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Hyper Local Broadcast Television – “Radio With Pictures”

30 October 2009 Blog post by: Steve Passwaiter

WZMY-TV or “MyTV New England,” is a local broadcast television station that covers the Boston, MA marketplace from its perch in Derry, NH. It has been evolving its own hyper local format since ShootingStar Broadcasting bought it in 2004. CEO/President Diane Sutter says the goal has been, “to combine the reach of TV with the personalization of radio and the interactivity of the Internet.” WZMY provides a mix of syndicated, My Network TV and station produced programs typically featuring vignettes sponsored by local merchants. In short, she refers to this strategy as “radio with pictures.”

We spoke with Diane Sutter last week to learn about her accomplishments with MyTV New England over the past five years, and get a sense of where she’s seeing future opportunities.

Even though WZMY operates in the large, competitive Boston, Massachusetts television market, its goal is to be local and that means being available (the first person listed on WZMY’s “contacts” page is Diane Sutter) and connected to the community. When the “community” is 10,000 square miles, it’s a challenge to get hyperlocal. WZMY does it by putting local people and businesses on the air in MyTV infomercial programming intermixed with main stream programs like”The Unit,” “Office” and “Law and Order.”

BIA/Kelsey: Diane, you’re trying to develop a “hyper local” strategy with a broadcast television station. How does that work? How can you take a traditional mass medium like television and make it hyperlocal?

Diane Sutter: Localism is hard to achieve in a 10,000 square mile market area let alone hyperlocalism! Local is not just about news and weather, though they’re important topics. At My TV New England, we get hyperlocal by finding a niche not served by other stations and serving it. We identify and focus on common themes and develop relevant programming based on the “MyTV” format of putting local people on the air in our on air ID’s and station promotional spots. We’ve used viewers on our ID’s since day one. We use a mix of people to do these and sprinkle those throughout our broadcast day.

For example, there are lots of moving parts in a wedding. Brides will drive a fairly long distance to get all their planning and shopping done. We produce a local show several times which focuses on the local wedding business. By targeting local merchants with services ranging from attire to venues to catering we can put together episodes that can get pretty hyper local. We have local merchants sponsor each segment and often appear themselves. We produce vignettes running 2, 3 or 5 minutes for example, and sell these segments. We typically sell out a half hour episode with these vignettes. We also have “regular” 15 or 30 second commercials running between the vignettes which makes for sort of a situation where we say, “we now interrupt this local infomercial to bring you a commercial” . . . but it works!

For us, hyper local is putting local merchants on the air to share their solutions to the everyday problems our viewers have. We do this with the MyTV format from weddings (“My Elegant Wedding”) to where to eat (“My Favorite Restaurant”) to taking care of your home (“My Home and Garden”). We even ran a show, “MyINK” featuring some of New England’s leading tattoo parlors. That’s local and personal.

BIA/Kelsey: What’s the competitive environment like for an independent television station trying to go hyperlocal in the Boston market?

Diane Sutter: Well, you could say we’re doing a great job of running the bases but haven’t quite crossed home plate yet. We definitely see ourselves as moving the needle. The challenge is to find an important niche that we can both service and defend. For example, we’re in a market where 1.7 million of 2.4 million homes are on Comcast and unlike broadcast television they can sell regionally by system. They have five times our sales staff. When Comcast’s advertisers get large enough to buy three or more regions, they get promoted to Comcast Spotlight service which is very compelling. We’ve also got 24 hour news and sports channels, some of the country’s leading broadcasters in the market with network programming, news, weather and sports. It’s a tough place for an independent station. As advertisers start moving more of their spending into digital media, that also becomes a growing challenge for us. I’ve seen a big paradigm shift in the market over the past five or six years. A stand alone station like ours used to have it a lot easier!

BIA/Kelsey: What’s your formula for standing out in the market and being successful?

