TV - THis Is No Time To Take Weekends Off

By Robert G. Rose

TVNewsCheck, June 14, 2013 7:09 AM EDT 

 

Over the past few months I’ve met with scores of local broadcasters while crisscrossing the country pitching my syndicated show, Raw Travel. It’s been both a great pleasure and an eye opener.
Over the years, I’ve successfully produced programming that brings new audiences and revenue streams to local broadcasters. Starting in 2002, I syndicated the first English-language series for young, U.S. born Latinos before selling the company in 2008. It took time, but our shows allowed stations in key Hispanic markets to aggregate Latino viewing and garner rapidly growing Hispanic ad revenue.

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Anthony Bourdain Kills on CNN & Online!

I’d be lying if I said Bordain’s original show "No Reservations" was not heavily influential to me during my own travel experiences, especially when starting out. I’m excited to see Anthony Bourdain’s move to CNN, a network more appropriate to an authentic travel experience than his former home. The new show (Parts Unknown), or at least the episodes I’ve seen thus far are excellent TV and represent a good watermark for us to strive for in our own unique way, with our own unique show “Raw Travel”.

The fact that Mr. Bourdain includes an underground rock band in Myanmar, or features LA’s Koreatown (once on our own rundowns for Season 1) and Colombia (2 of our already produced episodes for Season 1), doesn’t bother me, it encourages me me as validation we’re on the right track creatively and I think “Parts Unknown” success will only help us as gain traction during our 1st season.

If you haven’t caught “Parts Unknown” on CNN yet, you should. And if you are still wondering if authentic travel has a place on U.S. television screens, this ought to put any of those doubts to rest.

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown Continues to Lead Key Cable Demo Adults 25-54
MORE THAN DOUBLES AUDIENCE OF CLOSEST COMPETITION

CNN’s Sunday Night Weekend Series Delivers 974,000 Total Viewers In Second Outing April 21, Up 30% From Premiere

Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown, CNN’s new weekend series airing at 9:00p.m. ET on Sundays again topped all cable news time period competition among adults 25-54 in its latest outing, and was also the top cable news program on Sunday. The April 21 episode delivered 470,000 adults 25-54, up 67% vs. its premiere week and more than double the deliveries of its cable news competitors Fox News Channel and MSNBC (208,000 and 187,000 respectively). Bourdain also had a strong week among total viewers (974,000), up 30% vs. its premiere week performance (747,000).

In Sunday’s episode, Bourdain explored the Koreatown section of Los Angeles and spotlighted the talents and food preferences of award-winning chef Roy Choi and acclaimed graffiti artist, painter, portraitist David Choe.

On the digital front, Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown has received more than 1 million page views in its first two weeks on CNN.com. (Source: Adobe Analytics) On social media, the premiere received 9,000 social mentions, up from last year’s 2,000 mentions for the No Reservations premiere on the Travel Channel. Three posts about Parts Unknown on CNN’s Facebook fan page received over 70,000 combined actions and were the top posts on the account for each Sunday.

See the full article HERE.

Why Sports $ is killng the TV Business?

Tired of $150 cable bills for programming that holds little appeal and generally goes unwatched? Me too. I mean is it me or has HBO gotten progressively worse over the past 3 years or so? Their movie titles are horrid and the originals are laughable. "Real Time with Bill Mahr" and "Real Sports" are the only reasons I subscribe.

And Showtime? Don't get me started, their originals scream "look at me! I'm so weird and cool!" and in reality, they are just loud, obnoxious and so very un-cool, just plain not good. . I tried to watch and really wanted to like something on there.. Californication.. Shameless.. some other garbage.. but it's just all garbage. I gave up all together.   But HBO & Showtime (and Honey Boo-Boo) aside, they have little to do with why your bill is so high.

It's sports baby!

This recent syndicated article in the various alternative weekly papers did as good of job as any explaining how exorbitant sports rights are driving up the cost of even the most basic cable package, even as more and more people are "cutting the chord" and networks and cable systems alike are getting more and more desperate at trying to capture and keep elusive viewers.

The result, a sports win at all cost culture that some say, and I tend to agree, is out of control and a fragmented media environment that is courser, cruder, crasser and more expensive than ever. Something will have to give sooner or later.. and I think it's going to be sooner.

HERE is a link to the excellent article. Check it out.

U.S. Passports at All-Time High

U.S. Passports are at an all time high and have been trending up for years. The high % of persons with passports in the U.S. has never been higher and if you consider that in Canada 60%+ have passports, we are probably on track to catch them. Why?

Lots of theories but no clear cut answers. I think it’s the ease of travel planning thanks to the internet and people’s desire to connect with others in the world thanks to social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. Also, the high number of immigrants and foreign born who, unlike our forefathers, are ready, willing and able to go back home to visit family and friends.

Bottom line is the U.S. is catching up to our Canadian and Australian counterparts when it comes to international travel and I don’t see how that can be anything but a good thing.

Maybe, finally... the media will start treating Americans like the world savvy citizens we are long last becoming.

Getting sick? That will cost you... BIG

I normally stick to TV & the media but in this case, who wouldn't be scared/horrified/disgusted out of their mind by the naked greed displayed by companies who's supposed goal is to "heal". The impotent hand of government will not fix this mess and I suppose we are each now on our own to navigate a world where if you get sick, you could easily simply die a pauper as the healthcare companies suck your life's savings dry. Is it any wonder that "Medical Tourism", as incongruous as those two words sound next to each other, is one of the fastest growing segments of the travel industry. 


What are the reasons, good or bad, that cancer means a half-million- or million-dollar tab? Why should a trip to the emergency room for chest pains that turn out to be indigestion bring a bill that can exceed the cost of a semester of college? What makes a single dose of even the most wonderful wonder drug cost thousands of dollars? Why does simple lab work done during a few days in a hospital cost more than a car? And what is so different about the medical ecosystem that causes technology advances to drive bills up instead of down?

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/#ixzz2MFgJxIar

Look at Nielsen's Catch Up Strategy

FROM THE NEWSLETTER CYNOPSIS.COM
Nielsen Co. is doing nothing less than expanding the definition of television by instituting a comprehensive plan to capture all video viewing including broadband, Xbox and iPads.  Timed to the start of the next broadcast TV season in September, Nielsen expects to have new hardware and software tools ready for the approximately 23,000 TV homes it samples. The measurement will also capture viewership from so-called "over-the-top" television programming delivered via broadband to a TV set. For now, Nielsen will count TV-connected devices such as Microsoft's Xbox, Apple TV and Roku's set-top; iPads or computers will be added later. Nielsen says its eventual goal will attempt to capture video viewing of any kind from any source.  

FROM DON'T DRAG ME DOWN:  
23,000 TV Homes to represent an incredibly diverse 100,000,0000+ U.S. TV Homes? It doesn't matter what you measure if you don't measure enough of it, you will get skewed, incomplete and unreliable results. Period.

Mr. TV Reports On Us From NATPE

Thanks to Marc Berman (AKA - Mr. TV) for featuring me and "Raw Travel" in his widely followed media site and newsletter TV Media Insights newsletter.

If you are in the media biz or want to be, you should check Marc's site out. On top of knowing his stuff, he's also one of the industry's nicest people.