.

Whatever sum Amazon pays to the league will barely be a blip on Amazon’s balance sheet. This is a business, after all, that JPMorgan Chase estimated would spend £3.2 billion ($4.5 billion) in original content last year. Amazon was never going to make any outlandish offer to stream the world’s most popular football league in just one market, not when it’s still figuring out content production. The rights it could get and the price it may get them for could be valuable if they shed light on how content can drive Prime subscriptions and drive sales.

Amazon is in test-and-learn mode when it comes to livestreaming on Prime, and regional rights deals are a chance to find out what works and what doesn’t ahead of a bigger bet on sports, said Gareth Capon, CEO at video tech platform Grabyo. He pointed to advertising on Prime as one way Amazon could monetize the rights it buys. He said if Amazon could show brands selling on its site that there’s an upturn in sales from their stores during matches, then the proposition starts to become more interesting, particularly for related products such as ticketing and merchandise.

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NBC Sports and Refinery29 are embarking on a yearlong social editorial and marketing partnership focused on telling stories about female athletes and other women in sports. It’s the latest instance of NBCUniversal working with a platform or digital publisher to create digital content.

The partnership kicked off this week with a new Instagram account, @onherturf, which will promote women in sports through videos, photos and graphics. With the Winter Olympics still happening, broadcast exclusively in the U.S. by NBC Sports, the account mostly features highlights from the games, as well as quotes and illustrations spotlighting different athletes.

Refinery29 joins BuzzFeed, Vox Media, Snap and Apple News as digital companies or platforms that NBCUniversal has invested in or partnered with for digital content. NBC Sports and Refinery29 declined to comment on whether NBC Sports is funding On Her Turf, with Storms reiterating that it is “both an editorial and marketing partnership.”

“We feel there’s a real opportunity here to showcase powerful women in sports and tell these inspirational stories,” said Jenny Storms, CMO of NBC Sports Group. “At the same time, we recognize that it would probably work best if we created a partnership with someone that’s already in the space and speaking closely to millennial women. That’s where Refinery29 comes in.”

While the Olympics provide an easy opportunity to cover female athletes, other sports leagues and competitions broadcast by NBC Sports, including the NFL, the NHL, the English Premier League and NASCAR, are male-dominated. In these instances, NBC Sports and Refinery29 will focus on female fans of the sports and top female executives and personalities at the leagues themselves. Content also won’t be restricted to the sports that NBC Sports has broadcast rights to.

On Her Turf, which might eventually expand beyond the Instagram account, will also focus on how issues such as equal pay and mental health affect sports.

NBC Sports’ tie-up with Refinery29 is reminiscent of its other digital publishing partnerships. With BuzzFeed, in which NBCUniversal has invested $400 million, NBC Sports has programmed two Olympics-themed Snapchat Discover channels during the last two games. NBCUniversal also recently teamed up with BuzzFeed on a new millennial parenting channel called Playfull. With Vox Media, which NBCUniversal invested $200 million in, the  media giant formed the Concert ad platform. Across its various divisions, NBCUniversal is also the biggest producer of Snapchat shows. (NBCUniversal is not an investor in Refinery29.)

NBC Sports will handle ad sales for On Her Turf, centering on custom videos and images and sponsored editorial pieces.

“This will be beyond spots and dots,” said Storms. “And sponsors will be interested in this because we’ve seen partners attach themselves over the past year when it comes to stories of female empowerment.”

“There’s an opportunity for brands here, particularly those marketers looking to align their brands with the idea of female empowerment,” said Josh Spiegelman, managing director of Spotlight, Mindshare North America’s sports and entertainment practice. “I’d be interested in seeing what they do next with custom content solutions for advertisers.”

Refinery29 has three people dedicated full time to On Her Turf and six more helping part time. The publisher will take the lead on packaging and programming the Instagram account and any other platform On Her Turf expands to. NBC Sports is supplying Refinery29 with its live sports and other sports-related video, including archival footage, and assisting in programming and distribution with the help of its 10-person social team.

“We’re looking to highlight the role sports plays for women, and partnering with NBC Sports gives us access that helps us extend even deeper into this space,” said Amy Emmerich, chief content officer at Refinery29.

With On Her Turf, some of the intention is to drive people to tune in for NBC Sports broadcasts, but the companies don’t want to hit people over the head with it, according to Storms.

“The kernel of this idea is that we offer more women’s sports in prime time than anybody else,” said Storms. “We want to engage our female base.”

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