Diane Sutter: I tell you what; it starts with operating on a scale to be profitable. We need to keep our table balanced to succeed. The four legs on our table are (1) the viewers; (2) our advertisers and community leaders; (3) station ownership; and (4) the staff. It’s my job to lead the effort to use our resource to serve these four critical groups. There may be a lot of things we could do, but given limited resources I need to ask how any major initiative advances the ball for these groups and at what cost for any given opportunity. Since we’re a television station we can do production, creative services, news, weather and promotion. But we need to balance our capabilities and resources with our opportunities.

For example, WZMY used to have a news program because we thought that was an important thing to do for the community and to be a broadcast leader. But we stopped doing that show mainly because in a market like this, we simply couldn’t figure out how to be unique in a way that mattered. What we did do was to execute a strategy to help the community in a different way. We have one of the most recognized and talented weather personalities in the Boston market and he’s out in the community at least three to four days a week at various events. That’s a place where we can make a contribution to the market and stand out. In a sense, our strategy here for leveraging station personalities and tying programming into the community is like what some of the Spanish-language television stations do so well.

We also used to do “MyTV Prime” which was a live, interactive talk show. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to see on radio but we’re doing it with television. It was a very well balanced program with a diversity of viewpoints on important subjects from 3-4 different people. Now, that’s unique and something that was defensible from likely competition. Were it not for the creation of MyNetwork TV, it’s likely we’d still be doing this in prime. We may try to recreate this somewhere else on our programming schedule in the future. We’ve also got “MyTV Club” which again is formatted in a personalized way like you’d see in radio. I guess, generally our formula for success is sort of, “radio with pictures.”

Radio’s a great personal medium and we see extensions into independent television that make great sense. Our goal is to have a conversation with our viewers. I take this seriously. If you go to the MyTV New England web page and click on “contacts” you’ll see me listed first. I get and answer emails from viewers every day. We make every effort to answer all viewer emails within 24 hours.

BIA/Kelsey: How about your sales strategies. Where do you hire from and how do you train? What kind of accountability are advertisers demanding?

Diane Sutter: We’ve got to think differently. It’s not just thinking out of the box, the box is gone! We need to have new approaches in sales. Hiring someone who’s worked for an affiliate doesn’t really work for us. The selling of this station is just too different for them.

We’ve got some traditional sales folks who are well schooled in selling television time. But for all their strengths in selling airtime packages, some of our other inventory can be a bit daunting. It doesn’t make sense to set people up to fail. Put them where they’re strong and hire around them. That’s our approach. They do have some familiarity with the interactive side but they can ask for the assistance of our other sales resources that are more comfortable in the selling of our digital assets. Some of these items are a bit technical and we don’t expect them to know everything about them. We look at our sales talent pool and bring new blood on board in way that complements and extends what we have, particularly on the digital platforms – mobile and web. We are getting ready to announce our new multicast partner shortly and that might cause us to shift how we sell a bit. We’re also looking into the possibility of hiring a digital only sales team but we’re not there yet.

Essentially, we’ve got two kinds of sellers – transactional and developmental. The transactional sellers are the traditional sales people who can harvest existing relationships and opportunities. They’re great at that. The developmental sellers are the hunters who can prospect, qualify and bring home new accounts and business. They need to carry more of the mindset of an ad agency resource who can piece together various elements into a coordinated campaign for the advertiser.

Now on accountability and performance metrics, we don’t subscribe to Nielsen and haven’t for years. I inherited that contract when we bought the station. As everyone knows Nielsen is a large expense in a market like Boston. However, I think we’ve only lost one account due to our stance. Our Nielsen numbers are relatively small so we can’t play the numbers game. We sell results; we have to. Our plan is working but it’s a very different philosophy from traditional network affiliates. This is a little different for television sales folks. But with more and more media platforms and increasing advertising inventory available, it gets down to results and accountability pretty quickly. We need to be on different platforms.

One way we’re doing this is with our permission marketing and lead management. We don’t just sell air time, we’ve got the ability to offer mobile SMS text ads, we’ve done promos with radio and newspapers, and we’re creating web sites independent of the MyTV brand. We focus on the service not the brand we provide our advertisers.

