Adweek : Television

Information Diet: Judah Friedlander

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:17:27 +0000

Specs
Who Judah Friedlander
Age 42
Accomplishments Stars as Frank Rossitano on NBC's 30 Rock; author of How to Beat Up Anybody: An Instructional and Inspirational Karate Book by the World Champion; trucker hat connoisseur
Base Queens, N.Y.

What’s the first information you consume in the morning?
Usually the Pentagon calls me to find out what’s going on, and then that gets interrupted because the president starts Skyping me. And then [Mitt] Romney starts Skyping me, but he just wants to talk about sports. It’s a little weird.

What do you read or watch or listen to at the breakfast table?
WWE Magazine. Print edition. I’m banned from WWE because I suplex too hard, but I still respect their organization and their periodical.

What occupies your mind in the car, on the subway, train or bus?
I usually break-dance for money on the train, but that’s actually a cover for me solving crimes. So I would say what’s on my mind is security and justice.

Are you a TV junkie or on an airtime-restricted diet?
I don’t watch a lot of TV. I’m too busy teaching karate to exotic dancers. I actually talk about that in my book, How to Beat Up Anybody. It’s currently ranked No. 55,175 on Amazon.

If you’re a couch potato, what do you watch, and how: TV, laptop or tablet?
Once in a while, I do watch old Family Ties repeats on The Hub. And I have every episode of The Six Million Dollar Man on DVD. You can’t go wrong with Lee Majors. At times, I’ll walk the streets carrying my TV set so it’s mobile. I’ll take it on the subway, hook it up to a generator and watch it right there.

Before bed, do you bite into a novel, graze on Twitter or fast until morning?
I have my own Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, and I manage them all myself, so I go on all three of those. I just want to throw it out there—Twitter has yet to verify me. I don’t know what they’re afraid of.

Which is more nutritious: print or Web?
It really depends on the product. If it’s raining outside, and you forgot your umbrella, you can put a newspaper over your head. You’re not going to do that with a computer. And you’re not going to pick up after your dog with your iPad.

Give us the skinny on your favorite app.
I like Action Movie FX and Super 8 from J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot. Super 8 makes anything you film with your phone look like an old 8-millimeter movie, and Action Movie adds all kinds of really cool machine gun and explosion effects to your videos.

What’s your biggest digital indulgence?
I’m going to go old school and just say talking on the phone. It’s something that nobody does anymore. If you call someone directly on the phone, it’s like you’re breaking the front door of their house or something.

With such a bloated media universe, how do you cut out the fat?
I just stick to bionics, wrestling and sports. All the political, serious world stuff—it comes to me. And I don’t read celebrity gossip. I just hide in celebrities’ homes and overhear things. That’s where you get the real story.

Falling on Def Ears: Marketers Slow to Embrace HD Ads

Anthony Crupi — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:52:44 +0000

If you own a television and take an interest in big-time sports, chances are you’re intimately familiar with the Geico brand. From October 2010 to September 2011, the insurance provider invested $158.1 million advertising in televised sports, making it the sixth biggest spender in the space. And yet despite the magnitude of Geico’s TV budget, none of its spots was produced in high-def.

Even a casual viewer will recognize that something’s just a bit off with Geico’s parade of Cockney geckos, aggrieved troglodytes and squealing pigs. For one thing, when the ads run in native HD programming, they’re letterboxed, bracketed by a pair of vertical bars. For another, the picture quality isn’t as sharp as the surrounding HD content.

Now, by no means is Geico alone in its adherence to the lesser standard-definition format. Marketers of all stripes continue to balk at producing high-def spots; so much so that the digital media-services company DG estimates that only 16 percent of all TV advertising is aired in HD.

Unfortunately, the HD blind spot could be costing advertisers a fortune in squandered impressions—as much as $8.2 billion per year, according to a new study from DG and the research firm Kantar Media.

After studying return path data culled from some 100,000 DirecTV households, DG and Kantar discovered that viewers are much more likely to stick with an HD spot than an ad shot in vanilla SD. All told, retention for HD spots was 18 percent higher than for standard-def spots, and that lift jumped as high as 28 percent when the ad in question was slotted in the “A” position of the commercial pod.

