At this years’ upfront, NBCUs Linda Yaccarino, pulled no punches when it came to the digital media competition, stating that “the average American spends 7x as many hours watching television as they do on Facebook and watches television 15x as much as YouTube”.
She also touted NBCUs portfolio “by fan base”, saying that’s the way audiences experience the company’s content – In other words, there’s not so much loyalty to a Network per say, as there is to specific TV shows.
The interesting parallel there with Digital media is that it has always started with the audience, through the use of tracking and OBA. But that’s where the parallel ends… for with Digital, there was little emphasis on content or publisher. For NBCU (and the other Nets), they have the compelling and engaging content to go along with their large and increasingly more well defined audience segments. Brand Advertisers that want prestige and an emotional and cultural connection need to target media sources that have a kinship with a consumer built on premium content. Digital media, with all of its scale, lacks high quality content and consumer loyalty (with few exceptions).
Ms. Yaccarino sent this point home best with perhaps the line of the entire upfront week: “Digital is about the 1’s and Zero’s, TV is about the Ooh’s and Ahh’s”.
