The wonderful thing about the economy, especially when there are more than a few competitors pursuing their share of the market, is watching how it follows general marketing principles. Specifically in the tablet market, you have your market leaders pushing their differentiation strategy while others use a low pricing strategy to gain market share.
"New stats from market research firm IHS iSuppli show Apple’s iPad surging ahead of other media tablets to gain a 70 percent market share in the second quarter of 2012." But not resting on their laurels, expectations are that a mini iPad will be announced shortly to add to their product line. New entrants like the Microsoft Surface may cause a buzz while Samsung is banking on growing its share of the Galaxy and Google with the Nexus7. And of course there is the Kindle from Amazon and the Nook from Barnes & Noble. In the case of the Nook, they hope to grow business with a timely cut in their price just as school is about to begin.
The joys of a crowded marketplace, inciting constant innovation and pushing the others to keep their eye on the prize. It should make for a fun Holiday Season as each of these companies sell their benefits to the consumer.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
What's A CD, Teens Prefer Online
My son and I were walking through our local mall and he spotted a new store across from his favorite, GameStop. It was simply called The CD Store and my son wondered why. With access to songs through iTunes and YouTube, a physical CD isn't something he even thinks about. And according to the Nielsen research, he is not alone.
And for 17 and under, You Tube heads the list of preferences. "In addition to treating YouTube as a de facto free music service, young people said they are less inclined than those 18 years old and up to listen to CDs or the radio." The chart in the Wall Street Journal does offer some other interesting observations.
For all age groups, CDs ranked higher for usage than other media platforms, both new and old; higher than Sirius, higher than Facebook, higher than TV (Take than MTV), and even higher than Pandora. Still it is important to note that this is a moment in time and not a trend analysis to indicate the direction of usage that teens are taking. As we all know, they are a fickle bunch and can change quickly for many reasons.
That the article suggests that CDs are done, they are less used than even radio for teens. For adults, CDs are still a tried and true formula and perhaps that is why a CD store has popped into our mall. Adults rank CDs second behind radio in the survey. Ahh the older generation loves their old fashioned technology.
And for 17 and under, You Tube heads the list of preferences. "In addition to treating YouTube as a de facto free music service, young people said they are less inclined than those 18 years old and up to listen to CDs or the radio." The chart in the Wall Street Journal does offer some other interesting observations.
For all age groups, CDs ranked higher for usage than other media platforms, both new and old; higher than Sirius, higher than Facebook, higher than TV (Take than MTV), and even higher than Pandora. Still it is important to note that this is a moment in time and not a trend analysis to indicate the direction of usage that teens are taking. As we all know, they are a fickle bunch and can change quickly for many reasons.
That the article suggests that CDs are done, they are less used than even radio for teens. For adults, CDs are still a tried and true formula and perhaps that is why a CD store has popped into our mall. Adults rank CDs second behind radio in the survey. Ahh the older generation loves their old fashioned technology.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Does Liberty Want To Sell Starz And Is Comcast A Buyer
Liberty and John Malone love to unlock the value of a company by spinning it off into its own separately traded public company. It has been a strategy that seems to serve them well. With the decision to spin Starz into a separate company comes speculation that Malone might actually be willing to part with the pay television network. According to the article in Ad Age, the list of possible acquirers is growing including News Corp, Viacom, Time Warner, Netflix, and Comcast. But is Liberty really looking to sell this asset and does it make sense for any of these "media giants" to acquire it? At the right price, almost everything can be bought.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Dish Network Keeping AMC Off The Air
Whether it is a license fee rate issue or bad blood regarding a lawsuit around Voom, Dish Network has decided to not carry AMC and its other networks, including WE, IFC, and Sundance, on their line-up. Clearly there are different sides to this story. If a decision not to carry certain networks with the result of lowering the monthly fee to consumers works, then other carriers may seek out this strategy to account for consumer price sensitivity. If enough consumers complain or worse, switch to another provider, Dish may feel the bite and re-engage in a negotiation with AMC. And other operators will figure out new ways to be the aggregator of all programming. The fight is on.
AMC is certainly trying different ways to talk to the Dish consumer and get them to act. One such tactic caught my eye. I've embedded a video that is both humorous and subtle.
If you want zombies off the street and back on the AMC TV show, The Walking Dead, then this will certainly help. Enjoy!