In the critical prime-time daypart, HD ads delivered a 12 percent lift over their SD counterparts.

The format issue appears to be especially relevant in the beverage and QSR categories, as HD spots for both delivered a 33 percent lift. And there’s a correlation between stickiness and impact; per DG and Kantar’s reckoning, QSR brands that produce their ads in SD risk leaving $895 million in impressions on the table.

“It comes down to wasted value,” said Mike Caprio, svp, DG. “You’re spending millions of dollars on media, millions on creative, hundreds of thousands on production, and then at the point where the customer will see all that work and all that investment … you’re essentially turning them away.”

It’s not as if viewers aren’t aware of the discrepancy. Nearly 50 percent of people surveyed said they could easily discern the difference between HD and standard content.

At present, nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of U.S. TV households have at least one HDTV set—up from just 28 percent in 2008. Approximately 82 percent of the programming on broadcast TV is offered in high-def, while 70 percent of national cable offerings are available in the format.

“The advertising business hasn’t been as progressive as it should be in addressing the issue,” Caprio said. “There has to be a cultural shift, and this [study] is a major step. For the first time we have a quantitative analysis of the true value of what is gained and lost.”

Even so, it may take some time to get the most stubborn hardliners onboard with HD. “One major movie studio absolutely refuses to acknowledge that HD sells more tickets at the box office,” Caprio said. “It’s almost shocking to hear that from someone in that industry.”

ABC Sells Out Oscars

Anthony Crupi — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:35:14 +0000

On the heels of NBC’s lucrative Super Bowl sell-off, ABC has moved the last remaining advertising inventory in its 84th annual Academy Awards broadcast.

Speaking to investors during the Walt Disney Co.’s quarterly earnings call, Mouse House president and CEO Bob Iger told investors ABC sold out the Feb. 26 Academy Awards “about a week ago.” Iger added that demand was such that some marketers had to be turned away.

While Iger did not comment on pricing, sources say ABC was able to land an average unit cost of $1.7 million—roughly on par with what clients spent for an Oscars spot in 2011. Two years ago, a 30-second spot in the broadcast fetched around $1.5 million.

That marketers are willing to spend that kind of money on Hollywood’s annual Valentine to itself suggests that there’s still a good deal of value in reach. The Academy Awards draws the fourth-largest audience on television, behind the Super Bowl and the AFC and NFC Championship games.

Among the marketers that bought time in last year’s Oscars are: AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Hyundai, Sprint, Unilever (Dove) and JCPenney.

This year marks the third solid outing for ABC after the annus horribilis of 2009, in which both General Motors and L’Oréal Paris backed out of their usual commitments. L’Oréal bought 180 seconds of air time in the 2008 broadcast, making it the second-largest investor behind General Motors (210 seconds). Shortly after GM announced it was backing out of the show, Hyundai stepped in to take its place.

A single spot in the 2008 Academy Awards cost nearly $1.3 million. In four years, the rate has increased by a factor of 30 percent.

ABC hopes to rebound from a lackluster performance in 2011, when a mismatched hosting duo and a slate of depressing Best Picture nominees drove deliveries down 10 percent to 37.6 million viewers. Taking the podium for the ninth time, Oscar favorite Billy Crystal replaces last year’s pairing of a listless and disinterested James Franco and the saucer-eyed, overcompensating Anne Hathaway.

Crystal is something of a good-luck charm for the Oscars. The last time the comedian hosted the event (2004), ABC delivered 43.6 million viewers—a mark the broadcast has failed to reach in each of the following seven years.

Also not lost on anyone at ABC is the fact that Crystal was the host of the most-watched Oscars broadcast of all time. On March 23, 1998, during a ceremony in which Titanic cruised away with 11 gold statuettes, ABC delivered a whopping 57.3 million viewers.

All told, Crystal-hosted Academy Awards broadcasts boast an average draw of 45.2 million viewers.

