The Entertainment Development & Programming Weekly - April 13th Edition

Here are the most interesting articles that came across this week…

Hollywood studios issue warning on actors talks

With the next round of Hollywood labor talks a week away, the major studios on Monday urged actors to avoid renewed strife by embracing the framework of deals already reached with directors and striking screenwriters.

The message implicit in the open letter from the studios' bargaining arm, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, appeared to be that union demands going much beyond terms already ratified by two other major Hollywood guilds are out of the question.

"If our industry relies on this new framework, we can all avoid more harmful and unnecessary strikes," the AMPTP concluded in its six-paragraph statement. It left open the door for "reasonable compromises that are necessary."

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN0729832120080408

Set Jericho and Friday Night Lights Free

Last week, NBC announced an arrangement with DirecTV to keep the critically-adored but seldom-watched Friday Night Lights alive. The satellite company will help foot the bill for production in exchange for the exclusive first-run rights of the show. The New York Times writes that Comcast is in similar talks with CBS about the recently-canceled Jericho.

DirecTV thinks it can use Lights as a marketing tool to get the rabid fans of the show to ditch cable for satellite. Eric Shanks, DirecTV’s executive vice president for entertainment, told The Times:

“We have exclusive content around sports with the N.F.L., college basketball and Nascar,” he said. “Why can’t that same model work with entertainment? Why can’t we go out and get exclusive entertainment properties and use that as a differentiator as well?”

http://newteevee.com/2008/04/08/set-jericho-and-friday-night-lights-free/#more-3670

CBS Forms Special Ad Division for Brand Integrations

The Bennett hire and the development of the new unit are indicative of a new push in the effort to knit brands and programs in closer patterns. NBC Universal has for the last year or so trumpeted its efforts to get advertisers and the network talking earlier in the development process, all to generate ideas that tie in to particular programs, plots and characters. At CBS Television Distribution, demand for wide-ranging programs is "just becoming too voluminous for us" to handle with ad-sales executives who also sell traditional spots, said John Nogawski, president-CBS Television Distribution.
Product-integration deals drive much of the early business, Mr. Nogawski said. "We start these discussions now. Most of these concepts will be driven and budgets will be allocated over the next month. When we actually get to the upfront, the integration conversation has already happened, and then we complete the business when we do the upfront selling."

http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=126297

Nielsen to Buy IAG Research for $225 Million

If Nielsen can't measure its way to continued dominance of an ever-shifting advertising world, perhaps it can buy its way into it. The media-measurement company today said it had agreed to purchase IAG Research, a company that measures viewer response to ads, TV shows and product placements, for $225 million.
IAG has gained notice in recent years, having signed pacts with many of Nielsen's biggest TV-network clients. In 2006, NBC signed a deal with Toyota that required the network to use data from IAG Research to demonstrate its viewers paid attention and could recall particular details about a TV show. At a time when more advertisers are pressing for detailed examinations of whether their ads change consumer recall, intent and purchase behavior, a purchase of IAG would layer some qualitative data atop Nielsen's expertise in measuring more quantitative elements, such as reach and frequency.
"We are known for our quantitative data, but more and more advertisers are looking for ways to differentiate their ad campaigns," said Susan D. Whiting, the Nielsen Co. exec VP who oversees development. At such a time, she added, "additional analytics are very important."

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=126216

CAN'T STEAL 'THEFT'

Electronic Arts' $26 a share hostile bid for rival video game maker Take-Two Interactive could come under pressure after a report last week predicted Take-Two's upcoming release of "Grand Theft Auto IV" could post record-breaking first week sales.

Gaming analyst Mike Hickey, after reviewing pre-sales of the game, anticipated shipments and other data, predicted "GTA4" would sell 5.8 million units in the first seven days after its April 29 release - which would nearly double the current record set by "Halo 3" last year.

Such a robust burst from the gate by "GTA4" would likely send Take-Two shares soaring past the $26 bid level and pressure EA, based in Redwood City, Calif., the world No. 1 game maker, to raise it bid.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04062008/business/cant_steal_theft_105166.htm

My TV Is Not Your TV

5. The Brand Has Changed: I don't know what network hosts most of the programs saved on my TiVo. (A rare exception is "John Adams, but that says more about what a strong brand HBO has become.) I don't have the faintest idea what time "John Adams" or most any other show airs. Why should I? Unless you're talking about a baseball game, all I need to know about a show is that it's on my TiVo screen when I want to watch it. As a result, I neither know nor care any more about the supposed qualities of NBC or the WB or any other network than I do about the supposed qualities of whatever company makes the coaxial cable Time Warner uses to bring a TV signal to my house. Content itself is becoming the brand -- and networks used to hitting me with commercials while I sat captive on the couch have to work much, much harder to get my attention. That's a monumental change for them, but for me it now seems odd that it was ever otherwise.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120716247208184015.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today

Marketers Size Up New Metric System

Even so, some brand managers still aren't so sure about engagement, which is seen as a way to measure the effects of branding rather than direct sales.
"There's always been a certain level of engagement as consumers click on a banner," said Jeff Hinz, svp/director of client services at ID Media, a digital services company in New York.
Now, engagement through online communities, video sites and other methods offers the potential to measure more. Social media companies like Slide and Bebo are adding to advertisers' branding methods with a growing list of widgets to virtually toss at consumers for further engagement. But getting advertisers to embrace them is another story.