AMC is certainly trying different ways to talk to the Dish consumer and get them to act. One such tactic caught my eye. I've embedded a video that is both humorous and subtle.
If you want zombies off the street and back on the AMC TV show, The Walking Dead, then this will certainly help. Enjoy!
Thursday, August 9, 2012
What's It All About.com, Alfie/New York Times
The challenges of a media company is deciding what you are and what you want to be. And sometimes trying to get out of your own way can cause dysfunction among the different businesses. For the New York Times, it was their hope to augment their print media empire with the purchase of About.com, a digital content company. In the early years, About brought profit to NYT, but recently, it has likely been ignored as NYT focused on its own subscription and advertising issues.
Perhaps some of the blame for About has been "because of a change in the way Google handles search results. That change made About.com content harder to find." For me personally, I found the information from About either dated or so basic to not answer my questions. I most recently tried to find info on gas grills and sought out About for rankings, ratings, and general info on types of grills. I luckily found what I needed through other websites.
I remember when About first appeared. It was the leader in the how to website category, offering tons of information from its experts. But whether it was the change in Google search or the lack of new and updated information across categories, About.com became less relevant. With its planned sale to Answers.com, the New York Times can focus back to its core business and plans to turn themselves from the print leader to the online news leader. And with new management to lead it, About can return to a leadership position.
Perhaps some of the blame for About has been "because of a change in the way Google handles search results. That change made About.com content harder to find." For me personally, I found the information from About either dated or so basic to not answer my questions. I most recently tried to find info on gas grills and sought out About for rankings, ratings, and general info on types of grills. I luckily found what I needed through other websites.
I remember when About first appeared. It was the leader in the how to website category, offering tons of information from its experts. But whether it was the change in Google search or the lack of new and updated information across categories, About.com became less relevant. With its planned sale to Answers.com, the New York Times can focus back to its core business and plans to turn themselves from the print leader to the online news leader. And with new management to lead it, About can return to a leadership position.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Liberty Media Keeping Busy
Back in the day when John Malone was heading up TCI and I was selling a small cable network to cable operators, I was taken with the style and substance of the man. I heard him at cable conferences, read about him, and watched as he successfully sold TCI and started Liberty Media. Since then, he has continued to do what few others are able to do; unlock the value of his company by purchasing into companies and spinning them out into separate businesses. He continues to do it today as his plan is to spin off his ownership of Starz into a separately traded company.
"Liberty Media, based in Englewood, Colorado, has used tracking stocks and financial transactions over the years to pursue tax benefits and make its diversified assets more attractive to shareholders. They included the separation of Liberty Interactive (LINTA), owner of the shopping network QVC." He has also done it with Discovery Networks and his next plan involves Sirius Satellite. As Liberty moves to become the majority owner, he is ready to take those shares and spin them out as well.
For now, it seems to be the ongoing strategy of Liberty Media to be the holding company through investments in other brands. He takes them, grows them, grows his ownership in them, and then like children, kicks them out of the nest into separate companies, all with Malone ownership behind them. Good news for investors that like to watch their stock holdings expand through spin offs.
"Liberty Media, based in Englewood, Colorado, has used tracking stocks and financial transactions over the years to pursue tax benefits and make its diversified assets more attractive to shareholders. They included the separation of Liberty Interactive (LINTA), owner of the shopping network QVC." He has also done it with Discovery Networks and his next plan involves Sirius Satellite. As Liberty moves to become the majority owner, he is ready to take those shares and spin them out as well.
For now, it seems to be the ongoing strategy of Liberty Media to be the holding company through investments in other brands. He takes them, grows them, grows his ownership in them, and then like children, kicks them out of the nest into separate companies, all with Malone ownership behind them. Good news for investors that like to watch their stock holdings expand through spin offs.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Facebook Faces Concerns On Size Of Its Customer Base
When is a customer not a customer? How many times can you count a customer? Simple questions, but as we are finally learning from Facebook, not all is what it appears to be. "In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the social media company said that as many as 83 million of its accounts are fake." Out of the latest number of 955 million subscribers, that is a whopping 8.7%. In addition, 5% of the accounts are duplicates and another "1.5 percent of its accounts are likely spam or accounts set up for other malicious activity." So all in, almost 15% are not true uniques. And that is what is uncovered today. How many set up pages for their pets or use different email addresses for different accounts. And of the true accounts, how many are active and how many are DOA.
