The Resurrection of Free TV

There's news this week that for the first time anyone can remember, cable and satellite TV services are actually losing more subscribers than they are gaining. It's just too pricey.  There's a great NPR interview with a consumer who says maybe he'll just watch television online and - ta-da! - free, over-the-air television. 

Free television almost seems like an idea from history these days.  But before it makes a comeback, we're actually going to have to make it easier for viewers to figure out.  Have you tried to consistently watch internet TV?  It's a maze of cords, wireless connections and funny black boxes that look like they'll all be obsolete almost as soon as you plug them in.  As this guy told NPR, "I just want to use my remote."  It's bound to get simpler in time.

Ease of access and choice almost always wins out with consumers.  Broadcast, over-the-air signals are still simple to get and higher quality than ever before.  Combined with mobile TV in the future, and a local focus, broadcasters may be on the winning end of technology change this time.  Now if I could just find one of my seven remote controls.

 - John Altenbern

Lessons from Brett

I'm not the biggest sports fan in the world, but the Brett Favre story is fascinating.  If you read this blog post and substitute Viking's Coach Brad Childress' name for a General Manager or News Director who must manage a "star," it all sounds very familiar, doesn't it? 

Television is a little like pro football.  High-powered, talented people must come together and figure out how to consistently win as a team.  (Start losing, and the coach gets fired and the troublesome players get traded.)  I've lost count of the times over the years when television stations have lost sight of that teamwork business.  It usually ends in a colossal explosion.  But as a Packers fan,  I feel better knowing that the Vikes might just implode this year!

- John Altenbern

Bears and Blackberries (and Local News)

I spent last week trying to "get lost" in the wilderness of Montana...  and did a pretty good job of it.  (OK, it's a little sad to admit that the BlackBerry does work in all but the most remote places.) 

There certainly are mental benefits to unplugging from the world for awhile, but eventually you want to know what's going on around you.  With a 21-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter in tow, we knew this was likely one of our last family vacations like this as a group.

Driving cross-country, we shared stories and listened for hours to XM radio while crossing the endless prairie of South Dakota.  Bluegrass music?  Check.  Coffeehouse acoustic?  Check.  Fox News?  Oh wait, skip that.  But when storm clouds turned black, we hit the FM button to get some local weather.  A crackly, older voice told us about hailstones the size of baseballs 50 miles behind us.  Thank goodness we missed that. 

In a week where grizzly bears attacked campers in their tents outside Yellowstone, we wanted to read a local newspaper to learn more about the story.  (Although there were no bears at our hotel.)  And yes, we watched a local newscast or two just for fun.  We learned things about trout, pine beetles killing trees, a wildfire under control and tomorrow's weather. The stuff that makes a community in Montana. 

No matter where you live or travel the need for localism endures.  Hearing local people report local news is absolutely essential to get a sense of place.  In Montana, knowing about bears and that new business coming to town seems way more important to the future vitality of local television than having the rights to air Dr. Phil. 

No matter what technology comes along, I'm convinced that the people who tell local stories in their communities have a solid future. 

Now, it's time to get "plugged in" again.  Although here in the midwest I'm going to miss those bear stories on the local news.  

- John Altenbern 

Reporter, a.k.a. Multi-media Information Gatherer and Distributor

What do we call people who report the news these days?  I find it amusing that the industry is struggling to come up with new names for reporters.  Are they VJ's?  Backpack journalists?  Multi-media journalists?  Multi-platform reporters?  Perhaps you prefer the old-fashioned "one-man band" name.

Since when does a change in technology dictate finding a new name for yourself?  Musicians didn't become digital recording artists when they started putting their songs on iTunes.  Hearst recently announced that their reporters were all being trained to create and distribute material in all sorts of places - but they were sticking to the "reporter" name.  Good call.  In the newspaper world, photographers who grew up shooting film now shoot digital still pictures and take video, too.  So are they photographers or videographers?  Or digital jounalists? 

One thing is certain -- for the readers/users/viewers who receive information, it really doesn't matter what we call ourselves.  This new identity crisis of ours is just a reflection of the industry's temporary uneasiness with technology change. A reporter who filed a story by telegraph 100 years ago was still reporting. Yes, it's cool and it requires some new skills, but does sending a story using a Droid phone really require a title change?   

