NBC: Kickoff Game Moved To Different Date

Posted: 02/28/2012 09:17:16 PM
Type: New Booking
Message: The 2012 NFL Kickoff night is booked on Wednesday, September 5, 2012, including the NFL Kickoff Special at 7:30pm ET and the NFL Kickoff Game at 8:30pm ET, live across. See contingencies on this date for details available at this time. Please advise clearance.

And a total of 13 changes announced yesterday, as per the post below. I'll start working on NBC clients now.

Update: all clients have been updated for applicable changes.

Changes To 2nd Quarter Sports Appear

Lots of little programs getting cancelled, none of which anyone will really miss.

They're still dripping them onto APT this afternoon, so I'll begin when it appears they've stopped.

Plus, you'll not hear this from NBC for a while:

NEW YORK (AP) -- The NFL says it will open the season Wednesday, Sept. 5, to avoid a conflict with President Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention the following night.

The season usually begins on a Thursday night, but Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the change for this season on Tuesday.

The Super Bowl champion New York Giants will host the season-opener at MetLife Stadium against a team to be announced at a later date. Starting time is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. EST.

I'll change the above date in full-service client inventories when I delete the Golf Center Lives, etc. Look for an addition to this post when all have been updated.

Robin Leach Answers Questions About Miss USA Pageant

Since APT doesn't have any information, and web rumor mills have been filled lately with.. rumors, TV stations have no idea what or when to sell.

Expect an official announcement this week that the 2012 Miss USA Pageant will air as always planned on NBC from Planet Hollywood on June 3. Additionally, NBC will announce this year’s pageant hosts within the next 48 hours.

Confusion about the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants being dropped by NBC began with a false report from obscure Indonesian website Missosology.com. “Totally fake -- absolutely untrue,” blasted Miss USA Pageant President Paula Shugart. “It’s very difficult being in business negotiations with many people -- including those in Las Vegas -- that totally incorrect reports of network problems went global.”

The false story, however, developed even further as it was reported elsewhere and then by pageant fans on Twitter. It prompted a flurry of calls around the world as Planet Hollywood officials had to be calmed by executives for Donald Trump, who owns both pageants in partnership with NBC.

NBC Shuffles 2Q Prime Again.. Many Changes Coming

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/02/21/community-returns-march-15-at-8pm-premieres-for-bent-best-friends-forever-and-betty-whites-off-their-rockers/121031/

"Bent” will premiere on Wednesday, March 21 (9-9:30 p.m. ET) followed by a second episode (9:30-10 p.m. ET). The series will continue with original back-to-back one-hour blocks on Wednesday, March 28 and April 4 (9-9:30 p.m. ET and 9:30-10 p.m. ET both nights). Following the season finales of “Whitney” and “Are You There, Chelsea,” “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers” premieres on Wednesday, April 4 (8-8:30 p.m. ET) followed by “Best Friends Forever” which also debuts on Wednesday, April 4 (8:30-9 p.m. ET).

“Community” returns on Thursday, March 15 (8-8:30 p.m. ET) as NBC re-sets the night with “30 Rock” shifting to 8:30-9 p.m. (ET) followed by “The Office” (9-9:30 p.m. ET) and “Up All Night” (9:30-10 p.m. ET). “Parks and Recreation” comes back on Thursday, April 19 (9:30-10 p.m. ET) to finish its season after “Up All Night” has ended its 24-episode original season run in the time period.

“Rock Center with Brian Williams” will also move one hour later on Wednesdays (to 10-11 p.m. ET) starting March 7 for five weeks and then return to 9-10 p.m. (ET) on April 11. “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” returns with original episodes on Wednesday, April 11 (10-11 p.m. ET) leading to its season finale on May 23rd.

Nothing yet in APT.. but I'll bet there are press releases galore.

Update @ 13:26PST on 02/21/12, APT now shows the changes. RDRx clients are being updated now.