Obviously the total remaining number is still large and valuable to marketers. But the bottom line is for businesses to measure its ROI, it needs to have real numbers that can be analyzed properly. For now, the stock market is concerned as subscriber growth has slowed and the false accounts are being separated from the real ones.
Obviously the total remaining number is still large and valuable to marketers. But the bottom line is for businesses to measure its ROI, it needs to have real numbers that can be analyzed properly. For now, the stock market is concerned as subscriber growth has slowed and the false accounts are being separated from the real ones.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Digital Branded Entertainment Has Moved Off The TV
How do digital content creators find revenue for their productions? Certainly pre-rolls and banner ads aren't paying all the bills. The solution is clear, branded entertainment. Aided by big name advertisers, online series are finding high level production values, that can include celebrity talent, and the promotional expertise to raise viewership. "For the third time in five months, Ford's testing branded online video entertainment. The Detroit automotive brand and Schick are sponsoring the second installation of 'Dating Rules,' a Web video series by Alloy Entertainment that premiered on Hulu Wednesday (Aug. 1)." This has been a popular strategy for a number of brands including KFC, Luis Vuitton, and many others.
But this notion of a branded series didn't start on the web. It was a strategy first used on radio and then on television. TV series like the Texaco Star Theater that featured Milton Berle, Kraft Television Theater, and The Jack Benny Program which had a number of different sponsors all getting exclusive advertising within the show including Jello, Lucky Strike, and Chevrolet. It was advertising that paid 100% of the cost of programming, not license fee revenue. But as costs rose, one advertiser couldn't pay all the costs. Ads were no longer a part of the show but made into distinct breaks, outside the show.
And so it is the web's turn to use this staple of advertising, branded entertainment, as a means to support the cost. But if history is a guide, as those costs rise, the web will one day also look at license fees to watch certain online networks and series.
But this notion of a branded series didn't start on the web. It was a strategy first used on radio and then on television. TV series like the Texaco Star Theater that featured Milton Berle, Kraft Television Theater, and The Jack Benny Program which had a number of different sponsors all getting exclusive advertising within the show including Jello, Lucky Strike, and Chevrolet. It was advertising that paid 100% of the cost of programming, not license fee revenue. But as costs rose, one advertiser couldn't pay all the costs. Ads were no longer a part of the show but made into distinct breaks, outside the show.
And so it is the web's turn to use this staple of advertising, branded entertainment, as a means to support the cost. But if history is a guide, as those costs rise, the web will one day also look at license fees to watch certain online networks and series.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Comcast Growing Revenue Despite Cable Sub Declines
Comcast is a profitable, growing organization. With one foot in distribution and the other planted in content, Comcast saw their second quarter of revenue grow over 6% while operating income grew over 4% from the same quarter last year. In a recessionary economy, Comcast seems to be doing well. The stock market must like the numbers because the stock price is up today as well.
As for the cable part of the business, Comcast must recognize that its subscriber numbers continue to drop. While the loss is lower than anticipated, it still adds up to almost 400,000 less subscribers for the year. But Comcast is able to offset those losses with an increase in both broadband and telephone customers. And that trend is likely to continue for quite some time. The younger generation is more oriented toward a broadband connection than to cable and the cost of a cable subscription only pushes the envelope for more cord cutting.
On the programming front, NBC and their owned cable networks are performing within an expected range, the Olympics could actually break even, and Universal Studios has had some hits to offset their box office duds. Thumbs up to "Ted", thumbs down to "Battleship". So congrats to Comcast, content and distribution together seems to be a successful mix.
As for the cable part of the business, Comcast must recognize that its subscriber numbers continue to drop. While the loss is lower than anticipated, it still adds up to almost 400,000 less subscribers for the year. But Comcast is able to offset those losses with an increase in both broadband and telephone customers. And that trend is likely to continue for quite some time. The younger generation is more oriented toward a broadband connection than to cable and the cost of a cable subscription only pushes the envelope for more cord cutting.
On the programming front, NBC and their owned cable networks are performing within an expected range, the Olympics could actually break even, and Universal Studios has had some hits to offset their box office duds. Thumbs up to "Ted", thumbs down to "Battleship". So congrats to Comcast, content and distribution together seems to be a successful mix.
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