Advertisers' 2020 Solution? Swinging on A (Smart TV) Star

What's more, the way you conduct business with advertising agencies and media buyer organizations now can help determine how successful a service you'll be in the TV season ahead. Submitted for your edification, as Rod Serling might say: selected conclusions from The Myers Report's latest "Future Of Media" research, presented through a Zoom-powered videoconference by MediaVillage founder Jack Myers. Over 1,000 media industry representatives, including this columnist, watched the presentation, which was based on a survey of more than 700 officials from individual advertisers and agencies. The survey was conducted between February 1 and March 15, 2020.

Smart TV-distributed services, together with video-on-demand, addressable and interactive ventures, will finish the 2019-20 season with a 12 percent increase in advertising revenues, compared with the 2018-19 season. (NOTE: The numbers presented in this column were rounded off to the nearest percentage.)

On the flip side, basic cable and satellite networks will wrap 2019-20 with a 27 percent decline in ad revenues, while broadcast networks encounter a 26 percent revenue decline. Striking as those projections are—impacted by fallout from the coronavirus pandemic—the local television scene comes out worse for its ad sales wear. Broadcast stations could suffer a 31 percent plunge in their local and national spot commercial revenues over this timeframe, and local cable systems may anticipate a 46 percent drop in ad revenues. Many cable operators get two or three minutes to sell per hour on national cable channels, plus allotted time on local and regional all-news or sports services.

As for Spanish-language television services, which have attracted growing audiences and ad support over the last decade and are poised to see a new jump-start in sales this decade following release of the 2020 U.S. Census, the study's conclusion is a downer. That universe of programmers, and the rest of Spanish-language media, will finish this season down 32 percent in ad revenues from 2018-19.

Making the smart TV outcome more remarkable is that even with the pandemic, there's been a tremendous surge in the number and variety of programming services distributed in this manner over the first five months of 2020. Besides the premiere of mega-content enterprises Peacock from NBC Universal (advertiser-supported from the start) and AT&T/Warner Media's HBO Max (subscription model in play now, with an ad-supported format deployed early next year), there's channels from Canela TV and Yippee to UMG TV and Loop TV—the majority from independent entities.

In another portion of The Myers Report annual market update, shared publicly for the first time, several smart TV products and device-distributed offerings made headway among ad agency rankings of business practices, reported under various categories. Vudu, the Walmart-organized video-on-demand service recently sold to Comcast's Fandango unit, was cited four times for earning good marks in the areas of trust/reliability, client support, value, and client satisfaction. Last summer, Vudu introduced a "shoppable ad" initiative where viewers watching ads for specific products, such as Glad sandwich bags or Pringle's snacks, could order them for placement in their Walmart shopping carts.

Roku, offering thousands of channels and applications through its TV-connected device, picked up attention as a rising source of innovation. Samsung's advertising unit and Samba TV earned plaudits for data delivery and measurement practices, while music video service Vevo was cited for proactive initiatives. The big smart TV player in this group: Hulu, winning this year's Myers Reports Leadership Award along with Pandora. In the agency rankings, Hulu earned or shared top marks for client support, value, client satisfaction and innovation.

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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet.