AdWeek

Ad agencies, marketers and the media are awash with buzz about the competition between the Digital Content NewFronts and the subsequent broadcast network upfront marketplace.

But all the gossip and prognostication miss an essential fact: Digital video is not television.

The NewFronts is not an assault on this classic medium. Rather, digital video represents a culmination of television and the start of a post-television world. Granted, it’s clear how this misunderstanding came to be.

There’s little precedence for the unfolding of digital video -- a medium that can appear so similar to existing, predominant media yet is such a dramatic evolution from its apparent kin. Already in its young life, digital video can do everything that television can -- it can easily deliver big brand, direct response and local advertising, just like the TV set in your den has done for so many decades.

Its producers and networks can already create entertaining and culturally relevant programming that assembles valuable audiences. Premium video content is truly premium by the highest measure: cultural cachet. In 2013, Netflix proved its chops as an original content producer when it won an Emmy Award for Best Director for House of Cards.

Despite of being constantly worried about online security in the wake of numerous data hacks and security breaches among top Web companies and retailers, market research firm Toluna found that people still don’t really understand online privacy and data security.

Three in five consumers (62 percent) said that they are more concerned about online privacy than they have been in the past, and 44 percent of those surveyed feel that they are not in control of their information on the Internet. But even as the White House readies a report on data privacy, Toluna found that there is still some confusion about what online privacy actually means -- even though the rules have been in place for a long time.

Fewer than half of those surveyed characterized their understanding as “good.” About a quarter (26 percent) admitted they know little to nothing about online data use. However, US consumers understand that data can improve their online experiences.

In general, they reported feeling happier about the use of their data online if they were asked for permission first, and a majority (52 percent) said they appreciate the use of targeted advertising. Two-thirds of those surveyed (66 percent) are happy to let brands use their information to serve them relevant discounts and loyalty rewards.

Media Rating Council (MRC) recently lifted its 18-month-old advisory against selling digital ads based on whether they are measurably viewed by consumers.

It’s a move that will likely reshape the $50 billion ad marketplace and pit publishers against brands, while putting in motion a surge in the number of online promotions sold on viewability metrics -- pricing that functions on how frequently ads are seen by viewers.

The metrics, or “currency” in industry vernacular, are often dictated by MRC-approved vendors comScore, Moat, Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify. Now, one company will be combining all four of the MRC-accredited vendors into one product.

They may be our neighbors to the north, but Canadians' smartphone habits show that they are different from Americans in more than just their abiding love of the French language, hockey and snow.

While Americans are busy checking the weather and sports scores, Canadians are more likely to use their smartphones for emailing.

In what may be the most cogent argument for the adoption of the C7 ratings currency, TiVo Research revealed that broadcasters beholden to the dated C3 metric are leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in ad sales revenue on the table.

According to TiVo’s analysis of its top 10 “Season Pass” broadcast series (a designation reserved for the shows that subscribers most commonly flag for automatic, full-season recording), there is an average lift of 8.2 percent in overall deliveries when four days of playback are added to the C3 data. As that increase is not compensated under the current metric, this translates to an overall loss of $87.8 million in ad sales for those 10 programs. (As the data was generated in a second-by-second analysis of TiVo subscriber behaviors, the numbers were not broken down by the relevant demographics.)

While a shift from C3 to C7 doesn’t proportionately move the ratings needle for Fox’s American Idol, which is largely watched in real time, the elevated cost of buying time in the show translates into the most amount of viewing that remains uncompensated. Per TiVo, when the 4.1 percent boost in deliveries is brought to bear on the average unit cost for the Wednesday and Thursday night Idol ($319,565 a pop), it all adds up to $14.4 million in wasted opportunities.

Reacting to the recent hate crime at two Jewish centers in Kansas City, Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) introduced a bill to update the government's 20-year-old report on hate speech in the media.

The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014 would examine the role of the Internet and other telecommunications in encouraging hate crimes based on gender, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, and would provide recommendations to address such crimes. Congress defines a hate crime as a "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation."

Radio isn’t dead. It just wasn’t advertised correctly, according to Clear Channel Communications CEO Bob Pittman.

“I think radio did a very poor job of marketing itself, and everybody started talking all about the shiny new things,” the MTV creator said.

Findings from the radio conglomerate showed on-air personality endorsements were similar to a friend’s recommendation -- and they trusted it more than a sponsored Facebook post, sponsored tweet or TV commercial. Six out of 10 listeners said that radio hosts were "like a friend" whose opinions they trusted. Forty percent argued that they felt radio personalities made the broadcast more personal, which turned listening to the radio into a more social event.

Pittman said the study is an example of the current efforts radio companies are now undertaking to showcase the influence the medium still has. He added that 92 percent of people listened to the radio every week in the 1970s, and the figure remains the same today when counting digital and other modern ways to tune in. With its digital toolbox, Pittman believes radio is unstoppable. Radio ads can be better targeted and have companion sites, video, visuals and even coupons.

Univision is launching an English-language video channel called TheFlama with an eye on Hispanics between ages 15 and 30. Condom maker Trojan is the cross-programming launch partner for the online endeavor, while McDonald's is sponsoring the funny-minded show, Super Accurate Soccer History.

The initiative builds on the youngster-targeted, English-language television channel, Fusion, which Univision debuted last fall in conjunction with Disney. The developments underscore a widely held belief among marketers that Hispanic teens and young adults speak Spanish with their families while addressing their friends in English. At the same time, it is the media company's first online attempt at corralling this particular millennial set, which increasingly consumes video via smartphones and tablets.

"It's about digital, short-form and mobile," explained Steven Benanav, general manager for Flama, a new Univision department. "The programming will [utilize comedic] vernacular used on the Internet."

Broadcasters are having a tough time in Washington. A number of efforts are aimed straight at the business from the Federal Communications Commission's recent decision to tighten ownership rules and claw bag big chunks of the broadcast spectrum for wireless, to a very vocal pay TV lobby pushing hard on Congress to reform retransmission consent.

With so much going against them, it's easy to conclude that the broadcasting lobby, once the most powerful lobby on the Hill, may be on the outs. Certainly the medium has lost the glamour crown to the Internet. But calling the broadcasting industry a dinosaur may be a premature conclusion. Wrapping up the industry's national convention in Las Vegas, Gordon Smith, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, remains confident he can turn things around.

"While I may be frustrated, I'm not discouraged because I know how this ends," Smith said. Smith, a former Senator, spent the week talking with broadcasters, FCC commissioners and staffers, even holding a closed-door meeting with FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, who right now is enemy no. 1 among broadcasters. Despite broadcaster sentiment, Smith, ever the diplomat, is taking the high road. He's betting Chairman Wheeler, a former cable and wireless lobbyist, might see broadcasting differently after his time at the NAB's annual convention.

How’s this for an online racket? Surreptitiously grab information from Facebook to create tens of millions of profiles labeling people a "jerk" or "not a jerk" and then charge people $30 to revise their online profiles.

The deceptive scheme didn't sit well with the Federal Trade Commission, which filed an administrative complaint against Jerk, LLC and the operator of the website, John Fanning, for misleading consumers that the content on the site had been created by other Jerk.com users when in reality it had been harvested from Facebook without their permission.

Between 2009 and 2013, Jerk.com operated a social networking website that invited users to "post a jerk." Although the site claimed it contained only user-generated content, in fact the vast majority of the 73 million profiles were created by Jerk using information from Facebook. What's even more troubling, some of the profiles of children were designated as private on Facebook.

The FTC is seeking an order barring Jerk.com from using the personal information improperly obtained and requiring Jerk.com to delete the information.