As an example, we’re working to get car dealers back in the advertising market. We’re creating vertical web sites without the station or dealers brands as integral to the sites with the idea of promoting a single web site for an aggregate audience. Once we drive them to the site, we will manage leads by zip code. Car dealers will buy their zip codes and that’s how we’ll route customer queries. It’s a fair and transparent process that advertisers will understand and value. We’ll get paid on a cost per lead as the power of our television station really drives web traffic.

ITunes annonce Apple TV 3.0

29/10/2009 – 14:51 – Florian Innocente

Une mise à jour 3.0 d’Apple TV est au coin de la rue si l’on croit… iTunes. Au détour des conditions générales de ventes, on lit que celles-ci ont été modifiées relativement à la possibilité d’utiliser les iTunes LP et les iTunes Extras sur l’Apple TV grâce à la version 3.0 du logiciel de ce périphérique.

Les iTunes LP ainsi que les iTunes Extras (des bonus de films, non disponibles en France) étaient jusque là interdits d’Apple TV (on ne pouvait qu’acheter ces contenus depuis son Apple TV et les transférer ensuite vers son Mac).

On en est actuellement à la version 2.4, ce qui suggère d’autres nouveautés. Récemment la gamme avait été remaniée avec la disparition du modèle 40 Go remplacé par l’Apple TV 160 Go.

Tags: Apple TV, itunes, itunes lp

What Fox Did Wrong With The Fringe / Twitter Social TV Experiment…

We Are Organized Chaos • by matt

We’ve been very big advocates of Social TV for awhile, so it was quite surprising to see a recent high profile Social TV launch fail.  Fast Company has the details here. Cliff notes version:

“Fox ran reruns of Fringe with Twitter integration so people watching the show could comment on the show in real-time.  The Twitter overlay took up 1/3 of the bottom portion of the screen and as would be expected, drew outrage from viewers.”

While Fringe has been a show that’s not afraid to use the latest innovative interactive marketing programs such as ARG’s, it did seem odd that a show built on the success of these types of innovative and alternate interactive marketing initiatives would receive the backlash it did.  However, it’s not the idea that’s the problem here but rather the execution.

As the screenshot above shows, Fox was going for a VH-1 Pop-Up Video Style Integration.  Big mistake.  Anybody who’s ever watched this show (which is basically X-Files 2.0) knows that you have to pay attention to keep up with the plot so any type of animated interruption in the form of oversized graphical tweets, is of course, going to hinder versus enhance the interactive viewing experience.

Fox should be commended for recognizing a trend with Social TV and trying it out with one of their most popular new shows.  However, Fox does need to revisit how they’re using Social TV with a program (and genre) like Fringe. I don’t think just reducing the size of the Twitter integration and focusing on Fringe trivia will help overall.  Nor will using viewer’s Twitter conversations that are just feeds pumped into and overlaid on the broadcast itself.

Fox should be using Twitter integration (ala Social TV) to provide sub-stories on the characters in Fringe and continue using alternative marketing methods that appeal to the core demographic.  Fringe is a unique show (like Lost and the upcoming Flash Forward) that has a built-in audience that is expecting to find and participate in alternative story lines, engaging puzzles and other enhanced content to create a richer, more satisfying interactive story driven experience.

Social TV has already been a huge hit on the web from Barack Obama’s Inauguration to a recent Jonas Brothers Online Concert on Facebook / UStream so it was only a matter of time until Social TV moved from the web to broadcast.  Social TV has already proven a success in other areas as well with theaters using MuVChat which encourages audience participation via SMS, so the overall idea of Social TV definitely works and is definitely a trend – 57% of internet users already surf the internet while watching TV.  Hopefully more networks give Social TV a shot to provide a more interactive viewing experience.

On a side note, I thought the Observer / MLB All-Star Game integration was great and showed how a subtle cross promotion can help spread awareness and build an audience for television series such as Fringe.

Popcorn Hour C-200 Networked Media Tank Now Available for Purchase

By Alexander Grundner | August 27th, 2009

I know many of you have been waiting anxiously for the release of Popcorn Hour’s C-200 Networked Media Tank [spec sheet] that we covered back in June (and was supposed to be released in July). Well, folks… it’s HERE! Popcorn Hour has updated their online store and has the C-200 listed for $299 and $311 with the Popcorn Hour IR Remote Kit (IRK-200).