For all that, even Billy Crystal isn’t bulletproof. The year before he hosted the record-smashing 70th Academy Awards, the comedian walked into the shooting range that was The English Patient. Among the films nominated for Best Picture of 2007, the morose, impossibly long Ralph Fiennes melodrama was joined by the low-budget art house dramas Secrets & Lies and Shine. (At the time it was nominated, Secrets & Lies was playing on just 93 screens across the U.S. By way of comparison, Jerry McGuire was on 2,000.)

If an argument can be made for the correlation between low-budget Best Picture nominees and depressed ratings—a record low 31.8 million viewers tuned in for the 80th Academy Awards (Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men)—Crystal could have his work cut out for him this time around.

The prohibitive favorite to take home the Best Picture statuette is The Artist, a silent black-and-white film from France set in the late 1920s.

Earnings: News Corp. Beats the Street in Q2

Sam Thielman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:23:57 +0000

Trouble at its U.K. print division may have made a rocky 2011 for News Corp, but the media conglomerate defied expectations by pulling out of its three-straight-quarter streak of year-on-year profit declines. Revenue at the company was up 2 percent over last year in the second quarter of fiscal year 2012, coming to a solid $8.98 billion vs. last year's $8.76 billion; earnings for the quarter were up 65% to $1.06 billion against last year's $642 million.

It's particularly impressive considering the obstacles News Corp. has had to overcome this quarter alone: Dave DeVoe, the company's CFO, clocked the legal cost of the News of the World phone hacking scandal at $125 million—"a figure "substantially higher than our guidance at the beginning of the first quarter," DeVoe admitted. Accordingly, earnings calls at News will no longer include that guidance—just tallies of the previous quarter's expenditures (COO Chase Carey estimated that settlements accounted for just 15 percent of that cost, with the rest taken up by legal fees). Lost revenue from the paper itself continued to dog the conglomerate's bottom line.

News Corp's white knight this quarter was its cable division—strong performances by new and established series on FX and the start of the presidential campaign season for Fox News Channel gave the unit an edge, as did the division's regional sports networks (RSN's). The company said that this season's NBA lockout more or less corresponded to the prior season's contract dispute - presumably it expects higher revenue still during Q2 of 2013. Overall, the division grew $147 million year-over-year, from $735 million to $882 million.

Ad revenue on domestic cable networks saw a 6% uptick, led by ratings gains at FX. with Louie, American Horror Story, and Justified among the network's hits. Carey indrectly referenced the weak scatter market: "The advertising markets, while not quite as robust as they were six months ago, remain solid," he said. Carey said that ad sales on FX had seen "strong double-digit growth," while RSN's were "up in the mid-single-digits."

News Corp's digital investments paid off this quarter, as well. "The majority of the [digital] revenue predicted for this year is already captured," said DeVoe. The number so far is $200 million from deals with Netflix and Amazon, and Carey said he saw potential for a great deal of growth, as far as digital is concerned.

"I don't see how the business doesn't get bigger," he told an analyst. "Every time you turn around there's somebody else creating a digital platform. This week it was Verizon and Redbox." As far as News Corp's strategy, Carey said the best idea was, "whether it's acquired or created, [to] control as much content as possible and then take advantage of it."

Turner Embraces Social TV, Interactive Ads via 'Conan' App

Mike Shields — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:03:35 +0000

Sometime this month, Coco’s getting his own app. And like the Harvard-educated funnyman, this app’s going to be pretty clever.

As part of a major push by Turner’s entertainment networks to embrace second-screen viewing and smart TVs, TBS is planning to introduce complementary content and eventually ad messages to a slew of its shows, starting with a tablet app designed to be accessed during episodes of TBS’ Conan.

Using audio recognition technology similar to that employed by the popular smartphone app Shazam, each episode of Conan will be fingerprinted. As a result, users of the new Conan app (which is being sponsored by AT&T) will be periodically greeted with pop-ups within the app featuring information relevant to the show, such as facts about a guest’s movie career.

