Calling the Fab-5: TV’s business model needs a makeover
Calling the Fab-5: TV’s business model needs a makeover.
Rance Crain, editor in chief of Advertising Age, did the television industry a disservice this week with a misleading and fact-defying commentary entitled, “WHAT COMCAST’S DISNEY BID SAYS ABOUT COMMERCIAL TV, The Traditional Business Model Is Not So Dead.” In it, Crain, whose family owns Advertising Age, Television Week and a host of other publications, suggests that because Comcast is willing to borrow $50 billion to buy Disney and ABC Television that it must mean they know something we don’t, “namely that TV will continue to be the most dominant and safest ad buy in spite of rhetoric to the contrary.” Whoa! Wait a minute, Mr. Crain. Your magazines have been at the forefront of studying and reporting on all the trends. You KNOW better.
Otherwise, what’s the point of Comcast’s trying to fix ABC if network TV’s time has come and gone? And don’t kid yourself into thinking the cable company is willing to borrow all that money for Disney’s movie business (except as fodder for TV) and theme parks. It wants TV content, to go along with its distribution facilities, so Comcast management must think commercial TV is still the best game in town.
Ironically it’s this very desperation that will eventually keep most marketers in TV. They are just getting to the point where their top management accepts that awareness, attentiveness, incremental volume per 100 GRPs of spending and the like can be used to measure the effectiveness of TV advertising. Why should they risk losing their credibility by not being able to prove the effectiveness of concerts in the park or product placements?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2004 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