- John Altenbern

News viewers are a lot like Netflix customers

No one will ever accuse me of being a very early adopter of new technology. But I think I understand now why Blockbuster video is going broke. My kids encouraged me to sign up for a Netflix trial, and instead of asking Netflix to send me DVD's in the mail, I hooked up a computer to the television set and used a wireless broadband connection to watch instantly. It works like a charm. HD movies, recently run television shows, all the series like Madmen that I never had time to watch - they are all there. Streaming works without a hitch. I can pause the movie and come back to it or quickly "rewind" to see that great scene again.

The last time I went inside a down-at-the-heels Blockbuster store I rented a movie and paid $4 for the privilege. They told me I owed them another $3 for a rental my teenager didn't return on time two months ago. What a lousy customer experience. It's almost what I will pay now for a month of Netflix service, with unlimited viewing.

It reminds me once again what we have seen for many years in consumer research. Choice and convenience win out every single time. When television stations in a market seem like dull carbon copies of one another, is it any wonder the audience gets bored and seeks out something new? If the only flavor on the menu is vanilla, I want to be the guy selling pistachio. And if I can be alone in a time period, or offer a product that has some unique advantages that give viewers a true choice, so much the better.

 - John Altenbern

Trucks, Pigs and Local TV News

There were two odd developments recently in the "branding" world that caused me to say, "Huh?"

Chevrolet issued an internal memo to employees telling them to stop using the shorthand name, "Chevy."  The author claimed the car company needed to have a single brand identity that was consistently communicated - Chevrolet.  When the memo leaked out, all those Don McLean fans from the 1970s howled.  How can you drive your "Chevrolet to the levy"?  Isn't this the company that famously built a model called the "Chevy II?"  After 24 hours, the company retracted the memo, saying it was proud of its "Chevy" heritage.  In other words, "never mind."  It was a bad idea from the marketing department. 

At almost the same time, here in Iowa the pork producers decided it was time to move on from their famous tagline, "The other white meat."  They're looking for a new brand identity after almost 30 years and with sales of pork sinking lower than the proverbial hog's belly. 

A "brand expert" made the comment that the pork producers were abandoning one of the most identified marketing messages ever created. His argument:  brand messages are a connection with consumers, and not intended to lead to actual sales. 

There are a couple of lessons here for television people like us.  Why would you ever want to get away from a nickname that is the audience's most sincere form of flattery?  In some markets, the vernacular is to refer to stations in some "shorthand" fashion: 'PVI is definitely Channel 6 to people who live in Philadelphia.  No one (even Chevrolet) should want to stamp out that sort of reference. 

But does a slogan or tagline need to change if ratings are sinking like pork bellies?  Maybe.  Something is wrong if you are losing customers and your competitors are gaining, but it probably goes a lot deeper than the slogan itself.  I don't know that saying "Chevy" or recognizing the "other white meat" slogan will sell more cars or pork ribs, but discarding well recognized taglines and slogans shouldn't be done lightly. 

As we've said in research presentations, when a slogan is evaluated and found to be weak, you can certainly change it - but recognition for the new slogan will be exactly zero. A new slogan by itself won't raise ratings.  Giving slogans real meaning and emotional value for the audience is a tougher, but more rewarding proposition. 

Someone tell GM and the pork producers they need to scratch below the surface and get to the meat of the issue. 

News Media Gatekeepers In a NY State of Mind

If you look at an aerial map of Nashville, it's easy to see the Cumberland River winding through the city. It's not as easy to see the faces of the 1.5 million people in the metro area - thousands of whom are flooded out this week. And it's not easy to see those flood victims on  television, either. They can certainly be seen and heard on WSMV, our client in Nashville which is doing yeoman's duty the last few days, broadcasting literally life-saving information around the clock on-air and online. But in terms of national attention, the guy with some fireworks and three gas grill tanks in his SUV in Times Square is getting top billing. Oil in the gulf is - rightly so - competing for attention, too. Both are legitimate and big stories worthy of coverage. But it does make you wonder how it would be handled if the gatekeepers of big media were flooded out in Manhattan and the guy with the SUV had parked on a busy streetcorner in Tennessee.

There's a lot of speculation about what newscast rundowns will look like when citizens take control from the media "gatekeepers" and build their own lineups. It's already possible online, and the trend is building. Somehow I think we are speeding up the audience's dissatisfaction with some of the TV news judgments being made today. The "East of the Hudson" view can sometimes be a little too narrow in a country of 330 million. It especially looks that way if you're flooded out of your house in Nashville.

