How the Dish Networks' Ad-Zapping 'Hopper' Could Change the TV Industry, But Not Yet

The broadcast industry "upfronts" were held earlier this month. Advertising agency media types put on their best dresses and Sunday suits and attend lavish presentations complete with TV stars, food and beverages. Kelly Clarkson, Robin Thicke and John Legend performed at ABC's Upfront VIP Party. During Upfront presentations, networks roll out next season's television programming and present their best cases for why they should get their share of the more than $60 billion spent annually on television advertising. In spite of the growth of internet and mobile advertising, television is still the number one platform for advertising and up to 80 percent of commercial inventory is sold during the upfront season. So you can imagine why Dish Networks unveiling of the "Hopper" – a DVR device that would allow subscribers to "auto-hop" (skip) the commercials they record –was considered hard, cold rain on the parade. This is big, right? The ability to watch a show when you want to and without commercials, well that's like cake and ice cream with no calories. Not so fast there, cowgirl. Although the idea of skipping commercials spurs an interesting debate, in the end not so much is happening …yet. The networks are bent out of shape because free TV is built on the advertising model. That's where the money comes from to make and air the shows. Subscription services, like cable TV are another revenue model, but advertising plays a big part in that as well. The networks argue that if advertisers begin leaving TV, subscription prices will go up and less content will be made. Plus, they argue, it is a copyright infringement for Dish Network to allow the recording, saving and airing of content without the commercials. Dish Network dismisses the allegations out of hand arguing that if they make it easier, more TV will be watched and that's better for the networks. Further, they state, since the user is taping the program, they can choose to watch the commercials if they want and that makes it no different than fast-forwarding. The battle of words took a turn for the worse when Dish Network sued the networks. Dish Network is looking for a ruling on whether or not the device infringes on copyrights. Fox, CBS and NBCUniversal subsequently sued Dish Network alleging copyright infringement. In reality, everyone may be out of the gate a little early. According to Neilson, only 12 percent of broadcast homes have Dish and only about half of those have DVR's. Add to that the fact that over 80 percent of viewers view recorded shows the same day and with the Hopper, you can't actually skip the commercial until the next day and you realize that there very little to fight about right now. But, devices like the Hopper and online sites like Hulu (savvy web users have been using programs like Firefox's AdBloc to skip the commercials) are bringing in to question whether we are experiencing the warning shots in the coming battle that will give more control to the consumer about how they will view sponsored content. This column first appeared on the ABCNews.com site on May 30, 2012. To view on the ABC News site click here. Follow @grahamstan

There’s an Ad Agency on Mobaso Road in Nairobi

Do Ad Networks Practice Double Standard When It Comes To African American Consumers? Those of you who know me, know that I’m a research nut. I like to find information and I’ll go to great lengths to get at interesting facts. This inquisitiveness has served me well over the span of my career. Information is power, it helps you prove points. It helps shine a light on inequities. I like to think ultimately, information leads to truth and truth has interesting qualities. William Cullen Bryant said that “Truth crushed to the earth will rise again”. So, follow along as I tell you what I just found out. It all started with an article I saw yesterday that talked about Omnicom’s TBWA setting up shop in Nairobi to compete in the fast growing Kenyan advertising market, which according to sources grew 30% last year. 30% is nothing to sneeze at and their clients GSK, Visa and Unilever among others are all blue top shelf clients. I started snooping around to find out more about the Kenyan market. There are a lot of international agencies there from the US, Asia and The UK. McCann and Ogilvy are there as are Porter Novelli and Y&R. (Y&R is the agency I refer to in the title –they are in Panesar’s Centre on Mobaso Road). The firms there handle many international clients like Toyota and Coca Cola as well as local clients like Telkom Kenya and Jamii, a broadband provider. The Gross Nation Income of Kenya is $68 Billion. Its population is 40 Million people. By contrast the calculated GNI of African Americans who are about 39 Million people is 803 Billion and the median household income is $35,425 compared to $2,000 per year for the average Kenyan family. What is my point? Simply that Advertising agencies and their holding companies go to the far reaches of the globe and do hand-to-hand combat for market share in one of the poorest countries in the world. Kenya currently ranks 180th out of 210 countries yet go out of their way to justify why they will not target the African American market and use the proven market experts to do it. I call on clients that know they derive a significant share of their business from the African American market (If you don’t know call me and I’ll run a quick GfK MRI analysis on your brand and help you out) to get with the program, do what’s right and spend your marketing dollars with the advertising agencies, media companies, newspapers, radio stations and consumers from whom you derive significant profit.

Do You Know Any Queen-agers?

I’ve been seeing the trend develop for a while. It is buried in Mary Lou Quinlan’s book Just Ask A Woman which spends its time focusing on woman as consumers. It is the subtext to Miriam Muléy’s book The 85% Niche, which also is aimed at how to target women’s purchasing power. But now, a little more of the significance of the trend is emerging and there is a wonderful name that’s so descriptive I think it will catch on: Queen-Ager. The Sidney Morning Herald published a short article in yesterday’s newspaper entitled: Queen-agers Rule the Net. Their hypothesis is that there is a group of women sandwiched between Gen Y and the Baby Boomers. The bulls eye age is 45, and the largest part of the group is 40-49. These are tech savvy women whose focus is not on babies, beauty or fashion necessarily but who seek the information and respect to confidently go where they traditionally have not had easy access. In many ways it is about reinvention and the catalyst has been the internet. The internet with its easy access to information has empowered this generation by providing the hard facts that can help them overcome the aggressiveness of their fathers, brothers and their husbands (I believe I do it unwittingly) in performing tasks like negotiating the purchase of a car, computers or white goods. But also to do and achieve much more. According to Muléy, women hold the purse strings and make or influence 85% of all purchases. That’s economic clout but falls short of true significance. The idea behind Queen-agers is control and self-actualization. It is the idea that the combination of times we are living in and the information accessible by the internet, allow women of a certain age to move in a steeper trajectory than they set out on when they were teen-agers and they were just staring out and deciding who they wanted to be and what they wanted to achieve; now they can revisit and in some cases redefine themselves and live more fulfilling lives. This is powerful stuff if you think about it. It’s like waking up and discovering you’re bionic. I know a few Queen-agers and I’ll bet you do too.