Pew - State of Local TV News

Pew has just released its State of the News Media 2015 report, and I'll be sharing some results and comments.

2014 saw local TV station revenues increase (mostly from huge rise in political advertising), and some increased viewing for most local news programs.  Overall revenues increased 7% from the previous year, but still remained below 2012 numbers (when even more political advertising and the Presidential race helped spike local TV revenues).

The year also saw a continuation of the rise in the share of revenues coming from news programs, accounting for 84% of over-the-air revenues.  While good news for potential growth of local news programs and coverage, I'm not convinced that such a level of reliance on one programming source for station revenues is good for the long-term financial health of local broadcast TV.

The study also predicted a substantial growth in retransmission consent fees (from SNL Kagan numbers) over the next few years.  This comes with three big caveats, however;

• Broadcast networks are demanding an increasing share of retransmission consent fees from local broadcasters, so it is unlikely that local stations will benefit that much from projected increases
• It's starting to look like multichannel rights fees are starting to plateau.  Larger MSOs are starting to resist network demands for licensing fees, as the amounts are approaching audience perceptions of value.  This is contributing to cord-cutting and the push for a shift to "a la carte" pricing.
• The economics of "a la carte" are likely to be substantially different than the existing business model, and are unlikely to sustain current revenue levels.  Particularly for local TV broadcasters, which must provide their primary service broadcasts free to the public (by FCC regulations)

As for local TV news, Pew notes that the number of hours of local TV news seems to have reached a plateau.  That's one factor contributing to limited growth in news staff salaries.

(I'm trying Pew's embed function for the graphics - my apologies if it's not working right)

Source - The State of the News Media 2015, Pew Research Center report

What's Your Plan for SportsDay (May 2)?

From Nielsen

E-books Report

A new survey from Nielsen suggests that ebooks continue to make gains in book markets.  The bad news is that some of that seems to be coming from online sales.

The digital formats (ebooks, audiobooks) increased their share of book sales revenues, while traditional print markets saw their share decline to 70%.  The biggest decline was in trade paperbacks, which fell from a third of the market in 2013 to just above a quarter in 2014.  In terms of units sold, ebooks increased their share slightly, to 21% of the market for new books.

 Online retailers (for both print and ebooks) remained the dominant sales channel, although it's share of sales fell slightly, to 35%.  Brick and mortar outlets (bookstore chains, independent bookstores, and other outlets) mostly retained their market shares.  The only big decrease in market share was for bookstore chains.

Diffusion of ebook readers continued apace, with smartphone ownership around 75% of adults, and tablet ownership over 40%.  The graph to the right reports shows the percentage of ebook readers who indicated that they owned a particular device.  Two things are clear from the numbers -- first, that many ebook readers have multiple devices, and second, that market share is variable, and influenced by devices entering and leaving the field.  Last year, for example, saw large increases for Android OS devices (smartphones and tablets). Apple's mobile devices remain the most widely owned, while Amazon's various Kindle devices were the other big branded device.

Source -  E-books Gained, Online Retailers Slipped in 2014, Publishers Weekly

#utsmw15 Infographic: How Digital (& Social) Drive TV Viewing

From Google Insights, How Digital Drives Viewers to New Shows,

#utsmw15 Infographics: Global Penetration & Use

Some slides from WeAreSocial.sg

#utsmw15 Infographic: Social Networking Threats

From the folks at Kaspersky Labs

#utsmw15 Infographic: Social vs. Salary

Many Millennial will sacrifice salary for the freedom to use social media and technologies.

From Online Courses.com - Social Media vs. Salary

#utsmw15 Infographic: Social Media's Going Mobile

From Statistica - Most Social Networks are now Mobile-First

It's Social Media Week #UTSMW15 - Time for Wow

It's Social Media Week here at UTK's College of Communication and Information.  And time for some timely social infographics and reports.

From Leverage and Social Times blog, some quick stats on top outlets' performance in 2014.

Apple joins the OTT mini-bundlers

Apple has divulged some details on the new Apple TV service that it will offer next fall.  Like the recently initiated Sling-TV, the plan is to offer a small bundle of streaming channels to consumers with Apple TV OTT boxes (actually, and iOS device).  One big difference from Sling-TV is that the Apple plan will be anchored by live streams of most of the broadcast networks (NBC is not currently listed, allegedly because of a longstanding feud between Apple and Comcast).  Apple's bundle will likely be more expensive than Sling's as a result.  Like Sling-TV, Apple's bundle will include access to a Video-on-Demand library - there's talk that Apple wants to extend VOD access to other iTunes content, if it can get licensing deals in place.

For more on the Web/OTT bundling issue, see this earlier post.

Source: Apple Plans Web TV Service in Fall, Wall Street Journal