ASUS EeeBox PC Now Sporting An Intel Atom N330 Processor and NVIDIA ION Graphics

By Alexander Grundner | August 31st, 2009 //

ASUS is really taking things up a notch. We just learned about the company’s new Intel Atom N330 + NVIDIA ION mini-ITX board designed to compete with the Zotac IONITX-A-U called the ASUS AT3N7A-1. Well, folks… it appears that ASUS has quietly upgraded their ultra compact EeeBox PC with specs ready to challenge the barebones ASRock ION 330. I’ve got to hand it to ASUS for recognizing and acting on a hot trend. No word on price or availability, but it looks like it should be out sometime by year-end.

ASUS EeeBox PC EB1012 Highlights:

• Intel Atom N330 Dual Core Processor
• 2GB (up to 4GB) of DDR-2-800 RAM
• NVIDIA MCP7A ION Graphics (full 1080p HD)
• 250GB 2.5-inch SATA hard drive
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 802.11n Wi-Fi
• Memory card reader
• 3 x USB 2.0 Ports
• 1 x eSATA
• HDMI
• S/PDIF
• 40W power supply
• VESA mount
• 8.7 (W) x 7 (H) x 1.05 (D) inches @ 2.4lbs

Verizon intègre Facebook et Twitter à son offre TV

Publié par Matthieu Dailly le Mercredi 12 Août 2009

L’opérateur américain Verizon vient d’intégrer les réseaux communautaires Twitter et Facebook à son offre de télévision aux États-Unis. Lors de la dernière mise à jour de sa box, Sarah Perez du site d’information ReadWriteWeb US, a pu tester le produit

Ces nouvelles fonctionnalités sont proposées sous forme de widgets. Pour Sarah Perez, ces dernières gardent comme avantage d’être adaptées aux usages traditionnels de la télévision : utilisation occasionnelle, usage d’une télécommande et une certaine forme de passivité. « Sur un téléviseur, internet est un invité, il ne doit pas imposer ses règles, mais se faire aux usages en cours depuis des générations ».

Ce type de service, qui devrait encore se faire attendre en France, apporte un réel plus à l’expérience TV, selon elle. Même si pour le moment, les outils testés restent limités au niveau dans leurs usages, interfaces et rapidité. Sarah Perez regrette, par exemple, que l’outil Twitter ne soit qu’une sorte d’agrégateur. « Très décevant. Pour ceux qui ont déjà vécu des expériences collectives sur Twitter en étroite relation avec des programmes télévisés, comme par exemple les dernières élections Européennes, c’est très frustrant, tant le potentiel de Twitter est fantastique en termes de couplage avec une expérience télévisuelle collective, bien plus grand que celui de Facebook », relaye ReadWriteWeb France.

Se podrá twittear por TV

Una empresa patentó un sistema que permite acceder a las redes sociales, incluso a facebook, sin dejar la comodidad del sillón. Se podrá hacer por TV y con el control remoto

La idea fue patentada a principio de año, pero sólo se dio a conocer esta semana. Describe una plataforma que permitirá usar redes como Twitter y facebook mediante un control remoto que enviará el contenido a la red, sin necesidad de que el usuario tenga interacción directa con la pantalla.

Lo novedoso es que este control remoto de IBM está pensado para que se use mientras se ve televisión. « Este dispositivo permite a los televidentes conversar mediante las redes acerca de la programación que están viendo. Una de las cosas que más disfrutamos es discutir o debatir mientras vemos nuestros shows favoritos y esta opción nos permitirá hacerlo en forma inmediata con gente de todo el mundo« , anunciaron fuentes de la empresa, según publican los medios norteamericanos.

Además, aclaran que los televidentes recibirán las respuestas a sus comentarios, como pasa en cualquier red actual. Incluso, agregan,  mientras el televidente cambia de canal.

El objetivo de IBM es prestar un rol más activo en la revolución que representan las redes sociales.

De todas formas, el documento que enumera el proyecto y la patente no da indicaciones de cuándo se lanzará o de si IBM planea comercializarlo.