-John Altenbern

An Upbeat May for Local Television

As a history fan, I often think of events in the past that seem to apply to current happenings.  Back in the 1930's, F.D.R. supporters passed out lapel buttons to Depression-weary Americans that said, "The worst is over, business is better." That seems to be the common sentiment at television stations these days.

I've been in a half-dozen stations in the last several weeks - in all parts of the country.  While no one is rejoicing at their good fortune, the gloom and doom phase is definitely lifting.  Managers are thinking about the future again, not just trying to deal with day to day problems and cutbacks. 

But as the Great Depression turned a whole generation into compulsive "savers," there will be lasting effects in the local television business because of what we've all been through.  Paying big bucks to a syndicator for an untested lead-in program now appears dangerous.  Hiring that expensive out-of-town anchor to make a splash seems like an old, quaint idea. 

At the same time, making smart and cautious bets on the future seems like the right thing to do. Creating a new local program that's "advertiser friendly," buying everyone an iPad or iPhone, and using research to figure out how to squeeze an extra demo point out of a lead-in makes perfect economic sense.  And it seems in-tune with where this business is heading.  It's facing the future with some common sense. 

So as May sweeps begin, the mood is upbeat.  It's not only business that's better - so are attitudes.  I'm looking forward to May.

- John Altenbern

What Does Fed's Broadband Plan Mean for Local TV?

I would love a broadband connection at my house that pumps out 100 mbps.  (My cable connection is now 8.26 mbps and I think it's pretty fast.) 

This week the federal government will announce a plan to make the information highway the autobahn in the next few years - in part by taking spectrum space away from broadcasters and using it to beef up the internet.  It's a bitter pill for broadcasters, who have been favored in the regulatory world for the past 60 years.  Is the FCC about to shunt over-the-air television to the spectrum sideline and diminish it as a medium forever?

I don't think so. The value of broadcast TV is just too high. I have a hard time believing this is as simple as the bureaucrats wheeling out a new plan for the future and everyone applauding because they can download movies more quickly.  It comes down to two key groups:  consumers and politicians. 

Consumers because Americans watch more TV than any other group in the world, and the system responsible for most of that content is broadcasting.  The audience has even confirmed that choice in recent years by going out and purchasing expensive HDTV's - even in the midst of a recession - in order to see the best quality signals, whether they are delivered on cable, satellite or over-the-air. 

The spectrum required to launch mobile TV is hanging in the balance with the government's new broadband plan.  Who better than broadcasters can develop a service that would put local over-the-air television on your cellphone?

Then there are the politicians.  Overwhelmingly,  people in this country get their political info from television.  That includes finding out about candidates trying to get elected who advertise on TV.  Do politicians have the will to let down the medium that plays a key role in putting them into office?  I doubt it. The FCC's plan may have to change given the political realities. 

Sure, I want a faster, better internet and there's only so much spectrum to go around. But first, you'll have to pry the remote control out of my hand.

-- John Altenbern

Local TV: A Common Currency

Like almost everyone, I've been watching those dramatic Olympic stories play out on TV. 

What's happening in Vancouver has become the "common currency" of a lot of conversations.  Did you see those snowboarders?  Is the Russian ice skater a sorehead?  Did you see that skier fall as he crossed the finish line? 

Much of America is watching NBC each night, according to Nielsen.  You might say, "Well, this is the Olympics - what do you expect?"  Ratings will likely disappear when the games are over.  But television networks - and television in general - still have the power to command a mass audience with the right programming.

It's a fact that seems often overlooked in the discussion of the new media landscape.  Much of our industry's attention seems to be directed towards the "long tail" - those incremental increases possible by satisfying the needs of a niche audience.  There certainly can be a business in becoming a news source for a neighborhood, for example, or a particular demographic like young mom's or retirees. 

But some local television newscasts are still that valued place where people come to see what's going on in their area, or to learn when the next storm is expected.  Real substitutes are few.  With the right combination of content, personalities and unique style, local television stations can command the attention of a very diverse and large audience in a geographic area. 

Research shows us that more people each day watch local newscasts than download a video or visit one of a million websites. Sure, there's business in niche websites and narrow demographic targeting, and we certainly face more competition than ever before.  But compelling and relevant stories that appeal to our unique geographic audiences never go out of style. 

Maybe we should think less about chasing every stray set of eyeballs and more on how to make local television less boring and predictable.  Your station can become the "common currency" in your market.  You can win the gold if you're willing to make the commitment. 

- John Altenbern