Reorganizing National TV Competitive Sets Based on Business Relationships - Jack Myers

As advertisers, media agency buyers and media planners approach the annual national TV Upfront season, Jack Myers Media Business Report asked them to rethink historical competitive sets based on their actual working relationships rather than traditional content and distribution models. As part of the annual Myers Survey of Advertising Executives on National TV Sales Organizations, we asked 250 influential advertising decision-makers to identify those sales organizations with which they do business and are familiar.

The full results of the Myers Survey will be published in Jack Myers Media Business Report (www.myersreport) over the next several weeks. The survey evaluates 48 national television sales organizations in five performance categories:

· Quality Sales Team and Customer Service
· Value for the Investment
· Effective Upfront and Sales Presentations
· Multi-Platform Brand Extensions and Integration
· Relevant Research Support and Insights

We reorganized 48 national TV sales organizations into quartiles based on the percentage of respondents who identified themselves as "familiar with" each organization, creating new competitive sets based on actual business relationships.

QUARTILE 1: MAIN TIER NATIONAL TELEVISION ORGANIZATIONS*

Based on the greatest percentage of respondents "familiar with" each organization
(Alphabetical Order)

ABC-TV
A&E Networks
Bravo/Oxygen
CBS-TV
Discovery/TLC
ESPN
FOX-TV
History
NBC-TV
Scripps Food Networks
Turner Entertainment Sales (TBS/TNT/Tru)
USA/Syfy

QUARTILE 2: SECOND TIER NATIONAL TELEVISION ORGANIZATIONS*

Based on second quartile percentage of respondents "familiar with" each organization
(Alphabetical Order)

ABC Family
Adult Swim/Cartoon Network
CNN Networks
Comcast Entertainment Networks (E!)
Fox Entertainment Cable Networks
Fox News
Fox Sports
Lifetime Networks
MTV Entertainment Group
Scripps HGTV & DIY
Turner Sports
The Weather Channel

QUARTILE 3: INFLUENTIAL NATIONAL TELEVISION ORGANIZATIONS*

Based on third quartile percentage of respondents "familiar with" each organization
(Alphabetical Order)

BET
CBS Television Distribution (Syndication)
CNBC
The CW
Disney*ABC Domestic Television (Syndication)
Hallmark Channel
MSNBC
MTV Kids & Family Group
MTV Music & Logo Group
Rainbow Media Sales (AMC/We)
Scripps Travel Channel & GAC
Warner Bros Domestic TV (Syndication)

QUARTILE 4: LIMITED PRESENCE NATIONAL TELEVISION ORGANIZATIONS*

Based on least percentage of respondents "familiar with" each organization
(Alphabetical Order)

20^TH Television (Syndication)
Bloomberg News
Current TV
GSN
ION Television
National Cinemedia
NBC Universal Television (Syndication)
Screenvision
Sony Pictures Television (Syndication)
Telemundo
TV Guide Network
Univision

Note that some sales organizations may be positioned in a specific tier based on their presence in the marketplace. Some may be positioned as a result of their "must buy" status or conversely, their limited reach and industry visibility. Others, such as kids networks, ethnic networks, syndication and cinema, remain relegated in many agencies to specialty buyers and therefore have less exposure.

This provides a new perspective on how advertisers, media planners and buyers are actually conducting business in the national TV marketplace. It redefines competitive groupings based on business relationships rather than traditional content and distribution-based parameters. These four new quartile groupings provide the foundation for a new competitive analysis that will be published in upcoming Jack Myers Media Business Reports.

National TV sales organizations were also defined and organized traditionally in the upcoming Myers Survey:

· Broadcast Networks
· General Entertainment Cable Networks
· News, Sports and Weather Cable Networks
· National Broadcast Syndication and Cinema

Although advertisers are increasingly viewing media as an ecosystem and measuring value across multiple platforms, the national television marketplace remains reasonably independent, with budgets distributed among a fairly narrow spectrum of competitors. In the past several years, the outdated daypart agency-of-record (AOR) model has disappeared. The traditional separation of primetime, late night, daytime and early morning dayparts has become less relevant as cable has been sold across the full day and broadcast networks encouraged multi-daypart buys.

In this decade separate AORs for out-of-home, online, mobile, social and mobile are also likely to be integrated. Until then, these distinct media assets remain mostly independent for media buying purposes. Similarly as print media, point-of-influence and radio develop robust digital video content, agency planning and buying integration with national TV media will be essential. In the meantime, the national TV marketplace stands-alone.

*Detailed methodology is available to corporate subscribers in the full report to be issued mid-April. Additional national television organizations were included in the survey but did not receive sufficient response to qualify for inclusion in the survey results. Some organizations were excluded from the survey either at the request of the organization or based on inadequate information or national presence.

Jack Myers can be reached at Jack@mediadvisorygroup.com. JackMyersThinkTank is free and underwritten, as part of MediaBizBloggers.com, by subscriptions to Jack Myers Media Business Report (www.jackmyers.com). Subscribe free to all MediaBizBloggers reports at www.MediaBizBloggers. For Jack Myers Media Business Report subscription information visit www.myersreport.com or contact Jack Myers at Jack@mediadvisorygroup.com. Jack Myers and Media Advisory Group provide details on all underwriters and companies in which we have an investment at www.jackmyers.com.