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003785890

'Project Runway' Sponsorships Could Unravel With Network Shift

The integrated sponsorship model is becoming just as big a moneymaker for reality shows as it can be with scripted series. By comparison, Bravo's second-largest reality series, "Top Chef," minted Bravo $26.8 million in ad dollars during the second and third quarters of 2007, its third season, according to TNS, with sponsors like Glad Products, Toyota Motors and Evian integrated into the proceedings. That show's bigger ad haul is largely because Bravo is able to negotiate all the "Top Chef" sponsorships in-house, as opposed to the Weinstein Co. deal with "Runway."

(Also for comparison's sake, at broadcast sibling NBC, the brand-friendly reality show "The Biggest Loser" brought in $45.6 million in ad dollars from Oct. 1 through March 31, while a top-rated scripted show like "Heroes" brought in $60.6 million in fourth-quarter 2007.)

http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=126320

Dupri To Lead TAG-Branded Record Label

According to Dupri, Proctor & Gamble, which produces TAG body spray, approached Island via ACME Brand Content Company for the joint venture. P&G views the union as a great way to reach its pop culture-influenced teen demographic. The label launch is also part of TAG's initiative to cultivate relationships with the urban community through programs that give opportunities to aspiring MCs.

Neither IDJ or P&G would comment on speculation that TAG artists will be supported with up to, but not limited to, $10 million in marketing dollars, an unprecedented figure for any contemporary new artist.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003788354

Land Grab: Yahoo-Microsoft-AOL-MySpace Fracas

Complicating things further, Yahoo has instigated wild press speculation about an imminent deal with Time Warner’s AOL–which, through its proposed acquisition of Bebo, could provide Yahoo with a social network tie. Both of Yahoo’s logical moves are perceived as a desperate attempt to thwart or boost the price of Microsoft’s bid, which is good until April 26.

Microsoft’s unexpected move to fortify its bid by reaching out to News Corp.’s MySpace as an ally actually provides the software giant with the critical social-networking tie it also lacks. The kicker will be the equity alliances these players have with each other. Google has a $900 million Internet ad search deal in place with MySpace, which would be a critical social-networking partner to Microsoft-Yahoo. Microsoft recently paid $240 million for a 1.6% stake and a broader marketing relationship with Facebook, which values the social network rival at $15 billion. The prospects of a mind-boggling alliance of Yahoo, Microsoft, MySpace and Facebook to battle Google would be irresistible to the staunchest institutional Yahoo shareholder.

However, the most profound element in all of this is how these double-edged ties will unwind or tangle as consolidation and fluctuating valuations intensify competition.

http://blogs.mediapost.com/on_media/?p=145

ESPN Capitulates to Syndicated Video Economy

You'd have to have slept through yesterday to miss the big news that ESPN is now syndicating video clips from a cluster of its programs to AOL, its first-ever such deal. I interpret the deal as an extremely strong indicator that the "Syndicated Video Economy" (as I described this trend 3 weeks ago) is inexorable, even for the richest and most powerful video brands.

ESPN is one such brand. In 2007 it generated 1.2 billion video views from its own site, placing it in the top 10 of all sites. In January '08, ESPN generated 81 million views according to comScore, ranking it #9. And much of ESPN's broadband video (aside from what it shows exclusively on ESPN360, its online subscription service) is essentially re-purposed from on-air, likely making the margins on ESPN's online efforts insanely profitable.

http://www.videonuze.com/blogs/?2008-04-09/ESPN-Capitulates-to-Syndicated-Video-Economy/&id=969

Persepolis: The Video Game?

Here, you see an example of a particular mode of games analysis which has become more wide-spread in our program through the years: Rather than writing an ideological critique which stressed the limits of the original text (or in this case, of games a medium), Weisse engages in a thought experiment -- first, comparing the game Just Cause to what he sees as a more rewarding media experience, Persepolis, and then imagining how games as a medium might be able to more fully realize what he sees as lacking in the text under examination. This is a mode of analysis which doesn't simply point out limitations but also imagines alternative possibilities; it doesn't just accept the text as given but rather writes beyond the ending of the text, reconstructs an alternative version of it to show what might be missing in the original. We've found that these kinds of thought experiments can generate more concrete discussions and may become the spring board for more creative interventions. In a space like Gambit, which is involved in developing playable prototypes which stretch the games medium, this ability to move between current examples and alternative versions can be a springboard for design activities. It represents one way that we can blur the lines between theory and practice.

http://henryjenkins.org/2008/04/persepolis_the_video_game.html

MySpace Gets International TV Deal

MySpaceTV has signed a partnership with ShineReveille International for international distribution of its programming via television, DVD, and merchandise. ShineReveille is the new sales and distribution arm of Shine Group’s merged indie production companies.

MySpace said in a press release, issued from MIPTV in Cannes, France, that it was giving ShineReveille some exclusive international distribution rights, but maintaining all U.S. distribution rights and all international web and mobile distribution rights for its content. It did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

http://newteevee.com/2008/04/10/myspace-gets-international-tv-deal/