Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman Upbeat About Video-On-Demand Deals And Nickelodeon

From MediaPost Communications:

Viacom CEO Upbeat About VOD Deals, Nickelodeon

Viacom says many of its program deals with subscription video-on-demand services like Netflix and Amazon Plus have been "additive" to the company, as well as its distributors.

Speaking at a Goldman Sachs investor conference, Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman says services like this help market the company's TV shows -- as well as for other Viacom distributors.

"It has been additive," says Dauman, in disputing that some of these SVOD [Subscription Video-on-Demand] program deals have been damaging, taking away viewers from the traditional TV program airings. He says some Viacom distributors have noted that these deals have been helpful from a marketing perspective.

Asked about Nickelodeon's sharp 30% dive ratings over the last year -- numbers which have stabilized recently -- Dauman says: "Clearly, we have to climb back out and look to getting progress for the rest of the year."

He notes that the big, crucial fourth-quarter period for Nickelodeon will see a 70% rise in original programming versus a year ago, highlighted by new shows, including an updated version of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." That said, Dauman notes: "It won't solve the problem completely" of the programming moves in the period. He adds: "We have learned a few things. You will see a sustained effort there."

Scatter advertising pricing has now picked up after the Olympics, says Dauman, which according to many analysts took money out of the market.

"We are seeing good demand. Scatter pricing is up in the teens [percentage gains] compared to upfront pricing. We are pleased we went into the upfront early," he adds.

But he says Europe is still in a tough advertising market due to many markets tough recessionary economies in many countries.

Tags: advertising, cable tv, media measurement, online video

Also from MediaPost Communications:

TV Diet Of Repeats Registers Viewer Dips

Just weeks before the new TV season is about to begin, broadcast and cable networks alike are looking to reverse some major declining programming trends -- including the all-important repeat programming.

A report from ad agency RPA says repeats only average 43% of the original episodes' C3 ratings (commercial ratings plus three days of DVR playback) among 18-49 viewers. This is down 3% for the 2011-2012 season. Repeats ratings were only 48% of the original episode ratings for all viewers, down 4% from the season before.

Broadcast networks are increasingly adding more repeat episodes to their prime-time lineups. Cable networks have long had a heavy diet of repeats of broadcast prime-time fare, as well as increasing their own originals.

Some of this repeat performance may have contributed to overall problems by both broadcast and cable networks. The five English-language broadcast nets were down 6% in 18-49 viewers among C3 ratings, to a collective average of 12.5 million viewers. Ad-supported cable networks were down 2% to 21.3 million. RPA notes that the bulk of cable viewing comes from the top 25 networks.

Looking at all viewers, both broadcast and cable were down 2% each in C3 -- broadcast to 32 million and cable to 52 million.

According to RPA -- in looking at C3 ratings -- CBS handled the 2011-2012 year well, down just 1% among 18-49 viewers to an average 3 million viewers. Fox fared worse -- thanks to a steep drop from its big "American Idol." It was down 15% to a prime-time average of 3.4 million. Fox still leads all networks.

NBC made big gains -- mostly due to rising ratings at "Sunday Night Football." It was up 6% to 2.8 million. ABC was down 6% to 2.5 million. Univision was down 4% to 1.8 million.

Big cable networks also generally went lower in 18-49 viewers as well as overall viewers. ESPN was down 11% to 1.3 million among 18-49 viewers, for example; USA was down 7% to 962,000; and TNT was down 22% to 793,000.

There were continued kid-viewer problems at Nickelodeon, which lost 16% of its average overall viewership to 2.3 million.

On the other side of things, thanks to reruns from "The Big Bang Theory," TBS was 14% improved to 1 million in 18-49 viewers and 12% higher to 1.8 million in overall viewers. History, another network with good news, was up 1% with 726,000 18-49 viewers and up 6% to 1.7 million in overall average viewers.

Broadcast network CW is now the 17th-ranked network -- broadcast or cable -- among all C3 average viewers. It had been 15th in the 2011-2012 season. CW was down 18% to 1.3 million viewers in the 2011-2012 season.

Tags: broadcast networks, cable tv, media measurement, tv