And soon enough, viewers will be able to buy tickets to those guests’ movies via the app. At a mini conference centered on media convergence held at the Time Warner Center in New York on Wednesday, Turner executives showed a mock-up of potential Conan commerce integration. During a demo clip, as actress Ellie Kemper of Bridesmaids sat down with host Conan O'Brien, viewers were prompted to purchase tickets to the movie via the Conan app.

The Bridesmaids example was theoretical, but Dennis Adamovich, Turner’s svp of brand and digital activation, said that such ad integrations would be available during the upcoming TV upfront. So will Turner’s new daily deals offerings. Starting this April, viewers watching shows like TBS staple Everybody Loves Raymond will start seeing daily offers pop up on the bottom of their screen—provided they are one of the first to purchase a new line of smart/connected TVs from Vizio and other manufacturers.

TBS and TNT also plan to start building ads into its companion apps for The Big Bang Theory and Leverage tied to TV spots airing during those shows. For example, ads for advertisers like Twizzlers or Little Caesars could prompt viewers to provide their email address or phone number via the companion app to receive a quick coupon.

Clearly, Turner is looking to establish itself as a leader in adopting smart TV technology, and particularly ads that leverage audio fingerprinting. “We think this is a transformative technology,” said Adamovich. “We think this is going to redefine how viewers watch and interact with TV.” For now, that interaction requires viewers to do so via an app. But nearly all of the examples Turner presented on Wednesday could be ported to the TV screen itself, once enough smart TVs are installed, offered Adamovich.

There's little question that social TV as well as companion tablet viewing are taking off among consumers. However, it remains to be seen how many Americans are ready, or even know about the promise of connected TVs. And there’s also the risk of couponing TV viewers to death—and turning the ultimate branding vehicle into a banner ad-filled direct-response medium.

But credit Turner for trying to learn, and lead. That was pretty much the point of Wednesday's event, the second of three planned conferences featuring buyers, sales executives and industry luminaries. “We are trying to understand the consumer marketplace,” said David Levy, TBS’ president of sales, distribution and sports. “People react to advertising differently on different screens, and we’re trying to figure out, ‘What is the next evolution of TV everywhere?’ and ‘Do you sell it differently?’ We’re learning with our partners. After all, I’m a brand, too.”

Among the speakers on the docket helping Turner and its guest learn was noted author, journalist and NYU professor Clay Shirky, who warned the TV business to avoid ending up like the music business—which for too long fixated on things like audio quality and ignored its customers’ desire to have more control of their music-buying experience. Shirky noted that TV might be headed down the same path, pushing 3-D TVs when few consumers seem interested, while still making it difficult for users to find comprehensive, on-demand programing choices. “People don’t want to hear about things like rights windows,” he said.

Shirky also urged TV executives to stop treating its viewers all the same. The 3,000 plus viewers who have contributed to the Dr. Who Wikipedia page are a different breed of super-engaged fans—and TV networks should cater to them (though Shirky neglected to say exactly how). “Mass is different than passion,” Shirky said. “All women 25-54 are not interchangeable.…[On the Web] you can’t make your most passionate viewers shut up. People love to talk to each other [about TV]. You should build an ecosystem that recognizes this.”

Outlook Murky for ‘The River’

Anthony Crupi — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:47:11 +0000

While ABC had anticipated a roaring cataract of GRPs, the series premiere of The River brought forth little more than a lazy, trickling stream.

According to Nielsen preliminary data, the two-hour debut averaged 7.59 million total viewers and a 2.4 rating in the 18-49 demo, and while that marked a slight improvement over year-ago time slot occupants V and Detroit 1-8-7, it was a far cry from the 3.1 rating CBS scared up at 9 p.m. with NCIS: Los Angeles.

In head-to-head competition, CBS’ Unforgettable outdrew The River by nearly 5 million total viewers, while tying it in the demo.

Of particular concern is how The River’s deliveries dropped as the night wore on. The first hour of the premiere averaged 8.2 million viewers and a 2.5 in the dollar demo, before falling to 6.82 million viewers and a 2.2 rating in the 10 p.m.-11 p.m. slot.

