Steve Lanzano

Steve Lanzano, Mike O’Neill and Gordon Smith are among those who will celebrate Meredith’s Paul Karpowicz at the Broadcasters Foundation of America’s annual Golden Mike Award black-tie fundraiser on Feb. 27 in New York.

TVB chief Steve Lanzano says among this year’s strong local categories are automotive, home furnishings, DIY and health care. On the network side, CBS’s David Poltrack says sales “are up 10% in the first quarter so it’s looking good so far.” He also predicts high advertiser demand for network inventory during the upcoming upfronts.

TVB President-CEO Steve Lanzano: “Ratings data consistently proves local broadcast TV is the go-to source for news and weather over cable news outlets. Local TV stations are trusted and depended on by viewers for timely and relevant information — that’s why their coverage of the blizzard blew cable’s out of the water.”

TVB President Steve Lanzano says that Washington PR firm The Herald Group will answer claims by digital media that TV is wasteful and inefficient as digital goes after a larger share of the mounting political advertising dollars.

TVB President Steve Lanzano: “This will be the first presidential election where there isn’t an incumbent [running] for president since the Citizens United decision, and the Koch brothers are already talking about spending $1billion, which would be more than they spent for the last presidential election.” But outside of political, Lanzano said local TV will see just  2%-2.5% growth this year. Network, said CBS’s David Poltrack, looks to be flat in the first half of 2015.

TVB CEO Steve Lanzano: “Each advertising dollar invested by an auto dealership in local broadcast television has a tangible impact upon its success in moving cars off its lot. It’s nearly a one-for-one relationship.”

This year’s TVB Forward conference, the first to offer a full day’s schedule of events, provided a lively forum for discussing what’s happening in broadcasting and what’s coming next. But it fell short of its goal to provide a showcase for local broadcasting. One way to draw media and ad buyers would be to replace news personalities with newsmakers.

“Simply put, live-plus-same-day data is not only more accurate, it is the most logical and reasonable measure of local television viewing. It mirrors the three-day time-shifted currency currently accepted by network advertisers and prepares local TV measurement to progress as the national currency advances to capture C7 and cross-platform viewing.”

Steve Lanzano, TVB president-CEO, says the huge increase in viewers of TV station news coverage during the week of the Boston Marathon bombings and manhunt are a vivid reminder that “serving the local community is a priority of every local broadcast station and it is clear that when viewers need to rely on their television stations for timely and accurate information, local TV broadcasters deliver for them.”

While there’s still some resistance from media buyers, live-plus-same-day ratings for local measurement finds growing acceptance in top markets. Today, according to TVB, about 75% of ad buys in Nielsen’s top 25 markets with Local People Meters markets are negotiated using live-SD ratings. “At a bare minimum, we believe that local viewing should be measured including DVR viewership,” says Valari Staab, president of NBC Owned Television Stations. “Our local measurement should reflect the way people watch TV today.”

In his remarks kicking off the TVB Forward conference Wednesday, TVB President Steve Lanzano challenged a recent story by Henry Blodget, the disgraced research analyst-turned blogger, who declared that the TV industry was headed toward collapse.

The trade group’s CEO says that Internet video accounts for only 1.5% of total viewing and adds that with Americans watching television an average of 297 minutes a day (and spending an average 13 minutes on Facebook), “it’s television that makes the [advertisers’] cash register ring.”

This final installment of TVNewsCheck‘s three-part special report on audience measurement looks at the impasse in the search for a local ratings currency that’s acceptable to both broadcasters and agencies. The broadcasters want some credit for DVR viewing, while most agencies still insist on live-only numbers. Although a compromise floated by TVB President Steve Lanzano went nowhere, some agency executives concede that broadcasters have a point.

After considerable posturing, agency and network executives drew up the C3 Compromise for the national marketplace several years back. Hammering out a deal on a dominant currency in the local broadcast market has been far more knotty. TVB chief Steve Lanzano is floating a creative alternative: “live plus three with an adjustment factor.” It attempts to bring some commercial ratings to local TV. The key figure is an estimated 50% of the ads watched with a DVR are skipped.

The TV trade group was the source of the FCC’s recent recommendation that the federal government divert its advertising dollars from the national media to local media. And TVB didn’t stop there. Now it’s hard after the government money. For starters, it’s trying to get a better accounting of exactly how much money there is and where exactly it is coming from. Then it’s off to Washington. TVB has to convince the bureaucrats not only of the efficacy of local media, but of the relative merits of local TV. Good job.

The new NCC initiative will allow cable sellers to offer advertisers added reach on telco-owned systems and DirecTV in dozens of markets. It sounds good, but it involves a complicated system that may leave buyers far short of the homes and viewers they had paid for. TVB is keeping a close eye on NCC I+ on behalf of the advertising community. We’ve created a special NCC I+ area on our website where we’ll be posting ongoing developments.