Intelligence Briefs

Ensuring 5G's rollout is done smartly and efficiently will see the private sector take the lead. That's according to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who said so in an editorial appearing in the April 26 edition of The Kansas City Star.

For broadcast media, Census 2020 is vitally important, as it will help shape the content radio and television provided to consumers on a market-by-market basis. A question regarding citizenship has been a hot-button issue. As of now, that question won't be asked ... just yet.

Some 56% of U.S. adults stream non-linear content to their TVs. Yet, new research from Nielsen finds that the typical U.S. adult streamer spends an average of 57 minutes streaming non-linear content to their TVs in a regular day. That’s significantly less time than streamers spend with linear TV.

Analyst Michael Nathanson believes that while the industry is under siege from accelerating cord-cutting and audience erosion, "Fox’s laser focus on live sports and news content is the right strategy to drive higher per subscriber pricing and more stable viewership trends."

Media Information Bureau featured columnist Ken Benner has written countless words related to the practice of how keeping something complicated keeps things profitable, and how "most legislation" serves one party at the expense of another. Benner's at it again, and points to a 35-page "classic example of this" issued Thursday by the FCC.

How trusted are media sales organizations to consistently and reliably deliver on their promises, whatever those promises may be? The Myers Report from media ecologist Jack Myers has some intriguing answers. For Myers, companies that prioritized trust and reliable ratings delivery are more likely to capture market share in the challenging COVID-19 era and beyond.

A virtual Census 2020 phone bank gets the green light across ABC-owned television stations in such key electorate markets as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno. Things kick off Wednesday, in partnership with the Hispanic Federation.

In the Hollywood trade publications, it's taking its lumps, as Disney engages in a reduction in force that includes not only television production but also the closure in early 2021 of its Radio Disney operation. On Wall Street, it's a bit of a different story, and none other than noted analyst Michael Nathanson is gushing over the Mouse House.

Tied to the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA)'s reintroduction in Congress was a Friday House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law hearing titled "Reviving Competition, Part 2: Saving the Free and Diverse Press." On behalf of the NAB, which supports the JCPA, Graham Media Group head Emily Barr testified.

Over the past decade TV has been changing gradually, but it’s truly in the past year that it has suddenly transformed. As Justin Fromm, head of research at LG Ads, sees it, "To keep up with how consumers use their TVs, advertisers must shift how they think, plan, and buy TV."

Video communication engages two senses of our five: sight and sound.  But how can we stimulate the other three with the existing digital technology?  Longtime public relations pro Rosemary Ravinal says it can be done through the memory of how things taste, feel and smell. "Video calls favor what we see over what we hear by a ratio of 90 to 10%," she says. 

How are radio and TV poised to perform in the next five years? WARC, the international marketing intelligence service, has some new intelligence on the subject.

Online presentations can be a drag. But you can change that, says "Zoom expert" and veteran public relations executive Rosemary Ravinal. "How you open can make a huge difference in your ability to hold attention and make your content memorable," she says.

It's being hyped as "latest major milestone in NBCUniversal’s efforts to shape the future of measurement." The media company's Executive VP for Measurement and Impact, former longtime Nielsen figure Kelly Abcarian, shared details on Tuesday of a new certification for emotion and ad quality within the NBCU measurement framework.

Global consumer experiential marketing, including event sponsorships and live event marketing, grew 8.2% in 2021 to $67.63 billion, following an unprecedented 25.7% plunge in 2020, as the economic blowback from COVID-19 dealt a punishing blow to one of the most consistently growing media segments for two decades prior to the pandemic.