February 2009

The web is about to get a little more like TV -- minus the ad-skipping. ABC.com has started to peddle research that shows online viewers will tolerate shows with ads from multiple sponsors, much like TV. The ABC/Nielsen research concluded that adding multiple sponsors per ad break had "a minimal effect" on recall and did not affect purchase consideration or ad attentiveness. ABC said the data show that doubling the number of ads within a show from four to eight "did not affect the viewers' overall experience with the ABC.com player." If ABC.com is successful, expect other online players to follow, since demand for online spots in network shows generally outstrips supply.

Community media groups joined with a nationwide coalition of municipalities and regional organizations in filing a Petition for Declaratory Ruling with the Federal Communications Commission charging that telecom giant AT&T discriminates against local public channels with its U-verse cable TV system. In states from California to Connecticut, wherever AT&T is providing video programming, its U-Verse system removes local PEG channels from the standard lineup, dumping dozens of channels into a generic "Channel 99" ­ stripping away individual channel identities and depriving those channels of basic functions viewers have come to expect. AT&T subscribers cannot simply tune in the village board meeting or homework help program. Viewers can't switch between commercial and PEG channels, set a DVR to record a PEG program, or depend on getting timely local emergency alerts or closed captioned programming. In an independent report released September 2008, the Congressional Research Service agreed that, "AT&T has chosen not to make PEG programming available to subscribers in the same fashion that it makes commercial programming available."

[Commentary] The Columbia Journalism Review revealed this week that the "high command" of the John McCain campaign hired a blogger "to attack" and engage in "bullying" the press during the last six months of the presidential campaign. The blogger was Michael Goldfarb, who was hired by the McCain people from The Weekly Standard. The McCain campaign, he says, "assured me that they were looking for someone to attack the press. And that struck me as a really bad idea, but when a presidential campaign calls up and offers you a job, you take it." One of the things Goldfarb reveals is that the McCain campaign was going to throw The New York Times off the campaign plane (presumably when it was on the ground). Goldfarb wrote a memo that was supposed to explain that decision to the public, but the idea was dropped. Barring reporters is rarely done by campaigns. Smart campaigns know that it's a waste of time to attack and ban the media. Seducing the media is much more productive. Attacking the media is a waste because it is not an issue voters care about. Many voters already have a low opinion of the media, and it is unlikely that a campaign can lower it further. All it does is make the campaign look petulant.