According to buyer estimates, The River is one of the more expensive scripted offerings on the Tuesday night roster, commanding nearly $150,000 for a 30-second spot. CBS’ veteran drama NCIS charges around $155,000 for a :30, while a unit in Fox’s Glee can cost as much as $265,000 a pop.

The tepid response to the horror/adventure strip is emblematic of much of ABC’s 2011-12 campaign. Among the underachievers that have dotted Paul Lee’s first year as entertainment president are Charlie’s Angels, which bowed to 8.76 million viewers and a 2.1 rating, and Pan Am, which started strong (11.1 million viewers/3.1 rating) before plummeting to 3.74 million viewers and a 1.2 rating on Jan. 22.

Angels was euthanized after five episodes while the final Pan Am burn-off episodes will air Feb. 12 and 19. ABC also pulled the plug on a pair of comedies (Man Up!, Work It).

At the same time, ABC has developed a number of minor hits, including Revenge, Suburgatory, Last Man Standing and Once Upon a Time, the latter of which claims bragging rights to the season’s highest-rated drama debut (4.0 on Oct. 23).

Naturally, The River doesn’t present a make-or-break situation for ABC, which still has a few cards up its sleeve. In March, the network will premiere the sudsy GCB—formerly titled Good Christian Bitches/Good Christian Belles—and the Ashley Judd drama Missing. April marks the debut of Shonda Rhimes’ D.C. drama Scandal and the biting comedy Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23.

At least one of these new series is going to have to put up big numbers if ABC is to pull itself out of the hole it’s in. Through the first 20 weeks of the season, ABC is averaging a 2.4 in the demo, leaving it in fourth place behind NBC (2.7).

ABC Family Sends 'Bunheads' to Series

Sam Thielman — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:21:13 +0000

ABC Family has green-lit a new show from the creator of The Gilmore Girls for a full series. Amy Sherman-Palladino's Bunheads is set to begin production this spring with Tony-winning stage actor Sutton Foster in the lead role. The scripted drama follows a Las Vegas showgirl who marries a small town guy on a whim and moves to his rural home, where she begins teaching dance.

The green light is the latest in a string at ABC Family. Baby Daddy and reality series Beverly Hills Nannies (both set for springtime production starts, as well) were recently given the go-ahead at the network, as was a fifth season of The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

The network is touting both Sherman-Palladino's involvement and Foster's performance in the new series, both of which they predict will appeal to its base. Though the Anything Goes singer/actor/dancer has appeared in guest spots on HBO's Flight of the Conchords and NBC's Law & Order: SVU, Bunheads will be her largest television role to date.

"[Sherman-Palladino's] vision for Bunheads aligns beautifully with our brand," said ABC Family programming head Kate Juergens, adding that she was sure the net's audience of millennials would go for Foster "the same way Broadway has.”

Broadcast Spot Pricing Continues to Creep Up

Anthony Crupi — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:02:41 +0000

The price of a 30-second advertisement on network prime time increased at a 3 percent rate in 2011, as strong demand helped push the average unit cost to just under $110,000 a pop.

Per analysis by the New York-based independent agency TargetCast tcm, rates were highest in the second quarter of 2011, when the average :30 cost $127,291, marking a 2 percent increase versus the year-ago period.

As one might well expect, rates were at their lowest in the quarter coinciding with summer repeats and competition series. According to TargetCast, the average Q3 spot cost was $82,951, up 4 percent from summer 2010.

After the Q3 uptick, growth began to peter out again in the fourth quarter, with broadcasters commanding an average rate of $116,122 per :30—a 2 percent increase year over year. TargetCast arrives at its estimates by way of SQAD Inc’s NetCosts service, which compiles data from media agencies and in-house buying systems.

On the year, Fox boasted the highest average unit cost ($180,844), followed by CBS ($106,351), ABC ($105,885) and NBC ($74,758). Top-rated among adults 18-49, Fox commanded the biggest rates in all four quarters.

