Oprah Gets A Channel Of Her OWN--Literally, Teams With Discovery

LOOKING TO CREATE A HIGHER profile for one of its lackluster channels, Discovery Communications has made a deal with Oprah Winfrey to revamp its Discovery Health under a new name: "OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network." Discovery Health had been bringing in about 20% of the viewership of the company's flagship, Discovery Channel, and that of its other main channel, TLC. Still, Discovery Health has valuable distribution in the form of 70 million cable subscribers.

The 8-year-old network will be 50-50 owned by Discovery and Harpo Productions, Oprah Winfrey's production company, and will launch in 2009. No cash was transacted for this deal.

"In essence, this was an opportunity Discovery could not pass up," says Bill Carroll, vice president and director of programming for TV sales rep Katz Television Group. "Plus, they get the two big things: a presence on Oprah's Web site, as well as cross-promotion on her [syndicated] program."

The non-cash deal makes sense to industry watchers. "Discovery gets the advantage of her name, and she gets the distribution and background operations," adds Carroll.

Typically, when a cable network owner looks to radically change programming as well as the channel name, multiple system cable operators, according to their affiliate agreements, can drop the channel. But executives don't believe cable operators will have a problem with this move.

With Winfrey's new cable channel, local cable systems can now sell to TV advertisers what TV stations have been selling to advertisers for years--via Winfrey's syndication TV program--Oprah Winfrey-branded TV content.

Continuing the focus of her syndicated TV show, OWN's "mission is to create multiple platforms for women, men and their families with a purpose and a passion: to celebrate life, to inspire and entertain, empowering viewers around the world to live their best lives..." according to a press release about the deal.

While Discovery Communications will provide much of the back-office operations for the new channel, handling distribution, origination and other operational duties, it won't totally control advertising sales. The two companies say "both organizations will contribute advertising sales services to the venture."

Some speculate that Winfrey has been looking to turn her company into a version of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. MSLO controls all advertising and marketing deals. At present, that isn't the case. Oprah magazine is produced by Hearst Publications, which also sells the ad space. CBS Distribution Television, which distributed her syndicated TV shows, sells the show's TV advertising time.

This is not Winfrey's first go-around in the cable network arena. She was an original investor in Oxygen Media, which was acquired by NBC Universal last year.

Winfrey will serve as chairman of The Oprah Winfrey Network, LLC. The company is now searching for a CEO.

Link to MediaPost Article

Pedigree Dog Food Lands ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ Tie In

Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” series goes to the dogs proactively this week in a deal to elevate consumer consciousness about canine homelessness.

The NBC reality series will present a scenario focusing on the very real need to adopt homeless dogs as a precursor to Pedigree Food for Dogs’ annual adoption drive. The two competing celebrity teams are tasked with creating a community awareness campaign during the Jan. 10 episode sponsored by Pedigree that conveys the message of the dog adoption effort.

The resulting winning public service announcement will air during USA Network’s carriage of the 132^nd annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Feb. 11 and 12. That coincides with the kick-off of the Pedigree Adoption Drive on Feb. 7.

“Our hope is that after this episode airs, the importance of dog adoption will be a cause that hits home for dog lovers everywhere,” said Rob Leibowitz, vice president of marketing for Mars Petcare U.S., in a statement.

Mars Petcare U.S. is the U.S. pet care operation of brand manufacturer Mars, Inc. Pedigree is one of its brands.

This year’s adoption drive activities include the creation of a dog adoption focused store in New York City’s Times Square during February, offering consumers opportunities to adopt pets and purchase ‘Dogs Rule’ gear to support the cause. Pedigree print and broadcast ads will also push the message during the month-long campaign.

Link to Promo Article

BrandIntel Report Ranks Top 10 Most Anticipated Fall Shows

BrandIntel today released the 2007 TV Landscape report highlighting the upcoming fall network television shows currently generating the highest online consumer discussion and sentiment.

The BrandIntel report found ABC to hold both the top two spots for highly anticipated shows, with Pushing Daisies and Private Practice as the leaders in consumer sentiment.

Although ABC leads the sentiment rankings with five shows in the top ten, NBC's Bionic Woman continues to dominate the share of consumer discussion with double the amount of online consumer discussion as Private Practice.

