Looking Back at the TV Ad Business as it Turns 100
Also Bleacher Report does the NFL Draft
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I had a lot of fun recently working with my partners at TripleLift on a report titled “100 Years of Television - The Revolution Isn’t Over” (yes, the TV tech is actually a century old this year, though most people weren’t not binging shows in the 1920s).
You can check out the full report here.
The cool part was talking to executives who were around during some of the industry’s biggest landmark moments, while also trying to predict what the next 10, or next 100 years might look like.
Here are some highlights:
The pre-30 era
Jim Spaeth, longtime media researcher, and former president of the Advertising Research Foundation: “In the 1960s and 70s, TV ads were all 60 seconds. You didn’t have 30s and 15s. At some point, you were permitted to split them. So, if you were General Foods, you could buy 60s and cut them up for different brands. There were a lot of logistical challenges. Overall, there were just fewer commercials.”
When Nielsen moved to people meters from paper diaries
Lee Doyle, chief investment officer at Empower Media: “You only remembered the big stuff [when filling out diaries]. Then, with meters, all of a sudden broadcast saw a 10 to 12 percent drop.”
The first ‘streaming ads’ in full-episode TV players
Former Starcom exec Tracey Scheppach: “I remember being in my office [at Starcom], and ABC was offering us 10-episode packages, and I was like, ‘I want them all! That's gonna work!’ I told some colleagues who said, ‘this is so dumb, who is going to watch TV on their desktops?’ But I knew this was digital distribution. It was a step toward Netflix, Peacock, etc.”
The DVR and Time-Shifting
Longtime GroupM executive Rino Scanzoni: “What the DVR did, allowing you to record programs and skip commercials, caused some paranoia. Because ratings were long calculated against program time, not commercial time, and suddenly program time no longer equated to ad time.”
Veteran ad sales executive Scott Schiller: “This marks the beginning of accountability for the actual commercial, not just shows.”
What TV ads Will Look Like in 10 Years
Bill McLaughlin, Vice President- Head of CTV Sales, TripleLift: “AI and automation are going to play a much larger role in TV. We’ll see ads become more dynamic, adapting in real time. That’s where we are headed.”
Check it out here.
Bleacher Report Trades Up
I caught up with Bleacher Report’s head of content, Tyler Price, on my podcast this week, just in time for the Warner Discovery brands big push into the NFL draft. Even though ESPN/ABC are broadcasting the draft, the company has an official deal with the league to cover the event the Bleacher Way.
Here are some highlights from the pod:
“What we did a few years ago is we started bringing athletes into that conversation too, because we realized that they're experiencing these moments in real time too,” said Price. “Giving the opportunity for your everyday fans, your megastar athletes to all experience those moments together through access and interactivity, that's kind of our core principle. And to your point, that's a compliment to the traditional sports experience, not a direct competitor to.”
“I think what's great about this year, we launched an official partnership with the NFL. That partnership provided us highlight rights, [such as] in-game highlights inside the BR app, access to historical highlight usage off platform and some of the content that we create and access to some of their temple events,…We will have the most robust draft coverage we've ever had because you have that conversation reactionary feel.”
On working with creators in the sports/social space:
“We attack that type of partnership with open arms. We see the power of creators out there. You know, was talking about this with Drew Muller, who oversees the House of Highlights brand inside of Bleacher Report as well. And they're super aggressive in that creator space. They've even launched a league called the House of Highlights Creator League, where they take some of the greatest creators, bring them together, and have them compete in traditional sports formats.”