Fox and NBC fetch the highest prices for a single program in American Idol and Sunday Night Football, respectively. Inventory on both platforms can cost as much as $500,000 per spot. Meanwhile, the greatest bargains can be found on Saturday night when HUT levels are at their lowest. According to buyers, a :30 in NBC’s three-hour block of encore programming averages around $25,000.

Quarter-to-quarter broadcast pricing has been flat-to-up since Q2 2010. Prior to that, the recession and increased pressure from ad-supported cable helped drive costs down. In Q1 2010, rates fell 10 percent to $104,051.

Gary Carr, svp, executive director of national broadcast, TargetCast, said that while the scatter market has softened, much of the impact on client demand can be chalked up to the relatively high sellout levels in the 2011-12 upfront.

“The robust demand for television, combined with a somewhat slower rating decline, drove unit prices and CPMs higher [in 2011],” Carr said.

While the Big Four put up modest gains, the high-end cable networks enjoyed a significant increase in unit costs. The average rate for 30 seconds of airtime on a top-15 cable net last year grew 10 percent to $11,884.

ESPN led all cable outlets with an average prime-time spot cost of $34,826, maxing out in the fourth quarter with a rate of just under $60,000 a pop. Naturally, the last three months of the calendar year coincide with football season. According to industry estimates, a 30-second spot on Monday Night Football cost just north of $300,000 during the 2011 NFL campaign.

'Smash' Strikes a Chord With Viewers

Anthony Crupi — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:22:47 +0000

NBC’s dogged promotional push for its new Broadway drama, Smash, appears to have paid off, as Monday night’s premiere delivered the season’s highest ratings in the 10 p.m. slot.

According to Nielsen preliminary data, Smash served up 11.5 million total viewers and a 3.8 rating in the coveted adults 18-49 demo, easily outpacing CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 (2.7) and ABC’s Castle (2.0).

The premiere marks the first time during the 2011-12 broadcast season that a new NBC drama has struck a chord with viewers. The much-ballyhooed Playboy Club on Sept. 19 bowed to an anemic 5.03 million viewers and a 1.6 rating, an opening salvo that ensured the series’ swift demise. (NBC mothballed the Bunnies after just three episodes.)

Other duds include: Prime Suspect, which averaged a 1.2 rating over the course of 13 installments; the procedural/fantasy mashup Grimm, which puts up a 1.6 in the wasteland that is Friday night; and The Firm, notching a meager 1.0 rating in the demo over its first five episodes.

Already, Smash has set the bar at 10 p.m. across the entire week, as its 3.8 rating eclipsed previous season highs in the hour set by CBS’ CSI and Hawaii Five-0 (both topped out at 3.4). Moreover, the rating exorcizes the demons that have plagued NBC’s Monday nights, representing a 280 percent improvement over the network’s seasonal average of a 1.0 rating in the Monday 10 p.m. time slot.

While it’s far too early to guess how Smash will hold up in the coming weeks, the early results are promising. For one, it now stands as the season’s No. 2-rated new drama premiere, trailing only Once Upon a Time on ABC (4.0 on Oct. 23). Perhaps more importantly, Smash has the potential to be the first real hit fostered by entertainment president Bob Greenblatt, who smuggled the series into NBC when he arrived from Showtime.

Smash is a passion project for Greenblatt, who signed off on a promotional maelstrom to ensure that the show enjoyed strong sampling in its debut. While estimates of NBC’s measured media spend (much of it outdoor) range from $20 million to $25 million, those figures do not take into account all the complementary exposure afforded Smash by NBC and its cable siblings.

For example, the new 60-second Smash promo that aired during NBC’s presentation of the Super Bowl—featuring Katharine McPhee’s pulse-pounding performance of Ryan Tedder’s “Touch Me,” the spot is far more overtly male-skewing than the earlier “Beautiful” clip—carved out an estimated $7 million in real estate. Given the gender breakdown of Sunday night’s national audience, it’s possible that some 60 million men watched McPhee gyrating in her bedsheet.

