followthemedia.com - a knowledge base for media professionals
ftm Tickle File

 

 

The Tickle File is ftm's daily column of media news, complimenting the feature articles on major media issues. Tickle File items point out media happenings, from the oh-so serious to the not-so serious, that should not escape notice...in a shorter, more informal format.

We are able to offer this new service thanks to the great response to our Media Sleuth project in which you, our readers, are contributing media information happening in your countries that have escaped the notice of the international media, or you are providing us information on covered events that others simply didn't know about. We invite more of you to become Media Sleuths. For more information click here.

Week of April 10, 2017

Ad bots taking over the planet, tech cheers, publishers moan
Who ya gonna call?

Whether it’s a tipping point or just another day in the sunshine, half the money spent on advertising in the UK is of the digital varieties online and mobile, as the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK and PwC reported 2016 figures (April 12). That’s about GPB 10 billion for digital and GBP 10 billion for anybody else. Predictably, the mobile segment, literally, raised the roof. Mobile video ad spending rose 103% year on year to GBP 693 million. (See IAB/PwC presser here)

Winning and multiplying are those automated media buying bots (i.e. programmatic ad placement or AdTech). Real-time-bidding generated about a quarter of the digital ad spending, same as last year, but direct exchange placement - like DoubleClick - takes about half, and is up 9%. Direct ad sales dropped proportionately. Nobody wants to make or take phone calls anymore. Let the bits do all the work.

DoubleClick is a subsidiary of Google (Alphabet). Facebook has its own bots, primarily serving up mobile ads. By 2020, predicted OC&C Strategy Consultants and quoted by the Guardian (December 15, 2016), Google and Facebook could amass 70% of all UK ad spending. (See more about digital advertising here)

Traditional ad-supported media is horrified, even more than they were five years ago. When the big tech servers of nearly everything media stumbled - badly - by also serving up ads next to far-right fake news and hate filled websites the scribes of the publishing world blasted away. Advertisers bolted from “bad-quality content,” at least for a few weeks.

Online video, viewed largely now on mobile devices, is the face of the instant world. Getting ads into or next to those most popular is everything to media buyers and the brands they serve. The video from that United flight showing a passenger being dragged from the airplane was posted to Twitter and reposted to every other social media portal. It would be rational for every other airline to make sure the ad bots didn’t place their ads even close to it. That would probably take a phone call.

Leaked speech of TV executive raises the obvious
"one big direction"

A surreptitiously acquired recording of a staff meeting a year ago at Hungarian television broadcaster TV2 , transcript published by business news weekly Heti Világgazdaság (HVG) (April 5), attracted considerable attention over the last week. “We have one big direction, which is to kill my previous employer,” exhorted chief executive Dirk Gerkens, who a year earlier had involuntarily left TV company RTL Klub. What HVG and very few others noted, though, was how little TV2 had progressed. RTL Klub, owned by RTL Group, remains the market leader.

Most of the boss’s speech was given, understandably, to raise that team spirit: “We are here, above all, to become the market leader.” He promised to revamp several shows. A new news director was introduced, “girl friend of (Hungarian prime minister) Viktor Orban’s press officer,” reported Budapest Beacon (February 8), later discredited by “several professional errors.”

TV2 is principally owned by movie producer Andy Vajna, an off-and-on pal of Mr. Viktor Orban. Mr. Gerkens told the assembled staff that the channels news output needs to become "more dynamic, more interesting.” In the recording from 2016 “negative” news would be resisted, he reassured the staff. He is “personally” against “intentional” attacks against individual politicians. (See more about media in Hungary here)

That was then. News programs on TV2 have become shills for the Orban government line, necessary, almost, for survival in that “illiberal” democracy. RTL Klub is one exception.

TV broadcaster leaving TV for digital
"praying"

Big media companies, particularly those publically traded, tend to view investment strategies in rather stark terms. Where’s the money? Bankers, consultants and stock traders value new opportunities greater than last year’s bright, shiny object. Accountants agree; operating has little appeal.

The Bulgarian assets of Swedish media house Modern Times Group (MTG) are on the block, reported Swedish business news outlet Dagens Industri (April 6). It’s hardly a surprise as MTG recently exited Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian broadcast assets last month. “We are on a journey to build an even stronger presence in the global digital arena, and I am happy that we have found a buyer that shares our view of the potential of the Baltic businesses,” said chief executive Jorgen Madsen Lindemann in a statement quoted by Baltic Times (March 17).

Describing the company’s digital strategy at MipTV in Cannes, Mr. Lindemann touted eSports, gaming and YouTube content as the future. Traditional broadcasters are “praying” their broadcast dilemma will “reverse,” he said, quoted by Digital TV Europe (April 4), adding that time is neigh for TV broadcasters to “make up their minds.”

The other inescapable trend is all but the end of foreign investment in Eastern European media. In January MTG exited its 50% stake in Czech broadcaster Prima TV. Changes in ownership laws forced the exit from Russian broadcaster CTC Media. The Bulgarian assets were acquired in 2008 from Greek broadcaster Antenna Group for €620 million. Dagens Industri suggests the exit price nine years later will be on the order of €100 million. (See more about media in Bulgaria here)

Media watchers, particularly in Eastern Europe, have speculated the next big foreign investor to pull out will be Central European Media Enterprises (CME), principally owned by Time Warner. CME in March restructured debt held by Time Warner giving the unmistakable appearance of cleaning up the balance sheet. Time Warner is being acquired by telecom giant AT&T for US$85 billion, likely closing by the end of the year.

Previous weeks complete Tickle File

copyright ©2004-2017 ftm partners, unless otherwise noted Contact UsSponsor ftm