Update @ dawn on 2/22/12, all RDRx clients in Eastern and Central Time Zone were updated and published last night. LPM metered clients in Mountain Time Zone were updated and published last night as well. HH metered clients in Mountain Time Zone are being finished this morning and will be published by Noon, local time.

All RDRx clients now have updated inventory. Exit the application and re-enter to see information updated recently.

Smash Estimates Going Down; Voice Estimates Going Up

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/another-dip-in-the-ratings-for-nbcs-smash/

Based on what I've seen from the LPM and HH metered markets I work with each day, I'll be easing back expectations of GRP delivery for future episodes of Smash, and will unleash a few more of the horses under The Voice's quite capable hood.

IMO, the country influence of The Voice is reflected in my southern markets over-indexing those reported in the national media regarding national NTI numbers.

Networks Keep Explaining Why Ratings Are Low

Well, if it's not because of a TV listing issue, maybe it's because there was a President's Birthday last week... really?

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/across-the-board-lower-ratings-have-networks-asking-why/

Update: And from the people who say ratings are both currency AND public speech, there's this reason:

Finally, there was what might be called the Lincoln exception. Nielsen executives pointed to the fact that some schools in a few states – Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts — still close for Lincoln’s actual birthday and perhaps families (some with Nielsen boxes) take vacations then. This would be in addition to what is expected to be some natural falloff in ratings next week when the official Presidents’ Day holiday is celebrated by the nation at large.
That a horde of viewers may have abandoned television this week in honor of Abe seemed unlikely, but, if true, it could cause elevated concern about some other coming dates: Andrew Jackson’s birthday is looming on March 15, James Madison on March 16 and Grover Cleveland on March 18.

This Sunday Night Prime Changes Again

Posted: 02/15/2012 05:36:50 PM
Air Date: 02/19/2012 Sunday
Start Time: 07:00:00 PM [ET]
Show Name: THE VOICE
Duration: 02:00:00
Type: New Booking
Message: THE VOICE is now booked. Please see schedule for format details.

Sunday Newspapers will be carrying TV listing books with a 2 hour Dateline because of the late date of this announcement. Traffic departments will have to tear apart Sunday's prelim log and begin again. Sales people who take responsibility for their clients' spot placement will work extra hours on Thursday for this.

All for something which will generate less than a 5 HH share.*

But at least four NBC stations have updated inventory and estimates if they wish to do the work.

(*By the way, you may wish to compare your own market's delivery of HH share when you get your own Feb2012 PAV info.)

Go, Tiger!

What NBC Sports needs this year is a return of Tiger Woods to his old audience appeal.

Here's how CBS benefited just this past weekend.

Last Hour of March 6th Finally Announced

APT has had this block set aside as TBA for several months. Clearly, NBC had plans for this time slot. Why did they delay notifying local stations so long? Is this another NBC News Special On/Off/On event like the GOP debate?

And did they really just figure this out at 7:35pm last night?

Posted: 02/13/2012 07:35:03 PM
Air Date: 03/06/2012 Tuesday
Start Time: 10:00:00 PM [ET]
Show Name: NBC NEWS SPECIAL
Duration: 00:59:30
Type: New Booking
Message: DECISION 2012 (LIVE) is booked. Please see contingencies on this day for further details.

Yep, NBC News is apparently running prime scheduling again. Let's count how many times this changes in the 23 days until the event. Who wants money on the last date of a change? My money is on Friday, March 2nd, at 7:35pm.

Posted: 02/13/2012 07:48:37 PM
Air Date: 03/06/2012 Tuesday
Start Time: 07:00:00 PM [MT]
Show Name: THE BIGGEST LOSER 13
Duration: 01:00:00
Type: Format
Message: Due to the live broadcast of Decision 2012 on this night, BIGGEST LOSER will now air as two 1 hour episodes (Part 1 = 7:00-8:00pm MT, Part 2 = 8:59:30 – 9:59:30pm MT). Please see contingencies and updated format tabs for further details

.