• Pushing Daisies (ABC) has the highest sentiment and intent to view for all new shows with its highly original content and vibrant previews.
• Comedies are not generating as much consumer discussion with Back to You (FOX) as the only comedy to crack the BrandIntel Top 10 new shows.
• While the Bionic Woman (NBC) has twice the discussion of any new show, this is mainly attributed to the recent hiring of Isaiah Washington.
• Despite generating high volumes of discussion, the novelty behind Caveman has worn off with viewers. Caveman is currently the lowest ranked show at number 22 as attributed to the low quality of discussion – with conversation focused on the marketing of the show, not the intent of consumers to view.
• Overall discussion for the 2007 fall season was up 300 percent from last year, primarily attributed to earlier release of previews and trailers following the advertising upfronts.

About the study: The BrandIntel TV Landscape report highlights the upcoming fall shows and networks that are generating the most positive discussion and sentiment in online consumer communities. The TV Landscape report tracked a total of 22 new shows from the top five television networks - including ABC, CBS, CW, NBC and FOX - and ranked them in terms of sentiment score and share of audience discussion. For the report, BrandIntel tracked over 20,000 raw search hits on the Internet across more than 56 million sites but refined those results through technological filters and human analysis to utilize only the most relevant content for the study.

Link to MediaBuyerPlanner Article

Disney Hit Proves YouTube Isn't Only Way to Target Teens

Net Turns to Libraries, Little League to Push 'HSM2'

By Claude Brodesser-Akner

Published: August 06, 2007

Facebook? Forget it.

MySpace? YouTube? Um, like, nuh-uh! Or as Sharpay Evans would say, "Toodles!"

Kids may spend most every waking hour online, but when it came to marketing the sequel to "High School Musical," Disney Channel had little choice but to go decidedly old-school.

'High School Musical' has generated $1 billion in profits and $26 billion in retail sales. The sequel makes its debut Aug. 17.

Photo Credit: Fred Hayes

"We need to be careful about where this shows up," said Richard Loomis, senior VP-marketing and creative for Disney Channel, and the man entrusted with marketing Zac Efron's wholesome grin and post-pubescent baritone to an audience that's largely between the ages of 9 and 14.

"There's the piracy issue, but there's also responsibility -- we have to make sure our content is showing up in safe and appropriate places."

Maintaining trust
Gary Marsh, president-entertainment at Disney Channel, puts it even more starkly: "Nothing is more important than the trust parents have in the Disney brand."

In other words, any official "High School Musical 2" material can't risk being seen within a thousand clicks of, say, a Brazilian supermodel having sex on a public beach. (The widely disseminated clip of Daniela Cicarelli cavorting on YouTube landed Google in a South American court last June.) No, too much is at stake to risk the ultimate fast-spreading infection: outraged parents.

Analysts estimate that the squeaky-clean "High School Musical" has generated $1 billion in operating profits to Disney in the past two financial years -- and at far lower cost and risk than CGI extravaganzas such as "Pirates of the Caribbean." In June, Disney trumpeted that overall licensing revenue would increase 13% for the fiscal year that ends next month, thanks in part to some 2,000 productions of actual high-school productions of "High School Musical" being licensed.

Analysts, such as Bank of America's Jonathan Jacoby, expect big things from the Mouse House's tiniest division, Disney Consumer Products: Disney will experience record-breaking retail sales of $26 billion worldwide in fiscal 2007, thanks in no small part to "High School Musical"-branded gear.

Premiere
And so, with viral marketing a nonstarter,"HSM2" makes its debut on Disney Channel on Aug. 17, having relied on far more traditional means to reach tweens.

Mr. Loomis, who arrived at Disney Channel after a six-year run at Comedy Central's marketing and brand-strategy department, said: "Lesson No. 1 was making sure we knew where our audience was."

He promptly set about creating far-reaching "High School Musical" outreach programs at popular bricks-and-mortar venues such as YMCA's and local libraries, where kids might be mouse-less, but not Mouse House-less: This summer, there will be some 1,500 pool parties at YMCA's across the nation, where tweens will watch "High School Musical 2" while drip-drying. Even burying your nose in a book will be no excuse not to see the sequel. Some 3,000 libraries across the country are slipping "HSM2" bookmarks into every children's book.

(The one initiative for "HSM2" that is distinctly techie was already in place, part of a larger, long-arranged Disney deal with Sprint to provide video-on-demand promotions of coming Disney films and shows.)

Handing out tchotckes
Mindful of the fact that Disney Channel's audience is 60% female, and eager to play up the baseball-jocks-vs.-theater-queens storyline of the franchise, Mr. Loomis also set partnerships with Major League Baseball. At Major League ballparks last weekend a musical number from "HSM2" called "I Don't Dance," aired on Jumbotrons. Meanwhile, at Little League tournaments across America, Disney is handing out tchotchkes and other "HSM2" gear.