Munster: An Apple TV set by 2011

Posted by Philip Elmer-DeWitt

August 20, 2009 2:06 PM

Gene Munster has seen the future of television and it has an Apple (AAPL) logo on it.

In a note to clients Thursday, Piper Jaffray’s senior analyst offered a scenario by which Apple would enter the cut-throat TV market by 2011 with an Apple-branded television set with digital video recording and home media functions (music, movies, games, interactive TV) built-in.

« Yes, TV hardware is a challenging business if you don’t change the rules of the game, » Munster writes, « but we see potential for Apple to offer best-in-class software and hardware and charge a premium. »

The roadmap to Apple television (as opposed to Apple TV), as Munster sees it:

1. A new Apple TV set-top box within the next few months, with a TV imput and DVR built in. « With the popularity of ad-based internet TV (Hulu.com) and subscription models (Netflix’s Watch Instantly), we believe a-la-carte (iTunes) video purchases have lost share against other video models in recent months. As such, we believe Apple is exploring a subscription-based offering for its TV content in iTunes. »
2. An iTunes TV Pass within the next year. « Apple could leverage its deep library of content with many network and cable channel content owners to provide unlimited access to a sub-library of its TV shows for a standard monthly fee ($30 to $40 per month). Such a product would effectively replace a consumer’s monthly cable bill (~$85/month) and offer access to current and older episodes of select shows on select channels. »
3. An Apple television set within the next two years that could wirelessly sync with iPods, iPhones and Macs. « Such a device would command a premium among a competitive field of budget TVs; we believe Apple could differentiate itself with software that makes home entertainment simple and solves a pain point for consumers (complicated TV and component systems). »

As evidence for Apple’s interest for pushing deeper into the living room, Munster cites: COO Tim Cook’s statement last month that the company will continue to invest in Apple TV because « we fundamentally believe there is something there for us in the future »; patents covering digital video recording; and a five-year, $500 million partnership with LG to produce LCD screens.

Munster notes that Apple currently controls an addressable user base of more than 65 million iTunes users and has sold more than 48 million iPhones and iPod touches that could be used as TV remotes or interactive TV game controllers.

« The argument that Apple will not enter the television market because prices have declined by ~70% in the past three years, » he concludes, « is a similar argument used to conclude Apple would not enter the cell phone market, given phones had seen similar price declines. The bottom line, 10 million HDTV’s sold in the US a year is a real market, and if history repeats itself, Apple will find a way to compete in a commoditized market with a premium priced product. »

Munster expects Apple to sell 6.6 million Apple TVs in calendar 2009, up from an estimated 2.1 million in 2008 — an estimate of 3X growth that he believes may be conservative. By his calculation, every addition 1 million units Apple sells adds $.03 to Apple’s EPS.

Google Gets Into “Addressable TV” With Visible World

Jul 28, 2009 at 9:48am ET by Greg Sterling

Google’s TV Ads platform is getting some help from a company called Visible World, which offers demographic and geotargeted advertising across different media types. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning:

Google Inc. is teaming up with Visible World Inc., a well-known New York technology company that uses software to create multiple versions of a given ad, in its push to offer TV advertisers more targeting options.

Google will combine the technology with its Google TV Ads, an automated auction-based system for buying TV ads by choosing which shows best fit the advertised product or service. The idea of such “addressable advertising” is to send a TV ad promoting a sale on minivans to a household with children, for example, and the same basic ad with a promo for a sports sedan to a childless household.

The combination will allow agencies and brands to make different versions of the same campaign to target different audiences by income, household composition, location and so on. In offline TV, Google works with EchoStar and cable operator Astound. Google TV Ads also appear online.

The cable TV industry is working on its own “addressable TV” initiative called Project Canoe. And NBC is using a Microsoft ad platform called Admira (based on its Navic acquisition) for addressable TV. There are other companies (e.g. SpotRunner) operating in the segment as well.

The effort and objective (more precise and dynamic audience targeting) is very similar to what Yahoo has been developing with the APT platform for display advertising online.