The radio business was hit with a barrage of bad news this week, with credit downgrades and speculations of bankruptcy for big broadcasters.

The destruction derby started with credit downgrades for Radio One and Citadel, which are both now considered to be at serious risk of defaulting on their substantial debts.

Radio One’s rating was knocked down from CCC+ to B- by Standard and Poor’s, according to the Baltimore Business Journal. The credit rating firm believes the urban format radio group is borrowing more money than allowed under the terms of its various lending covenants.

Citadel was downgraded by Moody’s Investor Service from Caa2 to Caa3, while raising its official measure of Citadel’s probability to default.

In addition, it is becoming apparent that Clear Channel Communications’ creditors intend to push the behemoth into bankruptcy, hoping to gain control of its equity at a big discount, then sell them off. (MediaPost)

Read More

Remerge Note: Radio listenership remains strong, yet radio companies continue to bleed money and tank. We reassert our opinion that radio is fine - those running radio are broken.

Filed under: Main | No Comments »

While marketers are adept at getting ads into consumers’ faces, consumers are adept at ignoring those messages. In polling for AdweekMedia among members of LinkedIn, few respondents said they pay much heed to most of the ads they see.

The poll posed the multiple-choice question, “Of the ads you see in a typical day, how many engage your attention?” Just 1 percent of respondents picked the answer “most of them,” with another 5 percent choosing “many of them.” The vast majority of responses were split between “a small minority of them” (66 percent) and “none of them” (25 percent). (AdWeek)

Read More

Filed under: Main | No Comments »

Are we overdue for a “slow-marketing” movement? After all, the “slow foods” movement is making real headway, and there’s the much-needed “slow-parenting” movement. Why should marketing be exempt?

Here’s the rub: Speed is good, and change is gospel, but we might be moving too darn fast and making too many dumb or shortsighted moves along the way. That fuels cynicism, which is not what we need in an environment of increasingly empowered consumers, eroded trust and greater regulatory scrutiny.

We might all benefit from slowing down, deepening our conversations — rather than skimming at superficial levels a mile a minute — and re-embracing (please forgive me) some of the “boring basics”: putting consumers first, listening, providing service, working sustainably, teaching, relationship building and operating ethically. (AdAge)

Read More

Filed under: Main | No Comments »

TV Everywhere, Time Warner’s industrywide initiative to make cable-TV programming available on an on-demand basis online to any multichannel subscriber, has its first distribution partner. Cable operator Comcast will test TV Everywhere’s authentication technology, beginning with a technical trial in July in which 5,000 subscribers will be able to view programming from Time Warner’s Turner networks TNT and TBS through Comcast’s On-Demand Online service. (AdAge)

Read More

Filed under: Main | No Comments »

The question is whether the networks can keep (the current level of) amount of ad spending as audiences — and the ad dollars that chase them — fragment across iPods and mobile phones, video games and video on demand, gas-station screens and DVDs.

“We remain worried about broadcast’s ability to sustain [premium ad prices] across all their dayparts, just given the narrowing of reach between broadcast and cable,” said Michael Nathanson, a media analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.

Soothsayers project two different scenarios. In one, networks — who see more opportunity in distributing programs through digital means — break away from the local stations that have helped promote their comedies, dramas and specials for decades. Stations can use digital cable and other venues to drill down and play on local topics and subjects. “There will still be an audience for quality programming that a network should be creating and serving up,” said Tim Hanlon, exec VP-managing director at Publicis Groupe’s VivaKi Ventures, which searches out emerging marketing and media entities. “But I don’t think you’re going to see the stations take the entire slate of stuff in total.”

Read More

Remerge Note: The compelling question boils-down to reach. Why would networks continue to share revenue with local TV affiliates, when they no longer truely need those station transmitters to reach that local affiliate’s audience?  Where do local TV stations get their content if networks pull the plug and partner with regional cable and digital for reach? Hmmm…

Filed under: Main | No Comments »