Parents are also being targeted: "Got Milk?" campaigns feature the cast in print ads, and Wal-Mart and Macy's are getting exclusive access to certain "HSM2" consumer products.

Mr. Marsh is upbeat about his sequel, which used DisneyChannel.com to solicit suggestions about what kids wanted to see in the sequel. About 47 million kids responded.

"I'm foolishly optimistic that we've got a hit."

Link to AdAge Article

CW Shatters the TV-Ad-as-Usual Mold

Ten-Second 'Cwickies' Give Marketers Realistic Option Beyond the Standard Spot

By Brian Steinberg

Published: July 30, 2007

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It doesn't seem like such a radical idea, letting marketers buy 10-second TV commercials. But the ones set to roll out Aug. 10 on the CW signal that a sea change is taking place in one of Madison Avenue's favorite -- but most inflexible -- ad channels.

During an airing of "Friday Night Smackdown," Electronic Arts will run three 10-second ads CW has dubbed "cwickies," each of which will appear as the first ad in their respective commercial breaks. But that's not all. The cwickies will be sandwiched by "isolated" ad breaks -- each containing only one EA commercial. One, near the wrestling program's start, contains only a 60-second EA spot. The last, near the end, consists solely of a 90-second EA trailer. Everything leading up to the trailer points to that end piece, where video-game junkies can see never-before-viewed footage from "Madden NFL 08." Thanks to the innovative use of ad lengths and positions, EA can be well assured its commercials will stand apart from the rest of the 30-second pack that evening.

On network TV, where commercials for the most part have been sold in 30-second increments, this type of placement is hard to obtain. Networks are "not always so flexible," said Amber Mayo, media strategist at EA.

More equal than others
CW, however, is fast becoming a petri dish for radical experiments in TV advertising. Broadcast networks reach the biggest and broadest audiences, and use that fact to resist pressure from media buyers and marketers to dump their old 30-second ways and try something new. But model-busting ad ideas, such as the cwickies and "content wraps" -- CW's series of long ads placed over the course of a single night -- do something that gives network executives the willies. They make one marketer's commercials more memorable than others airing in the same program, threatening to ruin a decades-old ad system. In the past, one TV ad had as good a chance as any to get noticed. Now, as the old saying goes, some ads are becoming more equal than others. And that's fine by EA.

EA's goal is "to make sure that our message is paid attention to," said Tom Winner, global director of broadcast buying at Wieden & Kennedy, which crafted the ads. "We'll let the other advertisers figure out what to do to keep their message front and center."

Talk of ads that make one marketer more memorable while diminishing another's ability to stand out has long frightened broadcast networks away from trying radical ideas pushed by Madison Avenue. MediaVest, a Publicis Groupe ad-buying firm that counts Procter & Gamble Co. among its clients, has tried for years to get broadcast networks to consider new formats. MediaVest has talked to various broadcast networks about running advertiser logos at the bottom of the screen during a program, said Pam Zucker, a MediaVest senior VP. Another of the firm's ideas: running a commercial in half a TV screen while characters from a program go about their business in the other half.

Forcing the issue
"The conversations never went very far," Ms. Zucker said. Networks turned down all these ideas "because they really weren't concerned about the effectiveness of commercials."

These days, advertisers are forcing the issue. They are crafting ad deals that carry viewership guarantees for commercials instead of programs, which means ad performance will come under more scrutiny. Meanwhile, competing media have already begun to break their rules and offer ads that are more difficult to ignore. Cable has embraced commercial-free season premieres and themed ad breaks. Radio has tested ads that are mere seconds in length. And magazines have begun to stuff CDs and hard-to-fold inserts into their bindings. All of these concepts aim at one thing: making these ads, which often involve more complex production and higher prices, stand out.

Broadcasters have tested some of these approaches on a limited basis, but history has burdened them with lots of obstacles that get in the way. Networks are duty-bound to give some of their ad time to local affiliates, making it hard to sell out a show to a single advertiser. They also try to keep one rival from gaining an edge over the other. Coke and Pepsi ads appearing in the same break, so the thinking goes, would cancel each other out. So imagine the hand-wringing that must be going on over more complex advertising executions that would help a single marketer dominate an entire program.

Getting attention
Even so, CW's ideas are attracting notice. "Ads and promotions are going to have to sell the product in a much more interesting way," said Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp.'s CEO, at a recent event, subsequently pointing to CW's content wraps. There is also good reason for CW to try these methods.

