call letters, numbers and stuff

This is interesting. No one has done anything about this yet, and now the bean counters have figured out they can't bil anyone correctly. So, the ball is rolling. Promo people need to get involved. Ask your GM if your station is aware of what the NAB is doing about this.

As broadcast television stations start to convert their analog signals to digital, which will provide for a potential increase in the number of “channels” that will be available to viewers and advertisers, the issue of establishing a standard method for the industry to use to identify these “channels” has become very important.
In doing business for over 50 years advertisers and their agencies have used “call letters” to identify the station. Now, with the option of multiple “channels” each of these offerings will need to have a unique “call letter” in order to facilitate the ordering and invoicing process.

TVB has spoken with the FCC, the NAB and various other organizations and found that in the legislation mandating the changes to digital only the technical issues were addressed, not the business issues. In addition, with the tremendous advances in technology, multiple platforms for the distribution of content by local TV stations that may contain advertising messages have emerged, such as Web Sites, VOD, and mobile devices like cell phones and PDAs. Each medium needs to have some sort of unique identification.

On December 13, 2005 TVB convened a meeting of the AAAA/TVB Joint Task Force on E-Business Process to discuss these issues. Representatives from agencies and broadcasters, and their respective system vendors, as well as interested parties from the measurement and tracking companies, the NAB and the ATSC (the organization that established the digital standards) were present. Among the items discussed were the needs for various levels of identification, system capabilities and suggested formats.

The next step was to form a small sub-committee of TVB members to isolate the various needs and options and to report back to the full Task Force. That sub-committee met on January 11, 2006 and has come up with a recommendation that will be presented to the rest of the Task Force and the vendor community. In the meantime, the system vendors are investigating the fields that are currently in their respective systems, and their capabilities, and are to report back to the Task Force.

As advances are made in this area, we will post that information as a continuation of this report.

Last to First?

An anonymoous poster asks:

Promo Peeps,Any recent examples of last place television stations moving into first or "near first" place positions?

Not exactly last to first, but look at the Meredith-owned, CBS in Phoenix. Phenomenal growth over two years. The right people (new GM, ND and CSD) the right ideas, good promos, nice news pacakging, great marketing and stealing the number one anchor in town.

Any other examples out there? Plus, my question, if you're in last, does it make sense to even try to get to first? I doubt it.

Channel number, Call letters,or What?

Who the hell are you?

LEGALLY, the FCC requires you to ID three things once per hour: your call letters, your channel number and your city of license. So, you are WABC-7 Los Angeles on your ANALOG signal.
On the digital side, you are WABC-DT 11 Los Angeles. (I made up their dt allocation because I don't know it.)

So that we don't have to use seperate hardware to ID the two channels when they simulcast 100% of the time, most of us have combined the two ID requirements into ONE logo.
WABC-7/WABC-DT11, Los Angeles.

Now, your dilemma in a small-medium market is, how do viewers know you now, and how will they know you in the future? Keep in mind, you don't want to know how the general population feels, you want to know how HEAVY users feel. Every research project I have ever done outside of top 50 markets comes back the same. Channel number. this only varies depending on cable penetration and cable channel parity.

In one such market, with 80% cable penetration, we went with a our CABLE channel number instead of our broadcast number for all our branding. We still did a small legal ID, but that was it! Because, heavy users knew us as Channel 4, even though we were broadcast 46.
But here is how you can do some cheap research.

Go to a TV retail store, and talk to the sales people about channels people watch. DON'T lead them any, just ask, "what seems to be the channel people want to check out the most?"
What I always find is, "channel 12, channel 4, etc" are the answers.

Now, add that to the future of tv tuner allocation. And, what cable has done with NAMES.
the future is channel number combined with NAME, not calls. IN 5-10 years set top boxes will display name and number, plus program.

So, you will be "Detroit News 9" not WXYZ. Just like "Speed 127", or "Discover 75" The lazy stations will simply put their call letters there, and miss the great opportunity. Brand NOW, what you want displayed onscreen in the digital age!

Okay, I rambled on. Does this make any sense? I have along story to post about how SMPTE and set manufacturers came up with set top channel allocations and labels, but that will have to wait until I have time.

POP's. Don't you love them?

I am a believer in POP's, but I always ask myself THREE questions:

1. Is the story big enough that anyone will care a week from now? Because, I am going to run the spot 7 days, minimum.

2. Is the coverage something that fits our brand, and is one of our strategic objectives? IE, if it was weather, or investigative, ar ethese things I have in my plan to expand and promote?

3. Did we really do that good a job? Better than the other guys? Or was it simply a good story for that day?

None of these questions come in to bearing if it is a POP/TOP, as you mentioned in your post. Often, that just helps advance a story from day to day.

And, sometimes, only one of my questions is a YES answer, and I do the spot anyway. It ain't perfect, but my one rule, that has never changed.

I NEVER do ANY spot just for the newsroom's ego! ND can go pound before I EVER do that!

Look At these!!

Promos online for all to view and critique.

If you want to post yours, the best way I know is to post them on www.putfile.com and then post a link here.

Here is the first volunteer: (very brave)

HungryPreditor said...
Here are some spots I've done recently and wanted to hear some comments. There's some sweeps pieces, POPs and WX Image. www.putfile.com/promoguy

sales inventory vs promo inventory

A common problem in smaller to medium market stations. You agree to run a spot, it involves an event or some other commitment to a sponsor. Who's inventory dos it come out of? And, why are we doing it?

I have a checklist that I use to decide how much weight we put beind these things, and who runs the spots. But I want to hear from you first.

How do you handle them?

Clueless anchors ruining copy

My answer to a recent question on TV Spy: How do you handle anchors who change your topical copy?

You can't change them. It has to come from the ND or the GM.

The station hired you. The CSD liked your tape, and you probably had some topicals on there, I am guessing. So, talk to your bos first. Tell him/her, my spots don't have the punch I want because the anchors aren't selling it. Don't concentrate on just "they aren't reading it the way I wrote it," angle. It sounds whiney.

Instead, concentrate on how the sell is less effective overall because of delivery, which then leads to, reading copy the way it is written. Many times, just adding an "AND" between lines ruins the copy. Unless you have a ND with a marketing sense, they will never get this.

If your station has a news consultant, try to get hold of them and get them involved because I guarantee they buy into this. Now, all this leads to one thing.

A big meeting.

At that meeting, you will probably find the ND and the anchors KNOW what they are doing pisses you off, but its their way of resisting "selling out." Show them what you are trying to do, use examples from other markets, use your own tape if its better than what you are doing now. In the end, you will find a middle ground.

One concession you should consider is discussing copy with the anchors BEFORE they cut it. I always read mine to the whole damn afternoon news meeting. If all this seems daunting well, it is. And if your boss won't help you then, they suck and you shouldn't have taken the job.

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