Full Article

The Changing TV Landscape

On Thursday, October 29th, The ADVERTISING Club and event sponsor Discovery Communications hosted the “Changing TV Landscape” Breakfast at the Harvard Club, NY.

The topic of discussion focused on the many aspects of television, including broadcast and cable nets, syndication and stations, how they have changed in 2009 and what is expected to happen in 2010. Tom Wolzien, Chairman of Wolzien LLC, moderated the discussion with our panel of client and industry leaders:

* Marc Goldstein, President, CEO, Group M North America * Rob Master, North American Media Director, Unilever * Beth Rockwood, SVP, Market Research, Discovery Communications * Donna Speciale, President, Mediavest

The Hulu business model was a hot topic for the morning along with fragmentation of audiences. Hulu is a complete allocation of content in one space, allowing audience verification. This in turn, will change the media buying strategy. Media planners and buyers will have the ability to choose exactly where to put content based on who is watching the streaming programming.

Marc Goldstein stated that it is “important to marry available data to delve into the household composition, data research is available; there is no such thing as privacy.” Donna Speciale was quick to agree that “research is the ‘it’ thing, as a market research professional, fellow panelist Beth Rockwood is the “center of the party.”

Rob Master was able to give the client perspective, touching base on how the importance of research depends on the premium, how specific you want to get with your target. “It’s never one size fits all.”

The discussion continued with topics including C-3 vs C-7 ratings, the advantages of DVR (rather then disadvantages), and the time shift that people are now viewing television.

All agreed that the new technologies allow both the clients and the agencies to gain a better grasp on the types of households watching the programming and advertisements, and placing the appropriate ads into the homes.