"The landscape is changing very quickly and we have a young audience that's hard to reach," said Alison Tarrant, CW's senior VP-integrated sales and marketing. The network must be "distinct and creative," she said.

One problem with these new ideas: They can be extremely labor-intensive. For one thing, they are designed to work with a particular program, not run again and again. So each flight of ads may have to be specially crafted, adding expense to production.

Ms. Tarrant said she has had some worrisome moments. When the idea of doing a "wrap" for a brand of mouthwash came up, she wondered, "How am I going to come up with a story that's entertaining enough for an audience that includes someone swishing a product around in their mouth?" The result: a series of two-minute pieces for Pfizer's Listerine Whitening Pre-Brush Rinse featuring Beverley Mitchell, a starlet from the CW program "7th Heaven" talking about the importance of white teeth in giving her confidence to consider a country-music career.

Link to AdAge Article

NBC.com Broadens Its Social Networking Around Shows

NBC DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT WILL CONTINUE beefing up NBC.com throughout the summer with additional tech and content features.

Several additions noted Monday include new social networking tools, streaming episodes of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," the continued rollout of "Heroes 360," the show's multi-platform presentation, along with new WAP mobile sites for new and returning shows.

With the new social networking features, users can create customizable profiles to participate in online NBC-programming-based communities.

Starting in late August, fans of NBC's "The Office" will gain entrée to a Dunder Mifflin corporate site, where they can join and form new branches as part of an online job fair. With the emphasis on engagement, once branches are established, weekly tasks will be assigned from "Corporate."

Tasks will mostly correspond to topics or events featured in the broadcast show, but will also include online-specific challenges such as creating individual branch logos or ad campaigns, completing online games and interacting with other Dunder Mifflin branches. In October, NBC.com is planning to debut its first exclusively online series, "Coastal Dreams," which follows two 20-something friends who find themselves enmeshed in a murder mystery.

Link to MediaPost Article

TCA: E! Greenlights Snoop Dogg Series

Snoop Dogg will get another chance at reality TV stardom through a new show on E!. The entertainment television network has greenlighted a show on the gansta MC and his pursuits outside the studio for fall, 2007.

Comcast Entertainment Group chief Ted Harbert, who helms E!, announced the series to television critics today at a presentation in Los Angeles.

Snoop, aka Calvin Broadus Jr. already has a robust resume of TV work in addition to his eight platinum albums, including the MTV series Doggie Fizzle Televizzle, as well as appearances as himself on a slew of other shows including Showtime’s Weeds and NBC’s Apprentice.

The E! series will focus on Snoop’s myriad personal endeavors, including raising three kids, selling a line of pet products and running a youth football league.

Link to Article

'Lyrics' Hits High Note In Ratings

by Wayne Friedman, Friday, Jul 13, 2007 7:45 AM ET

IN TV PROGRAMMING THEORY, TWO make a trend: Karaoke reality shows are now the way to summer success. A day after NBC's "The Singing Bee" vaulted to a big 5.1 rating among 18-49 viewers, Fox's "Don't Forget the Lyrics" posted a healthy summer-worthy Nielsen preliminary 3.4 rating. All this reveals a major strategy for both networks: Getting first to market usually lets it trump the competition. After announcing that "Singing Bee" would debut sometime in August, Fox said it had a karaoke type show, too--and it would launch in July. Not to be outdone, NBC said it would debut "Bee" one day earlier than "Lyrics." Still, "Lyrics" is now the second-best new show of the summer. It held onto all of its "So You Think You Can Dance?" 3.4 rating lead-in. "The Singing Bee" might be able to put more distance between "Lyrics" the next time around. "Bee" had Major League Baseball's All-Star game to contend with on Tuesday night--sending the game to its lowest TV ratings level ever. Like "Lyrics," "Bee" also had the benefit from a top-rated reality competition show, NBC's "America's Got Talent," which was its lead-in. Other reality shows were lower down on the charts. At 9 p.m., NBC got a 2.6 for "America's Got Talent," ABC managed a 2.0 for "American Inventor." At 8:30 p.m., a repeat of "Bee" took a 1.6 rating. At 10 p.m., NBC led all programs with a 2.9 for "Last Comic Standing." Overall, Fox was first for the night among 18-49s with a 3.1 rating/10 share; NBC was second at a 2.4/7; Univision was third at 2.3/7; CBS fourth at 1.9/6, ABC fifth at 1.7/5; and CW sixth at 0.6/2. Link to MediaPost Article