A&E's "Live PD" Is a Siren for Viewers, Brands

Produced by Big Fish Entertainment Live PD isamp160expertly hosted by three industry vets amp160Chief Legal Affairs Anchor for ABC News Dan Abrams Sgt Sean quotSticksquot Larkin of the Tulsa Police Department Gang Unit and longtime America39s Most Wanted Senior Correspondent and Producer Tom Morris Jr pictured at top left to right Itamp160is a bona fide hit for AampampE averaging 18 million viewers andamp160according toamp160Nielsenamp160it ranksamp160No 1 in its time slot against other general entertainment networksamp160 It boasts tremendous grassroots support with viewers creating social media groups tagged LivePDNation producing their own videos and hosting live viewing partiesamp160 Such engagement is attracting a growing roster of brands supporting the show on TV and onlineWith a hit on their hands AampampE39s Brian Joyce Senior Vice President of National Ad Sales and Live PD host Abrams spoke to MediaVillage about how the show taps into the public zeitgeist why viewers are so devotedamp160and the trifecta of value it delivers for advertisersamp160Alli Romanoamp160 Both in TV and podcasting true crime and investigation are hot genresamp160 What is it about Live PD that taps into this passion and resonates so well with your viewersBrian Joyceamp160 This show with a live format traveling to eight different cities and a command center and hosts is a brandnew type of programamp160 When I grew up we went to Radio Shack and bought a police scanneramp160 You39d sit there with your friends and listen to what was going on with local law enforcementamp160 This show is like the scanner on steroidsamp160 The hosts Dan Sticksamp160and Tom each have legal or law enforcement backgrounds and are likableamp160 They bring a lot of credibility and context keeping the flow goingamp160 This is not easy to pull off six hours live a week is a tremendous operationDan Abramsamp160 It really can be a bit addictiveamp160 You can watch for an hour and have no idea you were watching for that longamp160 The fact that it isn39t always high octane but you don39t know what is going to happen next makes it truly uniqueamp160Romanoamp160amp160Dan you have a deep background in TV news and legal affairsamp160 What attracted you to this showAbramsamp160 I have long thought body cameras made a lot of sense for police officers and the idea that we could watch them just doing what they do in real time was a very appealing conceptamp160 But I have to say that the show has been even more fun than I expectedRomanoamp160amp160There39s been a lot of attention recently on police body cameras and dash camerasamp160 How much do you think that is fueling interest in the show amp160amp160amp160Joyceamp160 When this show launched in 4Q 2016 there was a lot in the news about police and transparency and I think that39s another reason this show does so wellamp160 When you watch the news you39re seeing what law enforcement goes through half a percent of the timeamp160 The nature of this program offers full transparency into what our men and women of law enforcement are up against the other 995 of the timeamp160 With the right formula and AampampE39s reputation for real and authentic series viewers show upRomanoamp160 How are you using digital media to augment the showamp160 Joyce amp160We have shortform content on YouTube and that has tremendous trafficamp160 We39ve even taken content that the fans have posted and pushed that out across our social channelsamp160 Some fun content has been posted from fans during their Live PD viewing partiesThe social following has been organic tooamp160 Fans came together soon after the launch and formed a social community on their own called LivePDNationamp160 It39s now over 120k strong and continues to growamp160amp160Our social team works to amplify that excitement and make it even biggeramp160 Twitter just came out with itsamp1602018 rankings and Live PD is one of the top 10 mosttweeted showsamp160amp160Saturday Night Live is No 1 The Voice is No 6amp160and Game of Thrones is No 9amp160 That39s amazing company to keepRomanoamp160 How has your advertiser support grown over the three seasonsamp160 How are you working with clients to create innovative campaigns Joyce amp160Since Live PD launched we have tripled its advertisersamp160 We work with sponsors in developing custom content that surrounds the Live PD experience across all platformsamp160 A good example of this is our use of creative bumpers that lead into commercial breaksamp160 For example the Canine spots are fun and lighthearted and have had a lot of demandamp160 Plus some partners have leveraged our talent Tom Morris Jr and ouramp160social following to build deeper engagement beyond just our Friday and Saturday telecastsamp160 The exciting thing about Live PD is that we are in premieres 44 out of 52 weeks a yearamp160 It39s a big ask of our production teams but also a lot of opportunities for our advertisers to align with new engaging contentRomanoamp160 How does the success of Live PD compare with some of your past hits and how is that translating to ad sales Joyceamp160amp160This show launched in Q4 2016 andamp160by second quarter of 2017 the ratings had doubledamp160 By the end of Q3 2017amp160we were approaching 1 million A2554 amp160impressionsamp160 That39s tremendous growthamp160 I39ve seen this happen before with certain shows like Dog the Bounty Hunter Storage Warsamp160andamp160Duck Dynastyamp160 You get these hits and they just take off on their ownamp160 What39s interesting about Live PD is that as the ratings grew the quality of audience dramatically improvedamp160 The average household income shot up from 46000 up to 57000amp160 When you have quality of audience scale and such an engaged fan base like we do you have the hat trickamp160Romanoamp160 As part of your outreach do you also integrate public service into the showAbramsamp160 Yesamp160 We continue to do our quotMissingquot and quotWantedquot segments that help police departments around the country find suspects and victims Tips from Live PD viewers have helped law enforcement to recover seven children and led to 12 fugitives being caughtamp160 The police departments appreciate their assistance and we are always so proud and relieved when the quotLive PD Nationquot helps bring a child home or a suspected criminal to justiceClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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A&E's "Live PD" Is a Siren for Viewers, Brands

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Alli Romano

"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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A&E's "Live PD" Is a Siren for Viewers, Brands

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Alli Romano

"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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