Again, there’s no telling how Smash will hold up in the long run, and there was a not-inconsiderable decline between the first and second half hours. Between 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Smash averaged a 4.2 rating in the demo, but that fell nearly 20 percent in the second half (3.4). That said, the show has the advantage of a robust lead-in.

The evening after The Voice bowed in the post-Super Bowl slot to 37.6 million viewers and a 16.3 rating, the competition series returned Monday to an impressive 17.7 million viewers and a 6.6 in the demo, making it NBC’s highest-rated regular season broadcast in nearly five years.

The Voice picked up steam as the night wore on, rising 30 percent from a 5.3 from 8 p.m.-9 p.m. to a 7.3 in the final hour.

All told, the one-two punch of The Voice and Smash led NBC to an easy win, as the Peacock averaged a 5.7 rating to CBS’ 3.5, ABC’s 2.4, Fox’s 2.3 and Univision’s 1.6. The CW closed out the night with a 0.6 among adults 18-49 and a 0.7 rating in its target demo (18-34).

Through the first 20 weeks of the season, Fox remains at the top of the leader board, averaging a 3.3 rating, down 3 percent versus the year-ago period. CBS is second with a 3.1 (up 3 percent), while the Super Bowl pushed NBC into third (2.7, up 5 percent). ABC now stands alone in fourth with a 2.4 (up 1 percent).

Neil Cavuto Wants Your Business

D.M. Levine — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:29:36 +0000

Neil Cavuto is in a unique position. As senior vice president for Fox News Channel and its ratings-challenged sibling network, Fox Business Network, Cavuto is in a position to see just how the two networks differ in their goals and tone. Adweek caught up with Cavuto to talk about those differences and why people should choose Fox Business over its rivals.

Adweek: How do you compare your role at Fox Business News with your work for Fox News Channel?
We’re not really red or blue about it; we’re green. We follow the money. We follow it as we did under President Bush and the bailouts. We were, early on, very critical of those, looking at all sides. The promises that couldn’t possibly be realized in the middle of a meltdown. And we continued that with this administration.

What do you think about your competitors’ business coverage?
They can talk the talk, but they can’t walk the walk. If you’re going to be Bloomberg or CNBC and sponsor a presidential debate and you’re not even going to stay up late to give the Iowa caucus results or commit yourself nonstop to South Carolina or cover a debt downgrade post the market hours, either with the United States last summer or much of Europe, and still say you’re all business all the time, you’re lying through your teeth. We may be young and in half the homes and the upstart, but we know what we are.

What is that exactly?
I have a cardinal rule with my staff: We don’t use jargon. We don’t use acronyms. We don’t assume the audience has this down pat. We don’t try to check with our banker and broker contacts [to see] whether an interview impressed them. I’d sooner make an inroad with my mother-in-law. The rap against business journalists is that we deliberately try to sound like the smartest kid in the class. I can tell you, I was not. FBN is like a business field of dreams. If you build it, they will come. I’m not smart enough to know when they will come. I’m waiting. But I’m impressed by the results we’ve seen.

Is there room for the same kind of voice Fox News Channel carved out for itself in the world business reporting?
I just finished reading Isaacson’s book on Steve Jobs. I think it’s fair to say that Steve was not a fan of Fox. But one of the things I admired about him was, he came up with the campaign, “Be Different.” And one of the edicts I had when I first came here from CNBC was, I was competing against my old friends and colleagues. So my mantra was then, whatever CNBC is doing, don’t. Whatever they’re leading with, don’t.

What about the ratings? They haven’t been stellar.
The fact of the matter is, we’re barely four years into this. You gotta keep in mind that [our] competitors have been doing this close to a quarter of a century. I remember Fox News starting out with the same feeling. I don’t know what the magic moment will be, but I do know that when people have been exposed to Fox Business, invariably, they’re drawn to us. They come to us.

So the reason to come to Fox Business rather than stay with CNBC is what?
We’re interesting. They’re boring. And they look like they’re having a miserable time. You look at our people—they’re engaged, they know they’re in an uphill battle, but they really feel confident they can do it. I remember that feeling distinctly in the early days of Fox News. It’s déjà vu all over again.