Using 1996 Actuals for Summer Olympics?

Oh, man... some rep firms are selling spots as if it were 1996, with the broadcast shares of a generation ago, and local affiliates are likely to be paying for it all 4th Quarter.

A reminder: the 1996 Summer Olympics were held in Atlanta, GA. There were no digital video recorders or HDTV or even streaming video. All events were shown live.

This is not the world we live in today. Big numbers are not always repeatable.

But... it's easy to sell big numbers when you have no responsibility for their outcome.. ask any mortgage broker from the peak of the housing boom.

Massive Updates to 2nd Quarter Prime Released Late Friday Night

Beginning after 5pm on Friday, NBC began to post what seems to be the draft version of some of their second quarter changes. There are typos and mis-matches in the APT2Go updates, like this one. There are so many changes, the APT2Go site can't display all of them, so unless you have access to APT itself this weekend, you're SOL.

Posted: 02/10/2012 06:39:45 PM
Air Date: 04/06/2012 Friday
Start Time: 09:00:00 PM [ET]
Show Name: GRIMM
Duration: 01:00:00
Type: New Booking
Message: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? is booked on Friday 4/6 thru 5/18.

Sunday AM Update: All RDRx inventories and estimates have been updated to reflect the Second Quarter Prime programming announced, as well as the replacement of much of early evening prime with Olympic Trials in late June and early July. These trials will be the only snapshot diary and meter/diary market stations get of 2012 Olympic audience compositions, so let's hope these do well.

NBC: Rating Would Have Been 1.5 If.......

From TV By The Numbers

Ratings for the February 2 telecast of "30 Rock" were apparently impacted by an episode description that matched the description of the prior week's 9 p.m. telecast, resulting in some DVRs failing to record the program though it was correctly listed as an original.

NBC Research estimates that had the telecast received the level of time-shifted viewing seen in the time period over the prior three weeks, its "live plus same day" adult 18-49 rating likely would have been a 1.5 rather than last night's 1.3.

NBC Research and Scheduling say correct information was issued by the network but technical issues caused some listings to inaccurately carry the same episode descriptions for January 26 and February 2.

really?

Tomorrow Night and Saturday Night Prime Changed Again

From APT2Go late last night:

Posted: 02/07/2012 08:17:39 PM
Air Date: 02/11/2012 Saturday
Start Time: 10:00:00 PM [ET]
Show Name: SMASH
Duration: 00:59:30
Type: New Booking
Message: SMASH is now booked.

Posted: 02/07/2012 08:16:36 PM
Air Date: 02/11/2012 Saturday
Start Time: 08:00:00 PM [ET]
Show Name: THE VOICE
Duration: 02:00:00
Type: New Booking
Message: THE VOICE is now booked.

Posted: 02/07/2012 08:15:34 PM
Air Date: 02/09/2012 Thursday
Start Time: 10:00:00 PM [ET]
Show Name: THE VOICE
Duration: 00:59:30
Type: New Booking
Message: THE VOICE is now booked.

In the last 5 days, three different programs have been scheduled for the last hour of prime on Thursday. First, The Firm. Then, after The Firm was quietly cancelled, the first of 3 Grimm reruns were scheduled for tomorrow night.

Then, after all affiliates other than in Hawaii and Alaska had gone home for the night, they pull Grimm and replace it with The Voice. Did they not plan for this encore earlier? Again, I'm sure the O&O's are taken care of.

Update

As of 12:42pm PDT, all RDRx NBC inventories and estimates have been published. To see the new programs and estimates, you may need to close and re-open MediaOffice.

Intermittent Posts For a Few Days

With two brand new RDRx clients as of this morning, I'll be playing catch-up and may not see NBC changes quite as quickly as usual. Next week, things should be all caught up.

Update: Having brought the two new clients to RDRx standards, service has returned to normal.